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Message: <blockquote data-quote="andrew" data-source="post: 950238" data-attributes="member: 2589">Well, I have been able to dig up a little more on the Denham Tracts. What follows is a bit of description of the tracts and some commentary. If you're just interested in the list with the word 'hobbit' in it, skip to the next post (which reads like a D&D encounter table!).There are a couple versions of the Denham Tracts out there: the original tracts published by MA Denham, a collection of the tracts from the Folklore Society edited by James Hardy, and a fairly recent reprint of a few of the more common tracts. The following is from the introduction to a 1974 reprint of several of the tracts, Denham Tracts or, a few Pictures of the Olden times in connection with The North of England:Unfortunately, those subsequent volumes don't seem to have materialized. Because the original tracts are so rare, I have only been able to get my hands on an original copy of 'Folk-Lore: or a collection of local rhymes, proverbs, sayings, prophecies, slogans, &c, relating to Northumberland, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Berwick-on-Tweed'. While a very interesting volume (includes bits on the mosstroopers of the border counties, family histories, etc.) it deals more with local sayings than anything supernatural. I have not been able to find an original copy of 'Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Phantasms' There are two editions, the first with 6 pages and the second with 8 published in 1852 and 53 respectively.  From what I can tell by comparing the list of tracts in the 1974 Folklore with the material reprinted in the Hardy edition, this is the tract with the original list. (There's also a chance that the list in question appears at the end of 'Manners, Customs, Weather Proverbs, Popular Charms, Juvenile Rhymes, &c., &c., in the North of England' (32 pages, 50 copies, 1858) , but I think this is just an editorial mistake on Hardy's part. (It could even be a mistake of Hardy's editor, G Laurence Gomme, who took over the project after Hardy became too ill to finish it.) As far as I know, the only place this list current appears is in Hardy's edition of the Denham tracts appended to the section on Folklore of the North of England.Volume II of Hardy's edition of the Denham Tracts was published in 1895 by the Folklore Society. The original title for this collection is 'The Denham Tracts. A collection of Folklore by Michael Aislabie Denham, and reprinted from the original tracts and pamphlets printed by Mr Denham between 1846 and 1859. The important section is Tract VIII: Folklore, or Manners and customs of the North of England. This appears to be a collection of the original 4 tracts on the manners and customs of the North of England with Denham's spirit list appended. The tracts are exactly what the title claims: random bits of folklore from the northern counties. Everything from superstitions about cats to local songs and rhymes is included in the collection. The section in question covers pages 76-80 of the edition. The word 'hobbit' is certainly in the reprinted edition. However, it appears in a rather odd list. The particular entry is ostensibly about the inability of ghosts and spirits to appear on Christmas Eve. Denham quotes a bit from Hamlet and follows it with a supporting observation that not only are ghosts prevented from appearing on Christmas Eve, but it is an 'incontrovertible fact' that anyone born on Christmas Day cannot see spirits. Denham goes on to explain how this must have been such a relief to people born a few generations earlier because the world was so overrun with spirits and and ghosts in those days that there was not a single town, castle or building of any age that didn't have at least one of its own apparitions. In the middle of this, he rather surprisingly just starts listing all the kinds of spirits that might have appeared in one of these towns or buildings in days gone by. It is in this list that the word 'hobbit' finally appears. Clearly, as stated in the Times article, this is a solid pre-Tolkien reference in print of the word 'hobbit'. However, that's about as far as it goes. For our purposes, I feel comfortable saying that Tolkien 'created' the hobbit.First, judging from the list, I doubt Denham's 'hobbit' had any relation to Tolkien's hobbit. It appears in this list crammed with all manner of supernatural beast from barguests to wizards. It seems little, if any, care has been taking in ordering these spirits. Many are even repeated in the list. It also becomes obvious from the number of spirits in general and the number of 'hob'- spirits specifically that there was little in the way of a classified difference from one spirit to the next. I'm also not sure if I don't detect a slightly tongue-in-cheek nature to this list and other bits of lore from Denham's tract. Note how it is an 'incontrovertible fact' that folks born on Christmas can't see spirits and that all these spirits inhabited the English landscape in some unsubstantial 'before', but certainly not in Denham's present.I would be very surprised if Tolkien had ever seen the word 'hobbit' in print, from Denham or any other source. The Denham tracts are rare enough that it would have been very unlikely for Tolkien to have seen an original . The reprints, though more accessible are fairly obscure and not especially appropriate for an Anglo-Saxonist. (Rare or not, I feel fairly safe stating that I'm the first person to actually read Volume II at my library. The pages had not been properly cut by the printer so many of the folios were still part of the same piece of paper. I had to get a pair of scissors from the library staff so I could personally cut the pages apart so I could read them!)Considering the regular occurrence of 'hob'- spirits in English folklore, I wouldn't be surprised if Tolkien had pulled the term or at least it's inspiration from some half-remembered tale. There are plenty of 'hob'- references in Denham's list alone: Hob-and-lanthorns, Hobby-lanthonrs, hobcross, hobgoblins (twice!), hobhoulards, and hob-thrusts. It's not out of the question that Tolkien was sparked by some kind of 'hob'- as a spirit and ran with it. (I don't have the Letters handy, but I seem to remember Tolkien alluding to something similar.) If he picked it up anywhere, he probably absorbed it in the tales of the 'country folk' of whom both he and Denham were so enarmoured. At worst, Tolkien took a confused and nearly forgotten word and breathed fresh life into it, recovering not just a word, but the whole spirit of the fairy story that may have otherwise been lost.Edit: fixed a quote</blockquote>

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