Hobbits: An (Almost) Complete Guide

the Lord of the Rings has a lot going for it elves and Orcs magic and wizards and yet if you ask folks what resonates with them emotionally in the story it's likely that their answer won't have a lot to do with all that flash and show instead they'll probably mention the hobbits whether it's Sam carrying Frodo up the side of Mount Doom or all of the kingdoms of the world bowing down to four humble shirelings the heart and soul of The Lord of the Rings lies in its most unique creations Hobbits Hobbits are a fascinating addition to the Lord of the Rings mostly because they don't fit in within this High fantasy epic tolken weasel in characters that are neither very fantasy or epic although they could occasionally be categorized as high today we are going to talk all about Hobbits their creation the way tolken builds them in the text their role at the center of the narrative in order to examine why it all begins and ends with a hole in the ground and a hobbit most of token's creatures aren't really true inventions instead they have Mythic precedents pulled from Norse or Germanic myth and then adjusted to better fit token's world this was done quite intentionally as tolken wanted his world to be a rewriting and a crystallization of the scattered myths of pre-christian and Medieval Europe but the idea of The Hobbit as tolken wrote it is very original to him I actually caught some flak last time I discussed this in a video because I said that tolking for all intents and purposes invented Hobbits but I am going to stand by that statement you see the only written record of the word Hobbit before tolk's time comes from one place and that is the denim tracts a series of folklore pamphlets from the mid 1800s Hobbit appears just once in a list of nearly 200 creatures including goblins fairies and other spirits and it's just that just a name no explanation of what or who a hobbit is but we don't have any evidence that tolken ever read the denim tracts that doesn't rule out the possibility of course it's possible that he read it and simply forgot everything about it except for the word Hobbit but tolken wrote down a lot of what he read that was something that was relatively well documented and he never listed the Dunham tracks by name there's also the fact that even if he had ripped the name out of the denim tracks the only only information about them that the denim tra gives us is that they are on a list with other Spirits Hobbits are by Nature not Spirits they're the most grounded of all of token's races and I would argue the most human so even if tolken happened to have read the dam tracks entirely forgotten their existence and then used the name inadvertently the connection would be in name alone thus for all intents and purposes he invented Hobbits and the name likely just sprung out of the linguistic soup of tolk's mind the prefix hob is probably most recognizably seen as a prefix as in hob goblins and it denotes that these hob goblins as opposed to regular goblins are more mischievous than malicious so the short humble Hobbits of tolk's land are also probably meant to be harmless there's also a notable sound similarity between hobit and rabbit although tolken did deny this connection at certain points still though for English speakers at least this bit end to the word implies something that is small and fast and lives in holes which is quite applicable to Hobbits and of course there was the explanation that tolken offered long after the word had been invented he reverse engineered it to be a mashup of the Old English word whole which means whole and biton which means to dwell in thus his hit Hobbits are those who dwell in the ground either way it's clear that this is is not a word that he pulled out of thin air or out of a fantasy name generator the roots of the English language which tolken had a keen grasp on infused this name imbuing it with importance that even tolken wasn't aware of when he first discovered it and indeed it seems that the invention of this word was a surprise to all involved all I remember about the start of The Hobbit is sitting correcting School certificate papers in the Everlasting weariness of that annual task forced on impecunious academics with children on a blank Leaf I scrawled in a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit I did not and do not know why from that point onward he Dives head first into his first Middle Earth entry The Hobbit and The Book of course opens with the iconic line in a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit just as Toki noticed when he first wrote it down this opening line begs a lot of questions what is a hobbit why is it living in a hole following this line of questioning talking begins to explain that it's not a a dirty hole you know filled with worms and sand like a badger hole or even damp and uncomfortable like so many man-made tunnels it was a hobbit hole and that means Comfort the next paragraph goes on to describe every detail about this house from the color of the round front door to the location of the dining room the first thing that tolken sees fit to describe about a hobbit is when where he lives his house is built out as a warm comfortable place the kind of home where dust has had time to settle between trinkets the kind of place where the coat hooks and the coats have matching worn spots it is a home that's been well- lived in the next thing he must describe is the social standing of the family that owns the house who he finally identifies as the baggin he says that people considered them very respectable not only because most of them were rich but