Did Farmer Maggot ever met Aragorn?

H

Hamfast Gamgee

Tol Eressea
Or possibly Strider or possibly any of the Dunedain? The reason that I ask this is that although it says that the Dunedain's role was to keep the simple folk of the Shire and Bree safe from fear which had to mean them not knowing about the perils of the wild, but hobbits like Maggot did seem exceptional. After all he was visited by Tom Bombadil so he did know a bit about the outside world. Maggot was, I think, aware of the existence of the Rangers, though how much he knew about their role and origins is open to question. Even if later on Aragorn issued a decree that men should not enter the Shire was this always the case? Aragorn had been everywhere else, so I'm not sure that he would have wanted to have left the Shire of his list of travels. And Maggot been near the border might well have found it useful to know of the Rangers role. Then again of course, thinking about it, is it just Maggot that would have known about the outside world. All right some like Butterbur where obviously not but others might well have been. Some like the heads of the Tooks or the Brandybucks might have been aware. Or even possibly the Mayor of the Shire. Maybe when he became Mayor one of the Rangers took the Mayor aside and had a little word about the outside world! I find it hard to believe that the lives of the Rangers and the townsfolk of Bree where totally separate. There must have been some intermingling. People been people. At least that is how I see it. Quite how much, though, is what is open to question.
 
Aragorn's decree was not made until after the War of the Ring so there was nothing preventing Men from entering the Shire before that (aside from the Watch driving off strangers who they found suspicious). The East-West Road that ran through the Shire was the old kings' way that ended in the west with the Tower Hills and the Grey Havens. Dwarves still used it regularly throughout the Third Age and it seems reasonable that any Men who had reason to journey to Mithlond or the Tower Hills would have used it as well (the Elves evidently preferred to travel along lesser-known paths).

Now, I suspect that Farmer Maggot might have served in his youth as a Bounder. That might well have placed him in a position to encounter and befriend Tom Bombadil. It could as well have led to his encountering one or more of the Rangers of the North on the borders of Buckland or the Shire proper. Maggot might have learned a little something of the Dúnedain either from the Rangers themselves or from Old Tom. I think it's a bit less likely that he actually met Strider, but it's at least a possibility. Of course Farmer Maggot might never have been a Shirriff at all; maybe his relative worldliness came from traveling to Bree to sell his produce. Tom was familiar with the Prancing Pony, perhaps he'd met Maggot there or on the road between Buckland and Bree.
 
JRRT never mentioned such a meeting. Actually, it is nowhere accounted for, that Aragorn would have entered the Shire nor in which circumstances.

Aragorn might/could have heard about farmer Maggot via Tom Bombadil and/or via Barliman Butterbur. Nothing mentions that, however. There was no mutual interest for meeting between the two either.
 
If Farmer Maggot had ever encountered Strider (unlikely, I agree), it might not have been within the borders of the Shire. He might have met the Ranger on some visit to Bree, whether at the Prancing Pony or on the road. But if Maggot had been one of the Bounders (pure speculation!) then such a meeting could have taken place around the edges of either the Shire or Buckland.

I do suspect that any of the Dúnedain Rangers with reason to visit Mithlond might have used paths that circumvented the Shire rather than use the main road.
 
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All said, we might just think that Farmer Maggot did meet Aragorn, but at a later time. According to the epilogue, Aragorn was planning to visit the Shire. Farmer Maggot was of some prominence, so we can assume that he would have welcomed the King, along with Sam, Pippin, Merry and others!
 
Though, from what I've read, King Elessar--true to his own decree--did not enter the Shire but met his friends on the east side of the Brandybuck Bridge.
 
Had a memory of there being something relevant in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and have dug up this from the poem, "Bombadil Goes Boating":

"Rumours in whispering trees, south-wind in the larches,
Tall Watchers by the Ford, Shadows on the marches."

The context is Tom Bombadil visiting Farmer Maggot for "swapping all the tidings", ranging from the Barrow-downs, to the Tower Hills, to Bree. I take 'the Ford' to be Sarn Ford, on the southern borders of The Shire, and the
'Tall Watchers' to be Rangers of the North. A further reference in 'The Hunt for the Ring' chapter of Unfinished Tales indicates that there was indeed a detachment of Rangers at Sarn Ford at one point. Given the proximity, between Bamfurlong and Sarn Ford, it's no leap that Maggot would know more about strange goings-on down at the Ford than say, a resident of Hobbiton.

