FOREWORD

The Wisdom of the Shire is an idea whose time has unquestionably come. In an age awash in self-help books and loosely “spiritual” guides to living a truly fulfilled human life, it’s hard to believe that no one thought of taking J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbits—the Little-folk, the Halflings—as examples, both physical and philosophical, of just such a life. Especially with the release of Peter Jackson’s film trilogy of The Hobbit, Noble Smith’s book is bound to create a unique niche for itself, and an audience certainly not limited solely to Tolkien devotees.

As a presumed expert on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien (I still receive occasional letters in calligraphed Elvish), the scenarist of the animated version of The Lord of the Rings and one whose own work is frequently—and erroneously—bracketed with his, I have felt myself to be Tolkiened-out for a long time.

Yet reading Noble Smith’s book made me want to reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings immediately, and to reconsider the earthy, generous, joyously sensual lives of the beings with whom their author, by his own account, most truly identified. The Wisdom of the Shire reminds the reader that our world isn’t—or doesn’t have to be—all that removed from Middle-earth, the Shire and the Party Tree. I’d buy it like a shot, give copies away to deserving friends and keep it by the bed for bad nights.

—PETER S. BEAGLE