also also because they never had any Adventures or did anything unexpected as much as this passage brilliantly introduces the bagin family it also tells us a lot about hobbit Society for Hobbits there are two roads to respectability first off being rich which seems like a bit of a given and second of all being a homebody being predictable this is a people who much like their homes thrive on certainty and routine the type of people that value weal not for Pump and Circumstance but for the way that it allows you to create a perfectly consistent life thus before tolken has ever gotten around to defining what a hobbit actually is we've got a pretty good idea they have thoroughly lived in homes and very particular ideas about what it means to be respectable tolken then goes on to finally answer the question what is a hobbit I suppose Hobbits need some description nowadays since they have become some rare and shy of big people as they call us they are or were little people about half our height and smaller than the bearded dwarves there is little or no magic about them except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly they are inclined to be fat in the stomach they dress in bright colors chiefly green and yellow wear no shoes because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads which is Curly have long clever Brown fingers good-natured faces and deep fruity laughs especially after dinner which they have twice a day when they can get it now you know enough to go on with I had to abridge that slightly but it really is a Marvel in storytelling everything from insinuating that once upon a time Hobbits wouldn't have needed an introduction like this to lingering on details like the color of their clothes or the shape and color of their hands it paints a rich portrait about what Hobbits are and what their priorities are it is in fact quite enough to go on with finally with The Hobbit race shaped out from their homes to their societies to the hairiness of their feet tolken introduces us to Bilbo baggin The Hobbit himself because of the way he structures this introduction we are led to see Bilbo baggin the first introduced Hobbit as The Hobbit the encompassment of all of these described qualities a couple of other noteworthy qualities are identified in this first chapter so we'll just go over those when setting the scene of the Shire tolken describes there was less noise and more green and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous this implies an inherent connection between Hobbits and nature and quiet one of the themes that comes up in token's works a lot is the natural world and this idea of the untouched pastoral English Countryside that was corrupted by the industrial reol Evolution Hobbits seem to almost be a personification of this idea by including less noise and more green in the same line as numerous and prosperous Hobbits we come to connect the two and when Hobbits are going to dwindle so will the natural world as Bilbo's unexpected guests arrive we begin to see what happens to a hobbit when you introduce them to conflict after a few strangers have barged into his house and started eating from his Pantry with very little introduction Bilbo's response is quite predictably hobitti is he liked visitors but he liked to know them before they arrive and he preferred to ask them himself tolken uses really mild words like preferred and liked as if Bilbo in his own mind is trying to talk himself down as he goes He describes the scene as the most awkward Wednesday he's ever had when awkward seems frankly like a bit of an understatement Bilbo is left trying to look as if this was all perfectly ordinary and not in the least an adventure their talking gives us the motive earlier he established that Adventure is seen as unseemly for polite Hobbit Society so now with 13 dwarves barging unexpectedly into his home Bilbo is left desperately trying to downplay the whole situation anything he can do to avoid the implication that this could be an adventure and yet we come to learn that this is primarily a facade as the dwarfs sing about their lost Homeland The Hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by Magic moving through him something tukish woke up inside him and he wished to go see the great mountains and hear the pine trees and waterfalls and explore the caves and wear a sword instead of a walking stick there's something inside Bilbo this tukish side that thus far has only been fed with books and and adventure stories that longs to leave home and see the wide world he tries to shut this down to shrug back on the guise of respectability but once that spark has been lit it's very hard to extinguish gandal who's known Bilbo for some time sees this emper and blows it into a fire saying to the dwarves there is a lot more in him than you guess and a deal more than he has any idea of himself Gandalf and Bilbo at least some subconsciously understand that there is something very special about taking a hobbit away from his home token also knew this although he was a bit reluctant to explore the idea in his letters tolken professes a love for his Hobbits and a strong desire to Simply write about them at rest eating drinking smoking by the fire telling their stories it was his friend the author CS Lewis who reigned him in a little bit reminding him that Hobbits are only amusing when in un hobbit-like situations by putting these creatures of familiarity and routine into unfamiliar circumstances were able to discern their true value throughout the tale Bilbo proves that there's a lot more to Hobbits than cozy homes and stuffy manners he's light on his feet silver