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Very good points, Morwen. Your Silm quote does show, however, that the Hobbits can be created as the Dwarves were; half-alive, as it were, although the character of them in LotR surely belies any notion of them having no freedom of will. What you say about Aule going against Eru's will is true, but Eru (and Manwe and the rest of the Valar besides) is notorious for getting angry but not really undoing the bad things his underlings do. The Hobbits, on the other hand, would not have been made 'behind Eru's back' like the Dwarves, but would have been allowed as a partial answer to the unending destruction of M-e by Elves and Men. Otherwise, to have them be whole Children of Iluvatar in their own right, would of necessity force an inconsistancy in the Ainulindale itself, where they are not mentioned at all.
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If hobbits are a type of human/man, then the fact that
hobbits are not expressly mentioned in the Ainulindale is not a problem. They fall within the category of Man and are therefore accounted for.
If the hobbits are an independent creation, I don't think this is necessarily inconsistent with the Ainulindale, which, though important, is not the be all and end all with respect to Arda and its fate. The Ainulindale is the direct product of the Ainur and "because of the knowledge that each has of the music that he himself made, the Ainur know much of what was, and is, and is to come, and few things are unseen by them" (Silmarillion,
The Ainulindale)
However,
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Yet some things there are that they (the Valar) cannot see, neither alone nor taking counsel together; for to none but himself has Iluvatar revealed all that he has in store, and in every age there come forth things that are new and have not foretelling, for they do not proceed from the past. (my emphasis) Simarillion The Ainulindale
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Now if ever a passage allowed for hobbits I think it is this one. Their creation would then fall into the category of things that Eru knew about but did not reveal to the Valar rather than an idea that proceeds from the Valar themselves and receives the blessing of Eru.