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If It's Trewsday It Must Be Buckland...  by Dreamflower

 March 20, 2011 Back-to-Middle-earth Month Challenge:
Write a story or poem or create an artwork in which a character unaccustomed to acting as a leader must make an important decision.
 
Summary: “2747 Bandobras Took defeats an Orc-band in the Northfarthing” (Tale of Years, Appendix B) (A drabble)
 
In a Pinch
 
Bandy looked at the Man's horse.  The poor fellow now lay wounded in the Longhole's smial.  But his warning hadn’t been in vain.  The goblins were coming, and coming fast.  He'd led the Shire-muster North as quickly as he could; no time to wait for Rumble to return from Buckland. His father had set him to lead the Took archers and the other hobbits who joined them as they went.
 
He'd have to lead the battle.  The Man couldn’t help.  But Bandobras knew one thing for certain: the other hobbits needed to keep him in sight.  He'd ride the horse.
 
*******
 
Author’s Notes:
 
"The last battle before this story opens, and indeed the only one that hed ever been fought within the borders of the Shire, was beyond living memory: the Battle of Greenfields, S.R. 1147, in which Bandobras Took routed an invasion of Orcs." (FotR, Prologue: "Concerning Hobbits")
 
"If you have ever seen a dragon in a pinch, you will realise this was only poetical exaggeration applied to any hobbit, even to Old Took's great-grand-uncle Bullroarer, who was so huge (for a hobbit) he could ride a horse.  He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green-Fields..." (The Hobbit, Chapter I, "An Unexpected Party")
 
According to the Prologue, the Thain commanded the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-at-Arms in times of emergency.  But the Orc invasion took place when the then-Thain, Isumbras III was 81, not dreadfully elderly for a hobbit, but likely too old for a headlong race to the Northfarthing to fight goblins.  It seems natural that the honor of leading the Shire-muster in his place would have gone to his older son, Ferumbras II (Rumble), so I had to think of a reason it would have gone to the younger son instead.
 
My idea here is that a Man, likely a Ranger, rode into the Northfarthing to warn the hobbits of the goblins' approach, but that he was injured and exhausted by his efforts, and thus unable to fight with the hobbits.

(A/N: This was the drabble that inspired my WIP, "The Invasion".)





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