Michel Delving

We have no date for the foundation of Michel Delving, but its size and its status as chief township both point to a foundation early in the Shire's history.

'Michel' comes from Old English Micel. In Old English, the letter 'c' (in these circumstances, at least) would normally be pronounced as modern 'ch'. So, in rendering the name as 'Michel', Tolkien simply seems to be adjusting the spelling to make it simpler for a modern audience to read and pronounce.

Micel is Old English for 'big', 'great'. A version of this word also occurs in Mickleburg, a Mannish name for the Dwarf-city of Belegost. It serves to distinguish this larger township from Little Delving that stood to the north.

Somewhat frustratingly, Tolkien's large-scale map of the Shire within The Lord of the Rings stops short of Michel Delving, which lies off the western edge of that map. While we know that it lay on the White Downs, and that it was linked by road to Waymeet, beyond those details the regions of this map westward of Waymeet are speculative.

It would seem reasonable to imagine that Michel Delving and Little Delving would be joined by a road, and probably another road would run towards the Far Downs, where the town or village of Greenholm lay. However, we have no direct evidence for roads like this within the Westfarthing, and so they are not shown here. Greenholm itself does appear on this map, but beyond the fact that it lay in the Far Downs, its location and nature are as uncertain as those of Michel Delving itself.