Stillwalk Smial

Before the settling of the Shire, even before the Wandering Days, Hobbit clans and families attempted to better their wild existence while keeping themselves both safe and secret.The Hobbit notion of comfort changed considerably once they learned the civilized arts from the Dwarves and Dunedain. Moreover, adopting these arts caused their numbers to increase. Clans grew larger, and holes more complicated, and a great deal of skill and trouble went into building and protecting them. Stillwalk Smial was typical of wild clan-holes found scattered across the Glennen and southern Eriador through most of the Third Age.The Stoor smials of the Angle were much like it, as were the shepherd-holts of the Cardolani Harfoots.So, too, was the littleknown home of Deagol and Smeagol, later known as Gollum, hidden among the reed-lands of the Gladden Fields.For long centuries, the hidden smial  was the solution, for many, to the problem of leading a peaceful existence in a dangerous world.