I appreciate that The Adventures of Tom Bombadil isn't the easiest source material but there's enough in this passage to suggest that Farmer Maggot was aware of the Rangers down at the Ford. Whether he knew who they were or had assessed them as friend or foe is another couple of questions entirely.
 
And is Sarn Ford (which I estimate to be, as the crow flies, about 75 miles from Bamfurlong and 100 miles from Hobbiton) on the border of the Shire or (as Karen Fonstad drew it) outside of the Shire? Those are two questions which came ot mind as I read your post.
 
And is Sarn Ford (which I estimate to be, as the crow flies, about 75 miles from Bamfurlong and 100 miles from Hobbiton) on the border of the Shire or (as Karen Fonstad drew it) outside of the Shire? Those are two questions which came ot mind as I read your post.
Click to expand...

The Three Farthing Stone is a local landmark that marks the approximate center of the Shire (according to the Hobbits). There might indeed be some marker where the North Farthing, West Farthing and East Farthing meet, but if it exists then it has a different name.

Sarn Ford is about 50 miles outside of the Shire.
 
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At least no one seems to dwell there by the end of the Third Age. I don't think Tolkien ever revealed, though, the location of the capitol of Cardolan; it might have been at Sarn Ford at the location of a major waterway (the Brandywine). The proximity of Sarn Ford to the Barrow-downs adds some support to this hypothesis. Then again, the capitol might have been Tharbad or some other city that has been lost to time.
 
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Farmer Maggot was likely aware that tall men were present at the border, as the quote from the Tom Bombadil poem may suggest, though if he knew who they were or their purpose is perhaps another matter.

I don't think he would necessarily trust them anyway. I'm sure he got those three big dogs for good reasons.
 
Apologies for not replying sooner - I've been on the road, enjoying a holiday. And as fate would deliciously have it, I drove through an area called Marishes, in North Yorkshire, England. There were a couple of tiny villages there - High Marishes and Low Marishes. No Bamfurlong that I could see though.

I can't find in core text a definitive line about whether Sarn Ford was inside or outside the Shire. However, the index entry for 'Sarn Ford' in Unfinished Tales describes it as "at the extreme southern point of the Shire".

There are several references in The Lord of the Rings that also imply Sarn Ford is part of the Shire. For example:

1. In conversation between Strider and Frodo in Bree, Strider mentions his last meeting with Gandalf, which was at Sarn Ford. The immediate context was Strider keeping "watch on the borders of the Shire".

2. Hob Hayward explains to the returning Frodo, Sam, Pippin & Merry why there isn't any more pipe-weed in the Shire: "We do here that waggon-loads of it [pipe-weed] went away down the old road out of the Southfarthing, over Sarn Ford way."

3. Tom Cotton tells Frodo, Sam, Pippin & Merry the disposition of Sharkey's Ruffians, including: "There's a good few down south in Longbottom and by Sarn Ford..."

4. And the entry for 1484 (Shire Reckoning), in Appendix B: "He [Merry] took counsel with his friend the Thain [Pippin], and soon after they handed over their goods and offices to their sons and rode away over the Sarn Ford, and they were not seen again the Shire."

Each of these quotes makes most sense if it's assumed Sarn Ford is part of the Shire, specifically on its southern border. Strider and his Rangers deploy at Sarn Ford to prevent entry into the Shire and Sharkey's Ruffians similarly deploy there as part of their wider control of the Shire; and leaving Southfarthing and the Shire meant exiting via Sarn Ford.
 
I can't find any map of the Shire that places Sarn Ford at its border, much less within it. Near the south-eastern border of the Shire is the closest that I can place it.
 
I also can't find a map reference, so looks like text is all we have to go on. Had another fossick, this time amongst the drafts of what became The Fellowship of the Ring, ie. The Treason of Isengard / HoMe VII. A couple of indications that Sarn Ford was conceptualised, pre-publication of The Lord of the Rings, as part of the Shire, although still not definitive:

“I doubt if you are much more than sixty leagues south of the Sarn Ford at the southern end of your Shire” [Trotter speaking, draft of ‘The Great River’]

“... I went through the Shire to its southern borders. I had long felt a foreboding of some danger that was hidden from me. I passed down the Baranduin as far as Sarn Ford, and there I met a messenger.” [Gandalf speaking, draft of ‘Council of Elrond’]
 
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