A Stoor Hobbit
The Stoors were one of the three breeds of Hobbits, along with Harfoots and Fallohides.[1]
In their earliest recorded history, the Stoors, like the other hobbits, lived in the Vales of Anduin. They were a riverland people, dwelling in the Stoor-country or the Gladden Fields as anglers and fishermen.[1][2]
One of the most infamous Stoors was Sméagol, who would later become the creature known as Gollum.
Characteristics[]
Among the Hobbits, the Stoors were stronger, heavier and broader in build, with larger hands and feet. They most resembled Men, and were the friendliest to them. Stoors were the only Hobbits who normally grew facial hair, especially a down on their chins.[1]
A habit which set them apart was that Stoors preferred flat lands and riversides. They often lived in above-ground houses made of brick, wood or stone instead of holes. While most Hobbits held a strong fear of rivers, Stoors were well known for using boats, surviving off fish, and being able to swim. However, the Sea was still viewed as a token of fear and death which few Hobbits had seen. Stoors would regularly wear shoes instead of walking barefoot, including dwarf-made boots for muddy weather. [1]
Stoor-hobbit characteristics and appearances remained amongst the hobbits in the Marish of the Shire, the Bucklanders of Buckland, and the Bree-hobbits of Bree-land.
The Stoors also had their own dialect of Hobbit-speech, owing to the fact that they spent some time in the marshes of Swanfleet. There the Stoors adopted many strange words and names from the neighboring Dunlendings which they took to Buckland. This dialect evolved into Bucklandish which remained in use even through the late Third Age.
History[]
The Stoors originally dwelt in the swampy area within the southern valleys of the great river Anduin. During the hobbits' wandering days, after the Harfoots had migrated westward in TA 1050, and the Fallohides later followed them, the Stoors long remained back in the Vales of Anduin, but between TA 1150 and 1300 they too migrated west into Eriador.[1][2]
Unlike the other Hobbit-kinds, the Stoors took the Redhorn Pass and followed a southern route, moving below Rivendell and settling in the marshy delta of Swanfleet near the country of Dunland, which most resembled their old lands. There they came into contact with wild upland men known as the Dunlendings. This contact altered their speech slightly, and the Stoors adopted to their tongue a few Dunlendish words over time.[1]
The three branches of the Hobbits, portrayed by Lidia Postma
A century later, Angmar began to threaten Eriador, and many Stoors that lived in Swanfleet fled back north, where they returned to Rhovanion. This community of Stoor-kind settled the Gladden Fields, a large wetland surrounding the river Gladden (a tributary of the Anduin), becoming the fisher people which Déagol and Sméagol belonged to (c. TA 2430). There they lost contact with the other Hobbit groups, reverting to a wilder and more primitive life while the Hobbits of the The Shire gained a settled, elaborate and social culture. These Stoors dwelt in Hobbit-holes and made little boats from reeds to sail across the Anduin or Gladden. It was possible for the community to be led by matriarchs within reputable extended families. Déagol and Sméagol themselves came from a large wealthy family with a grandmother of high repute, for she may have outlived her husband. This dominant grandmother, wise but stern, would eventually banish Smeagol from their family to maintain peace. Smeagol had discovered and been corrupted by the One Ring, murdering Déagol for it, and using the ring in malicious ways. Nothing further about the lifestyle of the Stoors in the Gladden Fields is ever told. By the end of the Third Age their settlements in the Vales of Anduin were long abandoned, and it is unknown if they ever joined with their kin in Eriador.[1][2]
The Stoors remaining in Swanfleet stayed in the marshes for some centuries. They would later move westward, where some intermingled with the Fallohides and Harfoots living in the Bree-land. The rest joined the other hobbits in colonizing the Shire in about TA 1630, settling mainly in the Eastfarthing, Southfarthing, and later Buckland. As a result, places settled by Stoors developed slight linguistic oddities due to their time of separation and contact with the Dunlendings. The three original Hobbit-kinds merged and blended in the centuries after the settlement of the Shire, but regional subdialects remained like Bucklandish. Fishing, swimming and boating were stoorish activities still used along rivers like the Brandywine.[1][2]
Etymology[]
Stoor is supposed to be a word in Hobbit-speech that did not exist in Westron during the War of the Ring.
Early English stor, stoor means "large, strong", referring to the fact that these Hobbits were of heavier build.
Stoors of Maur Tulhau in The Lord of the Rings Online
In adaptations[]
In The Lord of the Rings Online[]
In The Lord of the Rings Online, an isolated village of Stoors called Maur Tulhau still exists in northern Enedwaith, which in-game corresponds to the area just north of Dunland proper. The Stoors of Maur Tulhau prefer to avoid the Big Folk whenever possible, but are still known to them and over the centuries have adopted some elements of Dunlendish clothing and language (which in-game is based on Welsh). They are discovered by the Grey Company and the player on their journey south; later the player helps an adventurous Hobbit, Bingo Boffin, to establish the contact between Maur Tulhau and their cousins from the Shire proper.
In The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power[]
A part of a Stoorish village portrayed in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
In The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the Stoors are portrayed similarly to Harfoots; as skittish, fearful creatures with a love of simplicity. However, they are living in one fixed location in Rhûn, with holes as homes, while Harfoots in the series are nomadic, living in wagons. The large majority are shown shown to be dark-skinned as opposed to the more diverse-looking (but mostly light-skinned) Harfoots, likely due to residing in an arid climate.
It is implied they may one day emigrate out of Rhûn in search of a more peaceful home with a more temperate climate in future eras.