Gollum questions.

[jallanite]

Legate of Ammon Lanc well points out where the answers to three of TheLostPilgrim’s questions may be found.

As to the question of whether Sméagol was a Hobbit, Gandalf in his explanation of Sméagol’s origin says:

Long after, but still very long ago, there lived by the banks of the Great River on the edge of Wilderland a clever-handed and quiet-footed little people. I guess they were of hobbit-kind; akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors, for they loved the River, and often swam in it, or made little boats of reeds.

Gandalf is represented here as being somewhat pedantic in his choice of words. Earlier when asked by Frodo how long Gandalf has known what he has related about the Ring, Tolkien gives to Gandalf this reply:

‘Known?’ said Gandalf. ‘I have known much that only the Wise know, Frodo, But if you mean “known about this ring”, well I still do not know, one might say. There is a last test to make. But I no longer doubt my guess.’

Similarly there is no reason to think that Gandalf doubts his guess about Sméagol’s origin. Of course the possibility exists that Sméagol might be of Orkish kindred, or even possibly of another branch of hobitkind than the Stoors, but of a clan who, though not closely related to the Stoors, had developed customs in respect to swimming and boating similar to the later Stoors.

Whether Sméagol thought of himself as a hobbit is doubtful. In Appendix F Tolkien writes:

The origin of the word hobbit was by most forgotten. It seems, however to have been at first a name given to the Harfoots by the Fallohides and Stoors, and to be a worn-down form of a word preserved more fully in Rohan: holbytla ‘hole-builder’.

Sméagol might have thought of himself primarily as a Stoor or a Halfling, Halfling being the normal English version of the true Westron name used for all the folk that were later came to be called hobbits in the Shire and in Buckland and in Breeland.

[Mithalwen]

Would they have referred to themselves as halflings? I suppose it depends on their proximity to other races but I wonder if they thought they were normal and the other races giants.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Would they have referred to themselves as halflings? I suppose it depends on their proximity to other races but I wonder if they thought they were normal and the other races giants.

For what it's worth, the UT section The Hunt For the Ring says that Gollum's perception of his own race was a factor in Sauron not knowing precisely who or where "Baggins" was.

Gollum would not know the term "Hobbit," which was local and not a universal Westron word. He would probably not use "Halfling" since he was one himself, and Hobbits disliked the name.

[Mithalwen]

Thanks inzil, I had an idea there was an issue with the term.

[Galin]

Hey when you're three foot six and a seven foot Numenorean calls you Banakil you just say 'thank you' and bake him some tarts.

Or something

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Galin

Hey when you're three foot six and a seven foot Numenorean calls you Banakil you just say 'thank you' and bake him some tarts.

Or something

Or if you're Pippin, maybe you'd say "At least I'm not a half-wit."

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I recalled this statement from Unfinished Tales but did not remember that it occurred there. A search through the indices of some volumes of HoME proved fruitless, so I gave up the search.

Thanks.

Note that in Bree Men were known as “Big Folk” and Hobbits were often known as “Little Folk”. The same terms appear to be sometimes used in the Shire. At least when discussing the Black Rider in the chapter “Three Is Company” Pippin and Frodo both use the term “Big People” and Sam recalls his father using the term “Big Folk”. In the chapter “The Scouring of the Shire” one of the ruffians uses the term “little folk”.

[Mithalwen]

Oh that is true enough and I suppose it is a fine distinction in practice, but psychologically there is a difference between acknowledging one is smaller than other races and defining oneself as half sized.

[jallanite]

I quite agree.

The names Perian and its translation Halfling were doubtless not popular because the names suggest that those who bare them are only half the size of proper people: Men and Elves.

It is not surprising that these people eventually preferred the non-Westron name Hobbit which had no such negative meaning.

That “Little Folk” was also popular in Breeland is not surprising as neither it nor “Big Folk” indicates that either size is necessarily the proper one.

[Galadriel55]

Instead of hobbits calling themselves halflings, it would be more logical for them to call the Big People doublings.

Just thought I'd put the weird thought out there, because I agree with the above comments and have nothing else to add.