Hobbits

[Strange-Looking Lurker]

I'm kinda confused about where hobbits came from. Who made them? I've seen nothing about it in the three books I've read (Hobbit, LOTR, and Sim). Anybody know the answer?

[Varda]

Hobbits "evolved" or something similar from men or so I have been told. I'm sure others have much more detailed answers, but that's the gist of it.

[Ñólendil]

True. They're a diminutive Race of Man according to Tolkien. We don't know exactly when or how they began, but at one time they were evidently no different from us.

[Comic Book Guy]

So when was the watershed when a man became a hobbit? Was the change over a lot of years or was it a sudden thing?

Also what happens to the Hobbits when they die? Beyond the circles of the earth like all men?

[Ñólendil]

As for death, I see no reason why they wouldn't have the same fate as the Big People.

[Darth Tater]

Um, one doesn't need to know much about Tolkien to know he didn't believe in evolution. Though he may have believed in change within species (many churches accept that, I know I do), I think he probably assumed that the race of hobbits started out different, but were created with men, maybe as an afterthought, or maybe as part of the creators greater plan, considering the important role they played in earths history.

[Darth Tater]

Um, one doesn't need to know much about Tolkien to know he didn't believe in evolution. Though he may have believed in change within species (many churches accept that, I know I do), I think he probably assumed that the race of hobbits started out different, but were created with men, maybe as an afterthought, or maybe as part of the creators greater plan, considering the important role they played in earths history.

[Bregalad]

If Gollum was from an earlier race of hobbits, then that suggests that Hobbits have at least been around for a while, and also that they have done some adapting whithin the race. I suppose I always thought that they have been around as long as men have, and they were simply forgotten, or at least not considered "newsworthy" since they stick to the Shire and mind their own business.

[Ñólendil]

Um, one doesn't need to know much about Tolkien to know he didn't believe in evolution.

I wonder. Are we to think he did not believe the Earth rotated around the Earth, because of his mythos? But when Tolkien was trying to make his legendarium more in accord with what we 'know' about the world today, he pushed the beginning of Men far back enough so as to accomodate what scientists believe about our beginnings. Maybe he did believe in evolution, though it at least seems unlikely. Certainly we shouldn't think Hobbits evolved. Someone brought up 'natural selection' as a possible way whereby the Hobbits could branch off from the Big Folk. I'm still not quite familiar with the notion, I've forgotten. I don't have the mind for that sort of thing, not my subject.

[Strange-Looking Lurker]

Changes within a species is not evolution. Evolution is where one species changes into another. It seems to me that Hobbits were close enough to men that they were not in fact a seperate species: they were just a variation. In that respect, it is possible that that may have just merged back into the Big People's variety. However, considering what is said at the beggining of the Hobbit, it seems that this is not the case.

[Wayfarer]

Hobbits prolly branched off like most of the other races.

After all, when was the last time you heard anyone asking when blacks or latinos or aisans 'evolved'?

Actually, they could have easily been similar to midgets. Or even just short fat people. I've met enough of those.

In any case, I believe that hobbits are nothing less than a hybrid of elf and dwarf.

[Ñólendil]

You're joking, right?