Me personally, I think they were a secret creation from either Yavanna, Vana, or Nessa, with aid from Eru.
What do you think?
Me personally, I think they were a secret creation from either Yavanna, Vana, or Nessa, with aid from Eru.
What do you think?
I mean like the orcs were *bred* by melkor maybe the hobbits just appeared idk I think it's like tom bombadil it's better without clear answer
You do know the Valar created the dwarves and ents, right?
@Fandyllic Well the dwarves didn’t have any life until Eru gave it to them and the ents are a modification of trees just like the orcs are a modification of elves
Tolkien strongly implied they were an offshoot of Men in the Prologue to LOTR, though never explicitly confirmed that.
Personally I sort of wonder if they were directly created by Eru himself after things started going to shite in Arda, perhaps in the Second or even Third Age. Perhaps he created them the way they were so Sauron or other forces of evil would not take notice of them, yet he knew they would play a huge role in overcoming evil in Middle-Earth. If that’s the case that could explain why hobbits aren’t mentioned at all in the Silmarillion, which mentions pretty much every over race and it’s origins as far as I’m aware.
^ Not a bad theory.
@The Daedric Prince of Madness Eru gve life to all things... the topic is about creation. Eru did not create dwarves or ents, but he wouldn't have given them life if they didn't exist. Orcs are a corruption of elves, but elves already had sentience. The same can't be said of trees.
I think they are most likely a subspecies of Men.
Did the Valar have anything to do with their creation? Maybe there was a Vala with the power to manipulate the genetic code of organisms, make them immune to diseases or give them hairier feet for the kicks or idk.
But it's unlikely the Valar actually made them, like Aule and the dwarves, since an event this significant (what with Eru having to give them true consciousness or free will or whatever) would have been mentioned in the lore.
It's probable they were a small clan of men whose habitat influenced their appearance and behavior over time. The area's landscape (including possible isolation or lack of access), prey and predators, wacky spirits or creatures nearby, all could have played a role in the evolution of their distinct 'clan'.
(This is a side ting but in biological taxonomy, the equivalent to the word clan would be a clade, a branching off in the evolution of species.)
We can find support for this in the lore: The Hobbits were 'discovered' in Vales of Anduin, valleys that lie between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains, and only later started migrating to other areas. So they were isolated for a time.
And all kinds of stuff could have happened in the fertile valleys of Anduin...the dwarves lived in the Misty Mountains and some curious ones could have mingled with the Men who farmed or herded nearby, and their offspring also mingled here and there over time until the Hobbit picture came together. And Men actually do it with the elves sometimes so interracial was kinda cool.
It makes sense then that Hobbits have the 'Gift of Men', since they in fact are men. Even more accurately, they were described by Tolkien as an offshoot according to the Daedric Prince of Madness (much obliged). So they probably originated or developed from men.
Here be very good read:
As good as the read may be, that article is tagged with: The descriptive majority of this article's text is unsourced,
@Fandyllic So? That article doesn't have anything to do with my main points- it talks about the Gift of Men in general and explains nothing about what the Hobbits' origins are.
I just read it and enjoyed the theological discussion, and after finishing it saw this post, so I referenced it.
Well, if you are trying to use it as a point, it should at least be sourced, even if only a little. I enjoyed the article too, but I reserve some skepticism, because it is unsourced.
What do you think?