What are Hobbits?

[JacktheRabbit]

Maybe I have read it somewhere and missed it but is there anything in Tolkien that explains where Hobbits came from? There are several items about them that is odd.


1. They seem to be made stronger than the other races in that the ring has the least effect on them. This suggests that they can not from the same place as any other race. Or maybe it is because no lesser rings were ever created for hobbits so the One Ring has less to go on when trying to control hobbits.

2. The Dunedain find them important enough to protect without ever even letting the hobbits know.

3. Gandalf finds them important enough to befriend long before he knows of the ring.

4. Tom Bombadil obviously an enigmatic being of great power lives near them and probably helps make them quite safe.


Asll this adds up to hobbits being very important and almost protected as if everyone knew they had a destiny.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Tolkien suggests (if not actually say it straight out) that hobbits are an off-shoot of the race of man, albeit with some clear differences.

I don't think that the Rangers or Gandalf's interest is due to some preknowledge of their importance - the Rangers seem to protect the hobbits from duty, and partly from an appreciation of their innocence. Of course, the Rangers also protect the humans in Bree - it's not merely hobbits that benefit from their presence. I think the hobbits not knowing about the Rangers speaks more of the Hobbits obliviousness to the outside world than the Rangers secrecy, though then again, Butterbur knows OF the Rangers, but not why they are there.

Gandalf is a little trickier. He seems to have, more or less at random, fallen in love with the Shire, and its subsequent importance comes as a surprise to him. Perhaps on some deep subconscious level he was aware of their importance, but there's no evidence I can recall that supports that hypothesis.

The foreword to LoTR has a good deal of this kind of info if that interests you...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I've wondered about this from time to time, but I've never seen anything by Tolkien that answers it definitively. Maybe Eru created them to provide a dose of humility to the great races of Men and Elves in Middle Earth. All the trouble caused in Middle Earth was due to pride; what better way to rectify this than to have the world ultimately saved by the most humble of the Free Peoples?

As a side note, the Rangers also probably protected the Shire because it was the last remnant of the lost Dunadan kingdom of Arnor.

Gandalf seemed to like the Hobbits for their unassuming nature. Maybe he just got tired of how intense it could be to deal with Men and Elves all the time. Gandalf was accounted the wisest of the Wizards, so he also probably realized the Hobbits' potential.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I always assumed GAndalf came to Shire just to cool off a bit.

The whole Wizard thing was probably pretty stressful.

 

[Henry]

Many Tolkien Students believe that the Hobbits were representative of the English people, or rather the idealized rustic version of them back at the turn of the century. Hobbits resisted the ring in my opinion for one main reason: they were less ambitious than the other races.

The races of Men, Dwarves, and Elves all craved power, in some form or another, and had no problems wielding power. The greatest desire of the hobbits as a whole was to live peaceably - they did not have a "secret heart" as the other races did. This is why a race so small and inconsequential had such a huge effect on the fate of Middle Earth.

This is not to say that Hobbits were helpless; Tolkien after all was the originator of the D&D saying, "never give an angry halfling a throwing stone." However, Hobbits were not movers and shakers in the world because of their size and their priorities. The phrase "power-mad hobbit" would have sounded very weird to the ears of most any Middle Earth resident.

 

[Tsyr]

Why did gandalf love the hobbits? I think Saurmon stumbled onto it in the movie...

"Your love of the hobbit weed has clouded your judgement"

I, too, though think that the reason the ring had so little effect on hobbits is that they don't HAVE the ambitions that most races do... the ring seems to play off ambitions, but by and large, they don't have the big, sweeping ambitions... what hobbit wants to rule the world? That would take time away from family, friends, and food. What hobbit really wants to command armies? That would take him away from his snug burrow. All hobbits really want is the... quaint... things in life. And they have that. So what is there for the ring to do?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

So what is there for the ring to do?

For some hobbits, the answer was: Falling to a vulcan and be destroyed, so nobody can destroy the lovely, peaceful place the hobbits live in.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[kengar]

Hobbits resisted the ring in my opinion for one main reason: they were less ambitious than the other races.

"Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the Sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows Lie.
One Ring to Rule them all,
One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie."

I am no Tolkien scholar, but I have heard the theory voiced that the main reason the Ring had less effect on hobbits was that there were no Hobbit Rings. Thus, the One Ring had no direct hold over them. It was still powerful enough to influence them individually, but most of the Ring's corrupting power worked through the other 16 (19 if you include the elven three).

 

[Umbran]

For some hobbits, the answer was: Falling to a vulcan and be destroyed

A vulcan? I can see it now...

Frodo drops onto the bridge of the Enterprise...

Kirk: Spock, what is that furry-footed man doing on my bridge? Why do I have the sudden urge to take his ring and conquer Starfleet Command?

Spock: Unknown, Captian. Scanning....

Kirk: Who needs the Tantalus device, when I could have... that... ring?! Bwahaha!

Spock: /*Takes out phaser, sets it on "char with extreme prejudice", and reduces Frodo and ring to so much low energy plasma, continuity be damned.*/

Spock: There, Captain, does that feel better?

Kirk: Yes Spock, it does. Mr. Sulu, warp factor 4!