[greyhavener]

I read Leaf By Niggle for the first time this year. I fell in love with it. I find the end intriguing as well. For me it seemed to imply that one little leaf sprung from Tolkien's imagination: hobbits. Tolkien said of himself that he was very much like a hobbit in his character and preferences. While he tinkered with the stories surrounding them, borrowing from other myths, perhaps it is in the hobbits' strengths and weaknesses, in the hobbits' characteristics and heart that he best expressed himself. Perhaps he was niggling with the idea that when his own soul was sifted down to truth the best in himself would turn out to be what is the best part of a hobbit's nature.

I found the story in "The Tolkien Reader" first published in 1966 and still in print which contains The Homecoming of Beorhthnoth, Tree and Leaf, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadilalong with Peter Beagle's essay . Tolkien's Magic Ring.