[Dancing_Hobbit]

as several people have said, the great thing about Tolkien is that there is not one single hero, there are many of them. a hero is someone who is willing to do whatever they have to for what they believe in (although to consider them a hero one must agree with what it was they believed in). a hero must be able to overcome obstacles and temptations, so in order to be a hero, they must encounter these things. a hero can be perfectly ordinary to begin with. in some ways that makes them all the more heroic; they did what others could not without the aid of special powers (although having special powers does not preclude one from being a hero). a hero must fail once i a while. otherwise they are perfect, which is impossible. a hero must seem real, and thus imperfect. being able to redeem oneself and put the past behind after a failure is a major part of being a hero.

heroism is not a constant. an action that is heroic for one person would not be for another. to perform a heroic act a person must be able to overcome something within themself, usually a fear. then they can overcome whatever they have to outside of themself, but the true act of heroism is overcomeing the internal barrier.

that's why so many of Tolkien's characters are heros.