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#1 | |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 7,431
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Quote:
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
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#2 |
Newly Deceased
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 7
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Humanoids
Hobbits are similar to man except that they are shorter in strature and have funny ears.
They can even be called as humanoids. |
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#3 | |
Spirit of the Lonely Star
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 5,133
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More than you ever wanted to hear....
Sometimes Tolkien tells us as much by what he didn't say as by what he actually said. I think this is one of those instances. It's extremely important for Middle-earth that hobbits be an inobtrusive people that have never caught the attention of the mighty, particularly Morgoth or Sauron. If that had been the case....if their history had been documented in some kind of human or elven annals, Sauron would have had a head start in tracking down the Ring.
It is this historical obscurity that protects Bilbo and Frodo for many years. Only when Gollum spills the beans is there a rent in the veil, and Frodo must flee. Even then, Sauron has no idea how resilient Hobbits are. He underestimates them because they look so well contented and cheerful on the outside, even soft, at least when compared with men and elves. This too is a kind of protection for the Ringbearers, since Sauron wakes to his peril only very slowly. To me, the most interesting question is not the "what" of hobbit origins but the "why". Why didn't they attract any attention for much of Arda's history? Tolkien simply left us no information beyond their presence near Mirkwood in the mid-third age. But, as has been noted by Morwen, there's indication they'd been around even longer without anyone noticing. I can't believe hobbits sprang up out of nowhere in the middle of the Third Age. That sort of magical origin doesn't go along with anything else in the Legendarium. Could they have gradually evolved from humanoid stock, becoming smaller and smaller and developing their own culture? That's possible by the standards of our world, but there would have to be a gradual change or shift over a very long time. Yet when we first see them near Mirkwood, they already have their own distinct culture and unique physical attributes. There had to have been a lot going on before the middle of the Third Age. The hobbits would have had to shrink in size, become largely beardless with hair on their feet, and, even more significantly, develop three subgroups within the race (Stoor, Harfoot, Fallohide) that each had their unique societal characteristics and close ties with one particular race....men, elves or dwarves, depending on the subgroup. That sort of differentiation doesn't happen overnight. If we can accept that hobbits were around long before the mid-third Age, we have to sk why they weren't noticed. Tolkien gives one brief answer: it's merely a matter of historical recordkeeping, or lack of it: Quote:
Tolkien may not have had this idea in the beginning when he told hobbit tales to his children, but hints of it are there in UT.....the idea that Gandalf purposely chooses Bilbo at the behest of someone/something because the race of hobbits had certain unique attrbutes. Only hobbits will be able to get to Mount Doom without falling under the spell of the Ring. There's no detailed proof, but if you read UT you get the distinct feeling that the choice of a hobbit wasn't just a whim on Gandalf's part. Someone else was involved in that choice. How far back that choice went, whether it could even have gone back to the dawn of Arda, simply isn't addressed. But all people have a history, whether or not they or anyone else remembers.
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Multitasking women are never too busy to vote. Last edited by Child of the 7th Age; 05-10-2007 at 10:47 AM. |
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#4 |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 6,003
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Child, your thoughtfulness has put to shame my rather flippant suggestion of the Great Eagles bringing the Stoor, Fallohide and Harfoot babies to the cabbage, turnip and beet patches. I had rather enjoyed that idea as it was in keeping with old folk tales. And I was so careful to avoid cauliflower, as les petits choux would have been too French for The Professor.
![]() Your idea of a chosen tribe deliberately veiled is very suggestive and powerful. It, too, has tantalizing similarities to other mythologies (I use that word to avoid the "R" word with Tolkien). However, there is one association which immediately springs to mind. If the hobbits do represent the wholesomeness of the sturdy English country stock, how does this idea fit in with that dodgy old idea of Pax Britannica and all the colonial apparatus that comes with the British Empire? Of course, I realise that this brings into juxtaposition two ideas that are not necessarily carved in stone, but it does make one wonder: Would Tolkien have wanted to inspire the idea that the English were the (new/next) chosen race? This isn't so far fetched as it might seem at first glance, as the conceit is prevalent throughout English history. Time limits me giving sources, etc, but Child's post was so suggestive that I couldn't not post!
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. |
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#5 |
Wight
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southend,U.K
Posts: 113
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First came the River Folk and from them came the more conventional Hobbit. I imagine that they were originally much like the Stoors but moved to land where they developed different characteristics and - of course - the hatred of boating.
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Thanks for abandoning me for three years guys. I really enjoyed being a total outcast. |
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#6 |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: 'Round the corner, down the well, passed the Balrog, straight to HELL!
Posts: 77
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I have a theory on the matter.
Perhaps hobbits came from the far east aswell. perhaps they were a shorter variety of men that decided to stay at the Mouths of Anduin until the Third Age when the Breelanders gave them the Shire. Just a theory, nothing much.
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My time is at an end, for I have walked from Valinor to the Far-east where men have not gone for millennia. Demons have fallen before me. And now... I must rest... |
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#7 |
Guard of the Citadel
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Oxon
Posts: 2,205
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It wasn't the Breelanders that gave them the Shire, it was Argeleb II, tenth King of Arthedain, that allowed two Hobbits from Bree, Marcho and Blanco to settle in the Shire, on the condition that they [font=Verdana][size=-1]acknowledge his rule, speed his messengers, and repair the roads and bridges. They then lead a large group of Hobbits westward and claimed the area that later became The Shire.
I like Child's idea, makes sense that Hobbits somehow adapted and became smaller. It could be that it's because of their ability to hide so well, which is again mentioned in the foreword to LotR, Of Hobbits, that they managed to stay away from the darkness. It is clear that are much closer to nature as normal Men, maybe because of the need to hide and seek protection in their natural environment. It makes sense that they slowly made their way west as Sauron fled east to rebuild his physical form after losing the Ring. This they did again, in T.A. 1050 when some of the Hobbits crossed the Misty Mountains after Sauron came to Dol Guldur and a shadow fell upon Mirkwood. [/size][/font]
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“The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.”
Delos B. McKown |
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#8 | |
Loremaster of Annúminas
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,330
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Quote:
I think if the old Professor were presented with your notion, he would have adjusted it some. To him the Hobbits were important because they were humble, the meek not inheriting the earth but saving it. Conceivably he might accept the association of humility + caritas with (true) Christianity, which has often been called the "new Israel." But I doubt he would have regarded the Hobbits as parallelling the Jews in any historical way. |
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#9 | ||
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 274
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Quote:
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So hobbits, for others in Middle Earth who might once have known about them, have dropped out of existence and even while they were still to be observed they were not doing anything worth remembering or writing about. But what I would like to know is why hobbits don't appear to have any information/legends/tales about their own origins. Merry at one point, in response to a remark from Treebeard, observes that they never seem to be mentioned in any of the old tales. This would have been a good place for him to say what old tales Hobbits have about themselves and their origins, but he doesn't do so. |
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#10 | |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 7,431
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Quote:
__________________
"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories Last edited by Legate of Amon Lanc; 05-11-2007 at 02:08 PM. |
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