The appearance of halflings in Dungeons & Dragons have come a long way since their hobbit roots from Lord of the Rings. If the latest stew from Heroes' Feast is any indication, they didn't stray too far.
So first, let's be clear: this is a stew. A chicken stew. The dumplings go with it.
There's reference to a secret ingredient to the stew, but it's the same secret ingredient to many of the Heroes' Feast recipes that makes it taste delicious if not particularly healthy. The secret is generous pats of butter.
I've always been a fan of stew and my wife is fond of dumplings with any stew she makes, so this meal wasn't far off from what you might make at home (sans the generous butter perhaps). It's tasty enough that my whole family enjoyed it, even my son who isn't fond of stew.
The theme of halfling dishes seems to be "comfort food" which might explain their original portly appearance, but you wouldn't know that from the most recent incarnations of the halfling in D&D.
Of course, you wouldn't know that hobbits eat that much to look at the movie versions of Merry and Pippin, and that's something of a concession to modern tastes of what heroes should look like. But for the inspiration of hobbits, we have to go back further to a tale Lord of the Rings author and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien read to his children, The Marvellous Land of Snergs:
These two sources, Babbit and Snergs, are significant in how they helped form hobbits. Babbit created the complacency and bourgeois life of folk who longed to belong to respectable society, as well as the threats of youthful impulse and adventure that can uproot such a life. And in Snergs, Tolkien had his physical prototype, a race of short, thick-set, helpful people. These two elements together make for a jolly group who are fond of friends and food, and it shows in their "fattish stomachs." If hobbits seem unlikely heroes, that was the point. They would become even more unlikely in D&D.
And just like that, hobbits became halflings. By Third Ediiton, halflings didn't look much like hobbits at all, but rather small humans. Most emblematic of this change was the iconic rogue Lidda, who didn't look anything like the hairy-footed hobbits. The trend continued into Fourth Edition until Fifth, whereupon halflings took a turn from hairy-footed and barrel-bodied to narrow-feet and large heads.
They're still not fat, though. Given their very strong association with Tolkien's works, tabletop gamers seem to have a love/hate relationship with the race. None of my players ever played a halfling in four decades of gaming, although I did have plenty of NPCs.
Judging by the meals in Heroes' Feast, halflings may not have the best diet, but they're hardly the roly-poly rural folk of Tolkien's hobbits either.
Your Turn: Are your halflings fat and hairy?
Chicken-Something Dumplings
So first, let's be clear: this is a stew. A chicken stew. The dumplings go with it.
There's reference to a secret ingredient to the stew, but it's the same secret ingredient to many of the Heroes' Feast recipes that makes it taste delicious if not particularly healthy. The secret is generous pats of butter.
I've always been a fan of stew and my wife is fond of dumplings with any stew she makes, so this meal wasn't far off from what you might make at home (sans the generous butter perhaps). It's tasty enough that my whole family enjoyed it, even my son who isn't fond of stew.
The theme of halfling dishes seems to be "comfort food" which might explain their original portly appearance, but you wouldn't know that from the most recent incarnations of the halfling in D&D.
The Halfling Diet
There's a few lines from Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring movie that sums up hobbits quite well:Of course, you wouldn't know that hobbits eat that much to look at the movie versions of Merry and Pippin, and that's something of a concession to modern tastes of what heroes should look like. But for the inspiration of hobbits, we have to go back further to a tale Lord of the Rings author and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien read to his children, The Marvellous Land of Snergs:
These two sources, Babbit and Snergs, are significant in how they helped form hobbits. Babbit created the complacency and bourgeois life of folk who longed to belong to respectable society, as well as the threats of youthful impulse and adventure that can uproot such a life. And in Snergs, Tolkien had his physical prototype, a race of short, thick-set, helpful people. These two elements together make for a jolly group who are fond of friends and food, and it shows in their "fattish stomachs." If hobbits seem unlikely heroes, that was the point. They would become even more unlikely in D&D.
The D&D Halfling
In the original edition of D&D hobbits were included along with ents and balrogs. As co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax himself explained on EN World:And just like that, hobbits became halflings. By Third Ediiton, halflings didn't look much like hobbits at all, but rather small humans. Most emblematic of this change was the iconic rogue Lidda, who didn't look anything like the hairy-footed hobbits. The trend continued into Fourth Edition until Fifth, whereupon halflings took a turn from hairy-footed and barrel-bodied to narrow-feet and large heads.
They're still not fat, though. Given their very strong association with Tolkien's works, tabletop gamers seem to have a love/hate relationship with the race. None of my players ever played a halfling in four decades of gaming, although I did have plenty of NPCs.
Judging by the meals in Heroes' Feast, halflings may not have the best diet, but they're hardly the roly-poly rural folk of Tolkien's hobbits either.
Your Turn: Are your halflings fat and hairy?
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