Back to the Shire: From English Village to Global Village and Back Again (Critical Essay‪)‬

Another wave of Middle-earth lore is coming our way as Hollywood prepares to offer up the first installment of The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien's prequel to The Lord of the Rings. As with the Ring trilogy, the story of The Rabbit is anchored in the Shire, a place where "peace and quiet and good-tilled earth" are held out as ideals of the good life. We are attracted to the Shire for the same reasons we are drawn to those little window-lit figurine buildings resting on a bed of cotton snow that arc displayed in Wal-Mart during the Christmas season. The Kinkadesque homes, churches, and stores remind us of a time lost, a time when, perhaps, people were happier and rooted to something more permanent. Few of us make the connection between the big-box store we are standing in and the disappearance of what the display in Wal-Mart signifies. But, in truth, one smashed the other. The big global village ate the little local village.