The Shire - Oregon Style

September 17, 2006 7:51 PM

Attention Tolkien Fans: if this obscure recording of JRR reading (and signing) The Lord of The Rings doesn't quench your lust for all things Middle Earth, then perhaps you should consider buying a home in The Shire, a new real estate development in Bend Oregon (which oddly seems to not feature Hobbit holes, but rather looks instead like Bree, the human village nearest the Shire).
posted by jonson (26 comments total)

Truth be told, I think the developers just mean "Shire" in the quaint British "Ye Olde Village" meaning, but there's no denying the Celtic influence in their reference drawings. Now if the homes really WERE tunnelled out holes in the hillside, then maybe I'd consider it.
posted by jonson at 7:52 PM on September 17, 2006

no, jonson, they mean shire, as in hobbitland ... (click the very last picture on the bottom, which is captioned "this is hobbit hole #1")

i am looking forward to hearing tolkien read

i'm horrified at the housing ...
posted by pyramid termite at 8:07 PM on September 17, 2006

I checked out the part where he signed the LOTR but it was *booooring*. ASL just doesn't translate well to audio. *Badum!* That is my joke, I hope you enjoyed it.
posted by facetious at 8:11 PM on September 17, 2006

Bend is on the east slope of the Cascades--lovely but pretty arid, Ponderosa pine country with big views. The Shire it ain't.
posted by LarryC at 8:15 PM on September 17, 2006

I thought Bree was actually in the Shire.
posted by kenko at 8:21 PM on September 17, 2006

Worth listening just to hear Tolkien say "poh-tay-toes."

Thanks, jonson.
posted by zennie at 8:23 PM on September 17, 2006

kenko - I bet you're right, actually.
posted by jonson at 8:24 PM on September 17, 2006

No, Bree is just east of the Shire
posted by doctor_negative at 9:44 PM on September 17, 2006

Yeah, Bree is just east of the Shire. Idjit! (Bree in the Shire. snort snort.)
posted by Nelson at 12:10 AM on September 18, 2006

Nope, sorry, waaayyy too olde worlde twee for me.
posted by kaemaril at 1:21 AM on September 18, 2006

My friends and I have been dreaming of a retirement community where we can all live, and play board games until we croak. Hmm ...
posted by Mur at 2:25 AM on September 18, 2006

*scoffs* If Bree were in the Shire, MEN would live in the Shire, and that's just not right, now is it.
posted by Hildegarde at 4:07 AM on September 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

No self respecting hobbit would live in such square houses. Straight walls indeed!
posted by jb at 5:18 AM on September 18, 2006

I grew up in a community called "Hobbit's Glen" in Columbia, Maryland. We lived on Tooks Way. It was built in the late 1970s. It was very nice but the Hobbit analogy ended with the street names unfortunately, the houses at the Shire development look cool.
posted by stbalbach at 6:19 AM on September 18, 2006

Something about the 10ft ceilings tells me this might not be authentic.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:42 AM on September 18, 2006

This is much more authentic, and not surprisingly, made by an individual out for his own use.
posted by jonson at 7:17 AM on September 18, 2006

Anybody see the prices on those bablies? Upwards of 1/2 mil.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:43 AM on September 18, 2006

There does appear to be a round-doored Hobbit hole type design - in the funpics section mentioned above: third column, 7th row ...
posted by crepeMyrtle at 10:38 AM on September 18, 2006

Oh dear. As an English person with an American wife who has family living in Bend who have a habit of informing me of any and all "Englishy" things they see as a sort of misplaced way of making me feel at home this can only bring bad things...
posted by Artw at 10:50 AM on September 18, 2006

I really wish I'd known about the Shire of Bend when I posted this.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:12 PM on September 18, 2006

Someone *cough* jonson *cough* should work up a post concentrated on those ecohomes. Very interesting!
posted by deborah at 2:52 PM on September 18, 2006

what's up with the CGI looking pictures in the Shire and the link Jonson posted?
posted by my homunculus is drowning at 4:17 PM on September 18, 2006

Where house is Sauron's?
posted by homunculus at 6:17 PM on September 18, 2006

"This is the house of Boromir." Click No. 26, and rejoice that this son of Gondor apparently has been resurrected in scenic Central Oregon! And one of his neighbors is grumpy old Everard Proudfoot (No. 23). And homunculus, apparently Sauron hasn't moved to The Shire, but No. 17 belongs to his lackey Saruman. Y'know, I used to love the Bend area, but that was about 15 years ago. If these places are any indication, I'm thinking I might not be so crazy about it today.
posted by diddlegnome at 6:50 PM on September 18, 2006

that's quite an indictment coming from someone named "diddlegnome."
posted by crunchland at 7:56 PM on September 18, 2006

They have a page specifically mentioning they built some hobbit holes, but only for storage/machinery, yet then alludes to the idea that someone does get to live in one of them...

"The Shire contains mystery from the past in several Hobbit dwellings. These unique features imbedded in the stone serpentine garden walls of The Shire serve to house the machinery and grounds keeping tools to maintain the common areas of The Shire. But from time to time you might swear you would catch a glimpse of a little person entering his humble dwellings---or was it just your imagination?. Nash McDonald aka The Shire's own, is shown here peaking out of his new home. . . "


hobbits
posted by nomisxid at 9:41 AM on September 19, 2006