Finished the Silmarillion, things still bother me though. - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

**The Saucepan Man** · 06-05-2003, 07:09 AM

Well, I agree that Hobbits are a type of Man. How could I not? As Nils and lathspell have pointed out, Tolkien has said so himself.

But I am not sure that Hobbits can be said to have "evolved" from some original standard form of Man, with "Hobbit" characteristics only developing through years of living in burrows and hiding away from other Men. There simply wasn't sufficient time for this to have occured. I beleieve that Hobbits are first mentioned in records in TA 1,050. By my reckoning, this is some 5,000 years after the Awakening of Man at the beginning of the First Age. We have changed very little in the 4,000 years or so since the Bronze Age, so 5,000 years is nothing like enough time for Men standing over 6' tall to evolve into creatures of less than 4'.

I would say, therefore, that Hobbits awoke along with other (different types of) Men at the beginning of the First Age and that, when they awoke, they appeared pretty much as the Hobbits that we all come to know and love. After all, assuming that they too awoke in the Far East and hung around there for a while (or migrated only slowly), it comes as no surprise (being the retiring sorts that they are) that they are not noted in records until some way into the Third Age.

Edit: Sorry, Aule, didn't see your post before I posted this. Had I done, I would simply have said "I agree with Aule". [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[ June 05, 2003: Message edited by: The Saucepan Man ]

06-05-2003, 07:09 AM	#12
The Saucepan Man Corpus Cacophonous Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: A green and pleasant land Posts: 8,390	Well, I agree that Hobbits are a type of Man. How could I not? As Nils and lathspell have pointed out, Tolkien has said so himself. But I am not sure that Hobbits can be said to have "evolved" from some original standard form of Man, with "Hobbit" characteristics only developing through years of living in burrows and hiding away from other Men. There simply wasn't sufficient time for this to have occured. I beleieve that Hobbits are first mentioned in records in TA 1,050. By my reckoning, this is some 5,000 years after the Awakening of Man at the beginning of the First Age. We have changed very little in the 4,000 years or so since the Bronze Age, so 5,000 years is nothing like enough time for Men standing over 6' tall to evolve into creatures of less than 4'. I would say, therefore, that Hobbits awoke along with other (different types of) Men at the beginning of the First Age and that, when they awoke, they appeared pretty much as the Hobbits that we all come to know and love. After all, assuming that they too awoke in the Far East and hung around there for a while (or migrated only slowly), it comes as no surprise (being the retiring sorts that they are) that they are not noted in records until some way into the Third Age. Edit: Sorry, Aule, didn't see your post before I posted this. Had I done, I would simply have said "I agree with Aule". [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] [ June 05, 2003: Message edited by: The Saucepan Man ] __________________ Do you mind? I'm busy doing the fishstick. It's a very delicate state of mind!