The homeland of the Hobbits in the northwest of Middle-earth, a fertile, well-ordered country of gentle hills, tilled fields, and small villages. Founded in the year 1601 of the Third Age, the Shire is divided into four Farthings and governed by a nominal Thain and Mayor. Its isolation from the wider world - maintained partly by the protection of the Rangers of the North - allows the Hobbits to live in blissful ignorance of the dangers beyond their borders. Tolkien based the Shire on the rural English Midlands of his childhood.