Places in Middle-earth
Staddle
Type: Cities, Towns, Settlements
Region: Bree/The Shire
Location: One of the 4 villages of Bree-land, on gentle southeastern slopes of Bree-hill near the Great East Road. Mostly Little Folk settles in Straddle, as opposed to the other villages which had more of a mix of Hobbits and Men.
Description: "Bree was the chief village of the Bree-land, a small inhabited region, like an island in the empty lands round about. Besides Bree itself, there was Staddle on the other side of the hill, Combe in a deep valley a little further eastward, and Archet on the edge of the Chetwood. Lying round Bree-hill and the villages was a small country of fields and tamed woodland only a few miles broad...
"There were also many families of hobbits in the Bree-land and they claimed to be the oldest settlement of Hobbits in the world, one that was founded long before even the Brandywine was crossed and the Shire colonized. They lived mostly in Staddle though there were some in Bree itself, especially on the higher slopes of the hill, above the houses of the Men. The Big Folk and the Little Folk (as they called one another) were on friendly terms, minding their own affairs in their own ways, but both rightly regarding themselves as necessary parts of the Bree-folk. Nowhere else in the world was this peculiar (but excellent) arrangement to be found."
From The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 1, Ch 9, At the Sign of the Prancing Pony
"In 1300, those living in the north were again forced to flee from Angmar. Some of the Stoors went south, joining their kin in Dunland; others returned to Wilderland, where they dwelt along the Gladden - ancestors of the infamous Sméagol/Gollum; but most of the Hobbits moved west. The earliest and most important settlements were in Bree, and especially in Staddle."
From The Atlas of Middle-earth, Revised Edition, Karen Wynn Fonstad, p. 64.
Contributors: docmon, 2 Oct 05
