The Hobbit Companion by David Day

Author:David Day [DAY, DAVID]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-1-909108-34-9
Publisher: Pavilion Books
Published: 2012-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Michel Delving was built on the imposing high ridge of the White Downs, ideal terrain for the construction of its substantial Smials. It is also the official residence of the sheriff or mayor of the Shire, and therefore boasts the Shire’s largest great hall, which is known (with typical Hobbit humour) as the Town Hole. Here is to be found whatever civil and social services are on offer to Shire Hobbits.

Michel Delving is also a substantial commercial centre and the venue for many holiday fˆetes and fairs every year. These events are presided over by the mayor, who is also the sheriff and the postmaster general. The city is consequently the location of a considerable number of other civic offices: the post office, the messenger service, the Shire police called The Watch, and the Mathom House, or Shire Museum.

One notable mayor of Michel Delving during the time of the War of the Ring was Will Whitfoot who was exceptionally fat, even for a Hobbit. However, most mayors in Tolkien’s books are fat~in part, one suspects, because Tolkien knew that the word mayor actually means larger (from the Latin major, meaning greater or larger). Consequently Will was the fattest Hobbit in the Shire. His name Whitfoot (Old English, literally meaning White-foot) was logical enough, because the town of Michel Delving was cut into the white cliffs of the chalk downs.

Without any doubt, Whitfoot was a common Hobbitish name for the region. However, the name was probably what inspired Tolkien to invent the comic tale of the partial collapse of the great hall of the Town Hole. In the middle of a meeting the roof caved in, causing a huge plume of white dust to rise above the village. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the mayor of the day, Will Whitfoot, emerged covered in chalk dust. It was widely reported that the rotund Will looked like a huge uncooked flour dumpling, and Mayor Whitfoot of Michel Delving was known ever after by the nickname Old Flourdumpling.

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