[Sharkû]

Hobbits as the “chosen race / people”

There is nothing that contradicts the idea of hobbits being a normal (d)evolution of Man just like the Drúedain or the men of Harad and the East.
Also, there is nothing in fact that makes hobbits more “chosen” or special than the other Children of Eru; certainly not in their skills or appearance, and not so in their circumstances, which are not supernatural in any way.

“The Hobbits are, of course, really meant to be a branch of the specifically human race (not Elves or Dwarves) – hence the two kinds can dwell together (as at Bree), and are called just the Big Folk and Little Folk. They are entirely without non-human powers, but are represented as being more in touch with 'nature' (the soil and other living things, plants and animals), and abnormally, for humans, free from ambition or greed of wealth. They are made small (little more than half human stature, but dwindling as the years pass) partly to exhibit the pettiness of man, plain unimaginative parochial man – though not with either the smallness or the savageness of Swift, and mostly to show up, in creatures of very small physical power, the amazing and unexpected heroism of ordinary men 'at a pinch'.” (Letter 131)

It is of special importance here to note that when Tolkien speaks of the hobbits being “made” in special ways, he is talking in literary terms. This is also undoubtedly one of the most important argument to consider when refuting the “chosen people” theory.

Hobbits were first created by Tolkien in The Hobbit, long before a magic ring appeared, and all of their well known characteristics (which, of course made them good Ring-bearers) were established already there. Bilbo, however, is clearly noted as a special hobbit, an exception, but he indeed is in a way chosen – by Gandalf, and, as Gandalf hints on, perhaps by a greater force. The fact that he is an exception among his people somewhat makes the idea of the chosen race seem futile. Are Men a chosen people just because Beren cut a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown? Were Men created for that sole purpose? Did Melian fall in love with Thingol just so that Lúthien could later do their great deeds? Idle and wrong speculations.

Child of the 7th Age wrote, “What happened earlier in hobbit history was apparently hidden or forgotten. That, in itself, is suggestive.” I would not say so. Letter 131 also 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 less 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. Would that mean that a part of the hobbit folk was “chosen” and the other part only “half-chosen” (but still chosen enough to find the Ring)? Of course not.

Child of the 7th Age further asked: “why would Tolkien draw attention to the fact that earlier history was hidden”. As says Letter 131, it was not hidden in any way, just forgotten like that of Men, who had no written tradition and thus no recollection of very early times either.

“There is one intriguing allusion in the book that Gandalf may know more about hobbit origins […]” Quote greatly appreciated.

Gandalf, being the buddy of Manwe, can be assumed to have some deep knowledge and insight on the ways of the world. He does, however, not once stress the fact that the hobbits themselves are especially chosen; he only shares with us his speculation, based on limited knowledge of the finer details of the Music and the designs of Eru, that the Ring might have come into Bilbo’s hands not wholly coincidentally. For that, there is of course no need at all for Bilbo to be a hobbit, and, as it is given, he was an uncommon hobbit anyway. Also, as far as we can read from what Tolkien wrote, there would not be anything special about the origin/evolution of hobbits anyway. I hold Tolkien’s knowledge here to be greater than that of a fictitious character of his.

“We have no instances of hobbits conquering or attacking other peoples.” Because they had no desire to do so, and hardly the capabilities. The literary importance of that fact ceases after the background of hobbits is established in the first chapters of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, in both of which there was no Ring to resist yet.

burrahobbit gave the important clue, which Tolkien elaborates on in Letter 131: “The generally different tone and style of The Hobbit is due, in point of genesis, to it being taken by me as a matter from the great cycle susceptible of treatment as a 'fairy-story', for children. Some of the details of tone and treatment are, I now think, even on that basis, mistaken.” Hobbits are peaceful and in touch with nature because Tolkien wanted, and for the children’s story, needed them to be like that. I doubt Eru had a word in that.

“All this is very different from the history of Elves or big folk. And it prompts one to ask why.” Because The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, in the first chapters of which that history and nature is first given, are not in the same vein as the histories of the Elves and the Big Folk, both of which belong to the Silmarillion myths.

In Letter 31, Tolkien even tells us: “my mind on the 'story' side is really preoccupied with the 'pure' fairy stories or mythologies of the Silmarillion, into which even Mr Baggins got dragged against my original will”.

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. Again, there is nothing about their migration which suggests any higher mission, command or position.

Therefore, I would hardly call the history of the hobbits an anomaly, just as much as I would not call the history of the Drúedain an anomaly.

Now, all of this should be plain and hopefully understandable. But what really speaks against the idea of hobbits being especially created by Eru, which would mean, different in origin than Men (which they are not, as I have quoted), is the fact that using Eru as a last resort to explain things is commonly a weak argument.

The only argument one could use for this speculative hypothesis is that Eru would have chosen some people to aid the eventual destruction of the Ring. As I have explained above, this would mean that Tolkien would have had to have given a retroactive reason for the existance of hobbits. I do not see why he should not have been content with the fact that hobbits simply exist for themselves (and his own delightment).

Also it would mean that Tolkien would have had Eru intervening gravely into the affairs of the Third Age both on his own and without the apparent knowledge of the Valar. The Legendarium tells us that Eru did intervene very rarely and only in cataclysmic dimensions. This definitely was not one, more than two thousand years before the Ring would have eventually been destroyed. Added to this, I do not suppose that the Music of the Ainur would extend in such great detail to such a time concerning Men (for hobbits are no other), who are, by definition in the mythology, free from the structure of the Music. Only dealing with Elves, such as Beren, Túrin, and Bilbo had, can entangle mortals in the tighter webs of the Music and of Fate.

A "council of the Valar, summoned it seems by Manwë ("and maybe he called upon Eru for counsel?"), at which it was resolved to send out three emissaries to Middle-earth" (UT, IV, ii) is what Unfinished Tales has to say about a possible intervention of Eru in the affairs of Arda in the Third Age. Would, in that case, the fact that the Valar and the istari still are ignorant of this hypothetical rôle of hobbits as the chosen people not be contradictive?

As much as I like speculation myself, using Eru as the catalyzer of events not fully known (but, as I have shown, known enough to refute unneccessarily contradictive speculations) is definitely not within what I know about Tolkien and his personal beliefs. His personal beliefs hardly play a role at all here anyway, apart from those he had of his Legendarium, on which (for the first time in this thread so far) I have tried to shed some light.