A small settlement that lay in the hilly region that formed the northern parts of the Eastfarthing, which also gave its name to the surrounding stony hills. Tolkien associates the name with the English word 'scar', meaning 'rocky cliff', and from among the rocky lands around Scary much of the Shire's stone was quarried. During the War of the Ring, the Scary quarries were used by Sharkey's Men to store their loot, and after Sharkey was defeated, much of this was recovered by the Shire-hobbits.
Notes
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Tolkien suggests a connection with 'scar' due to Scary's location in a rocky part of the Shire, and the fact that it lay near a quarry. He also points out that the name would have been meaningless in the Shire itself (presumably because it comes from a dialectical English word and so, like many of the Shire's place-names, represents a translation rather than the original name used by the Shire-hobbits themselves).
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- Updated 3 December 2016
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