Boars are belligerent creatures at the best of times, yet watching Snugblossom munch contentedly on a patch of daises brought a sense of appreciation for how all living things can know peace if they are in harmony with their nature. This could not be said for her owner, gesticulating wildly in the general direction of his field, the color of his face changing the more he spoke. Frothard Took, the chief Bounder at Tighfield was making some attempt to placate him.
That was about the end of the matter as far as the Watch was concerned but the boar’s owner was not convinced. ‘I don’t know if this is what passes as a prank among dwarves and elves’ he told me, ‘but you all certainly went to a lot of effort. Hiding Snuggleblossom’s patches with mud so I couldn’t recognize her, that sort of thing might go on in the Hithershire but not here.’
‘If it’s any consolation, I believe your boar was stolen. It’s doubtful that fence was damaged by shrews’. I also doubted the young hobbit selling the boar actually was from the other part of the Shire. ‘But it was never our intention to cause you wrong’.
He simply stared at us and stormed back to his field. Not the easiest beginning to relations with the hobbits, but at least we would not need to ask for use of their trees. Not with this village, at any rate.
Our search for the shipbuilding timber marked among the trees of Arassien took us further north, to where much of the forest still remains. The trail led though a valley between hills directly into the forest itself. Lorin insisted that it had been built by the dwarves of the northern Ered Luin long ago to lead down from their homes to the road of the Eastway. The foliage of Arassen became clear very soon along the track, as if the forest had never ended at Tighfield. In the northern part of the Shire the trees remain as tall as they ever were.
I should probably describe at this point the other members of the dwarven expedition. Lorin did not bring several wagons on his own. He had, in the spirit of Thorin’s company, brought along twelve other dwarves to set from Thorin’s Gate. Whether that would make me the Wizard or the Hobbit I would prefer not to dwell on. They were all of the Landorrim clan, claiming to have come a much colder and harsher climate than the Shire. I knew that Vigdi was an expert on mushrooms, which among the dwarves meant he was often prepared the food. I do not know if it was Landorrim tradition or just his cooking specifically, but unlike the sparse meals of Longbeard miners the expedition ate almost as much as the hobbits. Dúri was the surveyor, who had taken the time to purchase cords from the hobbits of Tighfield and discuss measurement standards. I did not speak much the others, other than Fundin, Lorin’s clerk, who would occasionally ask such questions as whether old elven contracts covered road maintenance.
To my surprise, the village of Gamwich lies not at the edge of the forest but at its center. The Bounders must have much work on their hands, for the creatures of Arassien would not be as tameable as the farm animals down at Tighfield. Indeed the village must be newly built, for when last I came to this region it was too dangerous to be settled by man, dwarf or hobbit. Gamwich itself has developed around a large forest pond, which is part of the lesser of two rivers that eventually flow down into the bog to form what the hobbits simply call the Shire-Water. The other, at Long Cleeve, flows directly from the mountains of Lake Evendim but the water of Gamwich originates from an offshoot of the Lhûn that runs into the Evendim. I believe the men of Arthedain called it the Swiftbrook. Were the houses not delved into the ground the village might be reminiscent of a typical Silvan settlement, hidden under the canopies of a forest grove.
It came to be more difficult than that, of course. But I will write of that later, along with our time with the little folk of Gamwich.
