Unknown beings!?

[Bêthberry]

Those creatures are named in one of the very earliest tales Tolkien wrote. However, as Christopher Tolkien says in BoLT I, such creatures were very early on removed or edited out of the Lost Tales. They do not exist in the version of The Silm which CT published.

Dimitra Fimi's research on Tolkien suggests that in the very initial stages Tolkien conceived of fairies very similarly to their counterparts in Victorian literature (see the poem he came to dislike intensely, Goblin Feet) but that he came to despise these fluttering diminutive creatures and wanted to establish more robust fairies for himself.

The question of Tom's and Goldberry's similarity to them is very interesting and one I explored in a paper I gave at Return of the Ring last summer.I think there may well be others reasons Tolkien removed them.

However, since Tolkien did remove these fay creatures from his tales, that likely suggests they wouldn't rate in any power rating with those creatures who remain.

EDIT: Here's a link to Goblin Feet. I haven't verified if this online version is consistent with the print versions I've seen, though: Goblin Feet