Where do hobbits come from?
 

I've just finished The Silmarillion, and i know that elves and men were made by Eru, and that the dwarves were made by Aule(? i kinda forgot, i dont have the book on hand) who created the hobbits, they're not beasts/animals, so.. they must have been created by eru, or some valar, but no, theyre just there in 'of the third age and the rings of power'. Anyone care to tell me, I'm utterly confused...

Hobbits are classfied as 'Men', so they probalby awoke in the east in Holdorien, or were a cas of evolution. Alas, we will never know, since the earliest Hobbit histories are traced back to their residence on the Glanduin, in the Third Age, before they left for Eriador and eventually the Shire.

Personally, I think this is one of the cool things about Tolkien's history; it's incomplete, just like real history. There's stuff that you can generate theories about but will always remain a mystery. Somehow, it makes it even more real.

H.C.

yea, its cool like that, but just like real history, its frustrating! haha

The Hobbits probably were a small form of man who awoke in Hildorien with the rest of the men. While they were living in the gladden area the Fallowhides, Harfoots, and some Stoors(main hobbit families)moved over the misty mountainsand into Suza( the Shire)

Just a question. What became of the 'wild Hobbits of Eriador' mentioned in The Return of the Shadow. (No, this is not a reference
to the rangers.) Do they still exist in the final draft?

The theory that hobbits awoke together with Men is weak.

Letter 131 tells us that “Their origin is unknown (even to themselves) for they escaped the notice of the great, or the civilised peoples with records, and kept none themselves, save vague oral traditions”. The only thing suggestive about this is that they know equally little about their first days as Men and Elves; the difference here being that hobbits definitely never “awoke” like the other two, but evolved from humans (physiognomically, one might think of such races as the Drúedain), and therefore could hardly have a fixed date where they stopped being Men and started being hobbits (or whatever they called themselves at that time).

Also note that while Gollum is able to remember sucking eggs with his grandmother, he apparently does not recognize Bilbo as being of the same race as himself, which makes it highly likely that the hobbits evolved quite much in just the few centuries that separate Gollum’s and Bilbo’s birth.

The hobbit tribes did not drop out of nowhere either, their ancestors simply migrated, and came only therefore first in contact as a folk distinguishable from humans and yet in contact with other people that had written record (the men and perhaps Elves in Eriador); the Éothéod in the Anduin vales do not remember people related to the Shire hobbits, and know the latter only as a rumour of fairy-tale like value. The Elves of Mirkwood, the vague area from which the ancestors of the hobbits came, in turn, do not record hobbits either, which means that in the time they migrated, they were not considered different from Men. Or maybe they were just not their study.

From the little I know of Tolkien and his writings I would say that (as some people have already said) the origins of hobbits is and is supposed to be a mystery. Not only because it is good style not to spill all the beans to your readers and not only because Tolkien intended this to be history/mythology and thus incomplete or mysterious at times, but also because of the hobbits role in ME. They saved Middle Earth basically. Perhaps Tolkien did not want to associate that fame to a particular race. Maybe he wanted to reserve that fame for no one in particular or for everyone. Also, because hobbit society is represented in an extremely favorable (if not perfect) light, Tolkien again did not want to tie hobbits to a particular group. Maybe he wanted us all to strive to be hobbits no matter what "race" we are. Anyway, those are just some of my own opinions. I do not think they evolved from a particular race.

[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: aragornreborn ]

I'm not at all sure that there was sufficient time while Gollum was under the mountain for 6'+ men to evolve into 3-4' hobbits. And anyway, the theory of evolution doesn't really fit in with Tolkien's presentation of ME and its history.

As for Gollum not recognising Bilbo's stock, well his brain was addled from too many Goblin curries.

I would hold with those who speculate that hobbits were a smaller variety of man who awoke at the same time and (as hobbits are wont to do) kept themselves to themselves.

Indeed. One of the results of the Hobbits being so mysterious is that Sauron hadn't heard of them before so he didn't quite know what to expect. That, and their isolation from the rest of Middle-earth kept them more "pure" than they might have been had they been a well-known part of the world.

"The coming of Men will therefore be much further back. This will be better; for a bare 400 years is quite inadequate to produce the variety, and the advancement (e.g. of the Edain) at the time of Felagund." (HoME X, Myths Transformed)

Men were not created in a special variety that would distinct hobbits, Druedain, etc. They were not even created in such variety as the Eldar perceived; and that was only the difference between the houses of the Edain [and later the other Men coming from the East].