Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Oriana’s choice of topic: the Shire. The homeland of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins and many of Middle-earth’s hobbits in general, and the entry point for nearly every reader to Tolkien’s imaginative geographical and creative landscape, the Shire often seems like an idyllic and nostalgic English utopia, an untroubled land where the beer is good, the family trees are all spelled out carefully and there’s not much to worry about aside from the occasional wolf or Orc raid over the centuries. Yet Tolkien himself said he didn’t view it as a utopia, and both as sociopolitical organization and as physical location, the Shire has more going on with it than might be seen at first glance, even by some of its most well-known inhabitants. What is the sense of history among the hobbits of the Shire, and how do they regard their land and their sense of who they are? What does the Shire being a seemingly safe place truly reveal when the Scouring is necessary at the end of the grand story? Who are the authorities, if there are any, that keep this seeming anarchist fantasy going as a functioning concern, and does that cover monetary issues as well? And is that the only linguistically blessed fox in the Shire, much less Middle-earth as a whole?