Story Notes and Background
(TL;DR: This story is told in a series of drabbles because... well, it seemed like a logical idea at the time. A longer version may come about at a later date, but it may not, which is the reason behind offering this background information.)
Ideas about Bandobras have swirled around at the back of my brain for some years now. But telling his story in full means going back further in Shire history to set the stage, as it were. Some of the following information comes from hints dropped by the original author, JRRT, and some represents extrapolation from his hints or sheer imagination (while trying to stay within the constraints of LOTR canon) on my part.
At the time Bucca became the first Thain, the Shire had been devastated by the Witch King's forces which had overrun the lands of the North-country after Fornost fell, burning and slaughtering as they went. Those Shire-folk who survived were the ones who went into hiding – in the End of the Woods (later known as the Woody End), in natural caves (like those in the Hills of Scary, where rebels like Fatty Bolger and his band would find places to hide from Lotho's ruffians at a much later date), as well as caverns found or delved in the chalk cliffs that much later became the store-holes of Michel Delving), and anywhere else that offered hidden, defensible refuge. By the time of the Witch King's defeat, the Shire's rich fields lay empty and fallow, and hobbit habitations across the land, from individual farmsteads to whole communities, had been almost completely wiped out.
Thus, in Bucca's time began the recovery of the Shire as the surviving Shire-folk rolled up their sleeves and set about reclaiming the land. Hobbits began to spread out from their fastnesses into the lands around them. First homesteads, then hamlets sprung up and grew into villages and even, eventually, towns.
The wild Green Hill country did not lend itself as well to farming as did the flatter portions of the Shire. The general spread of hobbity repossession tended to follow watercourses, plains, gently rolling landscapes and natural valleys. Due to its topography, the Green Hill country was settled much more slowly than other parts of the Shire, and not by ordinary hobbits but mostly by members of the indomitable Took clan. Of note, after the last Oldbuck Thain descended from Bucca abdicated the position and removed to the independent territory that would become Buckland, the Shire-folk selected the Tooks to fulfil this vital role, in part due to their tenacious nature and ability to rise up to meet adversity head-on if necessary.
According to my idea of Shire history, Thain Isumbras III was travelling deep in the Green Hills, well beyond any established settlements, when he saw a glimmer of gold in a stream. Upon closer investigation, he found the gleam came from sunlight glinting off gold nuggets lying at the bottom of the stream bed, in the shallows of the flowing waters. After tracing the stream to where it issued from the Great Hill that he’d camped upon the night before, he resolved to claim the land thereabout and its surroundings. Without breathing a word of his discovery to anyone, he upended his family and moved to the spot to dig for gold. (Once the gold played out, the network of rough mining tunnels formed the foundation of the Great Smials which, with some careful delving, clever design, and modification with an eye for comfort, became the ancient ancestral home of the Took clan.) This origin story of the Great Smials and the Treasure Hoard of the Tooks is hinted at in several of my stories set in the Shire in the early years of the Fourth Age.
Bandobras was the second son (after Ferumbras, listed on the Took Family Tree as Ferumbras II) of Isumbras III. Put to work digging with the rest of his brothers and uncles, he was trapped in a cave-in when some poorly cured shoring timbers cracked and gave way. His narrow escape and horror of dark, closed-in places as a result of the ordeal that followed led him to leave home and seek employment; he was recruited in the village of By-The-Water’s newly built Green Dragon Inn by a charismatic hobbit (identified in the first chapters of this tale as “the Master”) who intended to found a new community in the midst of the fertile farmland in the otherwise sparsely settled North Farthing.
By the time of this story, Long Cleeve has been in existence for five years. The community has benefited from the richness of the land and abundant natural resources in the surrounding area, helping the settlers to prosper and, consequently, attracting a growing population from other parts of the Shire. As a skilled archer, Bandobras has proven his value in helping protect the North-landers from natural enemies. However, in the past month, unnatural enemies – goblins – have begun encroaching, beginning with isolated attacks that have grown in frequency and strength. At the start of this story, the Master and his counsellors have sent out a group of scouts, Bandobras among them, to find out more about the attackers and their ultimate intentions.
The Ranger who appears in the story is Arassuil, who was the Chieftain of the Dúnedain from 2719 to 2784. According to Tolkien Gateway, which draws its information directly from JRRT's writings, during his time, the Orcs of the Misty Mountains grew bolder and "dared to invade Eriador. The Rangers fought many battles trying to hold them back, but one party of Orcs managed to reach the Shire, where they were fought off by a party of brave Hobbits under Bandobras 'Bullroarer' Took in 2747 at the Battle of Greenfields."
Accordingly, in this story, as mentioned earlier, I have Bandobras working for the head of a relatively large hobbit settlement in the North Farthing, scouting the areas where Orcs have been reported so that the North Country hobbits can figure out just how much trouble they're in and form some kind of plan, while Arassuil is doing much the same from the Rangers' side.
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