# The beginnings of Hobbits?



## Helm (Sep 3, 2009)

Any ideas? Yes, I did get this from the odd man out game, though I have been idly wondering for a while. I don't think the prologe to the FotR says anything just where they moved to etc., nor the Sil nor UT. How about HoME?


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## Aernil (Jan 7, 2010)

Tolkien's own account:

_'On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why.'_

If I remember correctly, there are three hobbit ancestor groups, one being the Fallohides (just remember that one because my LOTRO Hobbit is of the Fallohides), who originate from the northern vales of Anduin. They didn't all come to Middle-Earth at the same time.

They share some linguistic history with the Rohirrim, the word hobbit coming from _holbytla _which means 'hole-dweller'.


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## Elthir (Jan 7, 2010)

If you mean internal history, the _Prologue_ tells us that the beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the Elder Days: '... that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still preserve any records of that vanished time...' (and etc.)

So we don't know. There is something somewhat notable in _The History Of Middle-Earth_ (see below), but sticking with this prime source first -- the earliest tales of the Shire Hobbits: '... seem to glimpse a time when they dwelt in the upper vales of Anduin' and that before the mountain crossing the Hobbits had already become divided into: Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. The Prologue information agrees nicely with Appendix B, the entry for TA 1050: 'The Periannath are first mentioned in records, with the coming of the Harfoots to Eriador.'

And this agrees again with what is said in (a late text published in _The_ _Peoples Of Middle-Earth_) Tolkien's _Of Dwarves And Men_:

'... and when they are first encountered in histories already showed divergences in colouring, stature, and build, and in their ways of life and preferences for different types of country to dwell in (see the Prologue to _The Lord of the Rings_, p. 12). In their unrecorded past they must have been a primitive, indeed 'savage' people*, but when we meet them they had (in varying degrees) acquired many arts and customs by contact with men, and to a less extent with Dwarves and Elves. With Men of normal stature they recognized their close kinship, ...'

The text goes on, but with respect to Hobbits it generally reflects what can be found in the Prologue. 

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*Author's note, note 55

'In the original sense of 'savage'; they were by nature of gentle disposition, neither cruel nor vindictive.'


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