The twenty-fifth Thain of the Shire, who inherited the title from his father Ferumbras II, and passed it on in turn to his only son Gerontius, who was to become famous as the Old Took. He was just two years old when his uncle Bandobras beat off a raiding band of Orcs in the Battle of Greenfields. He took on the Thainship more than fifty years later, by which time the Shire had settled into a more peaceful way of life - at least, it was unaffected by outside events during his forty-seven years as Thain.
Notes
1
The name Fortinbras has its ultimate origins in French, and in that context the final 's' would not normally be pronounced (that is, the name would be pronounced something like 'fortinbra'h'). The name is best known in English through its use Shakespeare's Hamlet, and there it is pronounced in a way more natural to an English-speaker, including the final 's'. Indeed, in earlier versions of Hamlet's text, Shakespeare used the spelling 'Fortenbrasse', leaving little doubt over the pronunciation. As a Hobbit-name this pronunciation is also doubtless also intended by Tolkien.
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