THE HOBBIT COMPANION

Seven centuries after the Shire’s founding, the Twelfth Thain of the Shire, Gorhendad* Oldbuck, abandoned his title and the Oldbuck folklands of the Marish. He led his people east of the Shire across the Brandywine River (“border river”) to pioneer and settle in a new, fertile land. Gorhendad Oldbuck soon established the new folkland and named it Buckland~ or “Bucca’s land”~after the family’s eponymous ancestor.

On Buck Hill on the banks of the Brandywine River, Gorhendad Oldbuck had the new family mansion built. This became known as Brandy Hall and Gorhendad was soon known as the Master of Buckland. He was also the founder of a new dynasty; for after the establishment of Buckland, the Oldbuck (or Zaragamba in Hobbitish) family name was changed to Brandybuck (or Brandagamba in Hobbitish).

BRANDYBUCK FAMILY
The name of Brandybuck shaped the character of the family to a considerable degree. The Brandybucks were, on the one hand, admired for their leadership qualities, high spirits, and strong wills; on the other hand, they were criticized by (less bold) Hobbits for what was considered their rather wild and reckless nature.

BRANDY~Strong Spirit; from “firebrand”
BUCK~Stag as in the leader of a herd of deer; but also Stag as in wild young man, or “young blood”

There is no doubt of the Buckish nature of the Brandybucks. They are just the sort of high-spirited Hobbits who might order a few drams of brandy during an evening of hobnobbing.

They were also thought to be reckless because they lived beyond the borders of polite Shire society. They fearlessly crossed the “border-waters” of the Brandywine River and settled in the wild “borderlands” of Buckland.

BUCKLAND AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
There are etymological connections between Hobbitish Buckland and England’s historic and geographic Buckinghamshire:

Bucca was the early Hobbit founder of Buckland in the Shire; Bucca was the Anglo-Saxon founder of Buckinghamshire.

BUCCA was an Old Hobbitish name
meaning stag or ram
BUCCA was an Old English surname
meaning stag or ram

Bucca is a name that appears in various permu-tations in the histories of Britain and the Hobbit lands of the Shire. Bucca it has proved to be an appropriate name for the leader of a tribe, as a stag is the leader of a herd of deer, and a ram is the leader of a flock of sheep.

The Hobbitish Bucca of the Marish has left his name scattered across the Shire: Buckland, Buck Hill, Brandybuck Hall, Bucklebury, etc. Similarly, there are scores of Old English place names that relate back to the eponymous Anglo-Saxon chieftain, Bucca: Buckingham meaning a river meadow of Bucca’s followers; Buckminster meaning Bucca’s church; Bucknall meaning Bucca’s nook; Bucknill meaning Bucca’s hill; and Buckton meaning Bucca’s farm.

BUCKLAND AND BOOKLAND
Curiously, although the historic Buckinghamshire has a similar background to the Hobbitish Buckland, the historic English name Buckland does not have anything to do with any old Anglo-Saxon chieftain named Bucca.

In the real historic and geographic Britain, “Buckland” usually means Bookland; that is, Book-land or “land held by charter” to the church or the royal family. There are over two dozen Bucklands in England (mostly in the south), all of which are lands of the Book. None is concerned with any man named Bucca, nor any Buck meaning stag or ram.

“Buckland” usually means Bookland; that is Book-land or “land held by charter” from the church or the royal family.

BUCKLAND AND FANTASYLAND
However, Buckland and the whole of the Shire were Booklands in that they were occupied by Hobbits through a charter granted to them by the High Kings of the North.

Also, in another sense, Buckland and the Shire and all of Middle-earth are Booklands, in that they are fictional lands created entirely by J. R. R. Tolkien in his books.

BRANDY HALL
The first Master of Buckland, Gorhendad Brandybuck, was also known as Master of the Hall because he was the architect of Brandy Hall, the single most impressive single residence in Buckland.

This Hobbit mansion had three massive front doors and twenty lesser doors in the many-levelled escarpment gouged out of the ridge of Buck Hill above the Brandywine River. It was the home of more than two hundred members of the Brandybuck family.

Travellers to the Shire who took the ferry across the Brandywine River at dusk were sometimes startled by the sight of the dark west face of Buck Hill suddenly being transformed into a mass of gold. In fact, this shimmer-ing gold wall above the river was the setting sun reflecting in the hundred round windows of Brandy Hall.

Although the Master of Buckland lived at Brandy Hall, this was not the exact site of the principal town of Bucklebury. Brandy Hall was excavated out of the west face of Buck Hill above the river. The shops and houses of Bucklebury were actually on the flank of Buck Hill, just to the east of Brandy Hall. There were other towns in Buckland, such as Newbury, Standelf, and Haysend, but Bucklebury was the largest.

BRANDYWINE RIVER
In English the name of the river can be translated as Golden Brown River or Border River or Brandywine River. However, its origin is in the Elvish.

BARANDUIN RIVER~Elvish baran, meaning golden brown +duin, meaning large. (Simple description of a large golden brown river.)

BRANDA-NIN~Hobbitish branda, meaning border + nin, meaning water (Hobbit misreading of Elvish changed meaning to border-river or river that marks the border of the Shire.)

BRALDA-HIM~Hobbitish bralda, meaning heady +him, meaning ale (Hobbit joke: pun on border, which becomes a river of brandy because of its frothy brown colour.)

Brandy Hall, the residence of the Master of Buckland and the Brandybuck family on Buck Hill on the west bank of the Brandywine River

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(*Gorhendad: As he was the First of the Brandybucks and First Master of Buckland, the name Gorhendad seems appropriate. It means “great-grandfather” in Welsh (literally “gor-hen-dad” or “over-old-father”). Among Hobbits, it may actually have been a title rather than a proper name, meaning Forefather of the Brandybucks.)

VII. Buckland & BRANDYHALL