Blood of the Bullroarer

2: The North-tooks of Long Cleeve

The village of Long Cleeve, one of the northern-most towns in the Shire, was established by Bandobras “Bullroarer” Took in the years after the Battle of the Green Fields. The chief inhabitants of Long Cleeve were his descendants, the North-tooks. (This was the name that the Tooks of the Great Smials used for their northern cousins, but the Tooks of Long Cleeve found this name to be rather derogatory. They were Tooks and thought that they should be acknowledged as such. Thus, they often referred to their Tuckborough relatives as the South-tooks.)

Long Cleeve was a village similar to Hobbiton or Budgeford (home to the Bolgers). There was not one large smial that most of the Tooks lived in, as in Buckland and Tuckborough. There was one chief hobbit-hole (like Bag-End in Hobbiton), nicknamed “Bandy Hall”, which was home to the head of the North-took clan and his immediate family. This was the smial that Bandobras had excavated when he first removed to the north. The other villagers lived in holes or small houses surrounding Bandy Hall.

Though the Tooks of Long Cleeve acknowledged the Thain as the Head of the family, they still had their own “chief”, the eldest born son of each generation.

The current chief of the North-tooks was Foscard Took, the great, great grandson of Bandobras. He was a kindly hobbit, but with a shrewd business manner. However, in the months since Lotho Sackville-Baggins’ self-proclaimed rule of the Shire, and the subsequent occupation by Big People, his confidence had been waning. The recent death of his wife, Amethyst, during the winter had been a bitter blow to an already troubled hobbit.

Foscard was sitting in his office, staring at the large portrait of his ancestor that dominated one wall of the room.

“Bullroarer, give me strength,” Foscard pleaded. He stood, and tried to ignore the pain that shot through his left leg as he did. Foscard had been wounded when he tried to protect his only daughter, Diamond, from an overly friendly Shirriff. The Shirriff’s companions had shot him in the leg as a reminder of who now controlled the Shire. The leg forever pained Foscard, and he hardly slept. If not for his children (especially his daughter), he would have laid down to die a long time ago. He quickly sat back down.

“Father?” a quiet voice called from the doorway. Diamond was standing there with a tray of tea. Foscard knew that the tea would be so weak that it was almost water, but he appreciated Diamond’s thought.

Foscard had five children. The eldest four were all sons, Isemgard, Fosco, Vigo and Hildibard. It was very common in Long Cleeve for a family to have many sons and few daughters, which was part of the reason why the majority of the villagers were Tooks. Any lass that married into another family tended to move away to live with he new husband’s family. In this way, Bandobras was quite the opposite of his brother, Ferumbras II, who had a great many female descendants.

Diamond was almost ten years younger than Hildi, her closest brother. Foscard and Amethyst had had two daughters between Hildi and Diamond, but neither lived very long after birth. This was another reason why Foscard was so protective of his youngest child and only daughter.

“Come in, love,” said Foscard, beckoning to her.

“Father, it’s freezing in here!” Diamond cried. “You must put the fire on!”

“There is not enough wood, my sweet.”

Though he treasured her, Foscard lately found it difficult to look at his daughter. Aside from her height and eyes, she was the image of her mother, with dark hair and pale skin. However, Diamond, like her brothers, had taken after her ancestor in height. She stood just under four foot, unusual for a hobbit and quite extraordinary for a lass. She also had vivid green eyes, and her parents had almost named her Emerald because of them, but had changed their minds. Diamonds were more precious than emeralds.

Diamond frowned. Placing the tea on Foscard’s desk, she took off her shawl and wrapped it around his shoulders.

“Winter may be over, but the chill has not yet left the air,” she stated, pouring a cup of the weakened tea. “Drink this.”

Foscard managed a smile. “Oh, Diamond, what would I do without you?”

She returned the smile. “Let us hope you never have to worry about that.”

“Where are your brothers?”

As the eldest son, Isemgard lived at Bandy Hall with his wife, Violet, and two sons. Youngest son, Hildibard, was not yet married, and so also lived with his father, sister and brother. The middle two sons lived in houses close by.

“Isem took the lads too see Fosco and Opal, and Hildi has gone to visit Topaz,” Diamond replied. Topaz was a young lass from the town, and Hildi had his eye set on her. “I can fetch them if you’d like.”

“No, lass, I was just curious,” Foscard quickly said. Diamond could be very proud, and Foscard knew she’d be angered if she ever found out that he hated to let her leave the smial after the incident with the Shirriff. “I’m sure Isem and Hildi can find their own way home.”

“In the old days it may have been a problem, I suppose.” Diamond was trying to sound light-hearted. Even this far north, Chief Lotho had a firm grip on how daily life went about. The Weeping Willow Inn had been shut for a good few months now. It had been a favourite stop over for all of Diamond’s brothers on their way home.

“Well, perhaps the Chief had done some good then,” Foscard returned her cheerful comment.

Diamond’s brow creased into a frown. She looked up to the portrait of Bandobras. “I wish the Bullroarer was still alive. He’d show Chief Pimple a thing or two.”

“Watch your tongue, Diamond,” Foscard warned. “It would not do for one of the Chief’s men to hear you speaking like that.”

“I am sorry, Father, but you cannot blame me for my thoughts about him.”

All of Foscard’s children personally blamed Lotho for the death of their mother. It had been the shortage of warmth and food that had made her fall ill, and the Chief’s ruffians had dragged the only healer in the village away for rule breaking.

“You know I agree with you, my sweet, but you have to remember to watch what you say. Remember that cousin Ferumbard was taken away for talk like that.” Foscard stretched, and instantly cringed.

“Father! What’s wrong?” Diamond cried in concern.

“Nothing, love. Just an old wound playing up.”

Diamond looked at her father, sceptically. “You should have just left that Shirriff to me. I would have made him sorry.”

Foscard had to chuckle at that. His daughter had a lot of spirit. It was little wonder that she had often found herself in trouble as a child. The chuckle died. Diamond’s fiery temper was almost certain to land her in trouble in this day and age. Her earlier comments about the Chief were a perfect example as to why Foscard was so determined to keep her away from anyone aside from her family.

“Diamond, love, has Violet started on dinner yet?”

Diamond noticed the quick change of subject, but did not comment. “No, she went with Isem. Would you like me to start on it?”

“If you would.”

Foscard watched as his daughter left the room. He had stubbornly made up his mind that she was to remain in the smial whenever they had a visitor, especially if that visitor was a group of ruffians come to gather what little food they had left.

The farms around Long Cleeve in the times before the occupation had provided the village with ample food and supplies. A market day had been held every Monday, but they had long since ceased. The farmers hardly had enough produce to provide their own families, let alone an entire village of Tooks. The villagers were forced to rely on stores, and even they had been raided by the greedy ruffians. Rations were handed out now, on the first day of every month.

Foscard stood and left his office.

* * * * * *

A/N: Yes, yes, another short chapter. The first two chapter of this story were to set up the two main characters. I suppose they could have been combined, but I wanted to have them separated. I promise that the next chapter will be MUCH longer!