tonged clever and most importantly deeply empathetic it was empathy I think that first pulled Bilbo from his Cozy home the dwarves unlike him had no home and he pied them when he sees Gollum in the caves slaving cold and alone he doesn't kill him even when he has the chance a sudden understanding a Pity mixed with horror welled up in Bilbo's heart a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment neither Gollum nor the dwarves have had the Cozy comfort that Bilbo has been privy to his entire life and he pies them for that in the end even the dwarves come around to recognize these qualities in Bilbo he is strong not in spite of his stubborn hobitti nature but because of it on his deathbed the dwarf King Thoren tells Bilbo there is more in you of good than you know child of the West some courage and some wisdom Blended in measure if more of us valued food and cheer and song Above hoarded gold it would be a merrier World toi never demands that Hobbits be anything other than Hobbits though epic quests revolve around them they will never be epic Heroes even in the end though Bilbo has grown immensely as a character he's not greatly changed so comes snow after fire and even dragons have their endings said Bilbo and he turned his back on his Adventure the tukish part was getting very tired and the baggin was daily getting stronger I wish now only to be in my armchair he said although The Hobbit introduces us marvelously to the species it's in The Lord of the Rings that Hobbits really come into their own it's here that we see their importance as every man characters as the world of Middle Earth grew in its Cosmic scale it was Hobbits that kept it grounded I myself saw the value of Hobbits in putting Earth under the feet of romance and in providing subjects for ennoblement and heroes more praiseworthy than the professionals Hobbits are the eyes which we see this story through the relatable characters who allow us to go along with this journey it's very important then that their motives stay pettish when Gandalf introduces Frodo to the evil that's creeping into the world the Millennia of stories and myth that are now now circling in on Frodo he doesn't go on this quest for any Noble reasons there's no prophecy he's not the chosen one it's pretty much by accident that it gets put on his plate for him to step up and he leaves not ready to achieve Glory or fame but for the sake of his home I should like to save the Shire if I could I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind safe and comfortable I shall find Wandering more bearable I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold even if my feet cannot stand there again froto and his friends never seem to lose this sense of home this pettishness with empathy care stubbornness and honesty they show even the greatest Kings of the land their worth none of the hobbits are more exemplary of this than Sam tolkin believes him to be the best representative of Hobbit kind primarily due to his entirely unfounded confidence he described Sam as possessing a mental myopia which is proud of itself a smugness in varying degrees and shess and a Readiness to measure and sum up all things from a limited experience it's this smugness this utter shess in his own path and his own goals that gives him the strength to carry froto up Mount Doom and save Middle Earth by the time their Quest is complete the hits have gained a very particular sort of renown at Aragorn's coronation there are Whispers of the pin the halflings small but incredibly Valiant soldiers from another land Against All Odds this people who had essentially been lost in history and time before this had made a name for themselves it's proof of token's idea that we are here surviving because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against imp possible odds and yet despite all of this Glory the hobbits seem ill at ease in these Noble far off lands even once the dust of war has settled when froto comes to speak to the new king Aragorn he says I know what you have come to say Frodo you wish to return to your own home well dearest friend the tree grows best from the land of its sers but for you in all the lands of the West there will ever be a welcome and though your people have had little Fame in the Legends of the great they will now have more Renown than any wide Realms that are no more the hobbits then return home but despite their finest Wishes the battle is not over yet they've proven themselves in the Realms of men elves and dwarves but now the time has come to save the Shire to prove themselves Heroes to Hobbit kind Saron has taken over the Shire in their absence and though they ask for Gandalf's help he simply tells them you must must settle its Affairs yourselves that is what you have been trained for and indeed it seems this training has paid off Mary and Pippen rally The Hobbit troops driving out Saron and his cronies cleansing the Shire Saron is killed and thanks to the four Hobbit Heroes the Shire is once again safe and sound for Frodo however home could never quite be the same he had been wounded terribly along his journey by blades and the weight of the ring and Arwin had had offered him an escape her place upon one of the last boats leaving Middle Earth for valinor the undying lands after he certain the Shire is safe and settled froto decides to take this chance and leave thus although froto left the Shire holding on to it as the platonic ideal of Home Sam is the one who ends up making that final return Journey at last they rode over the downs and took the East Road and then Mary and Pippen rode on to Buckland and already they were singing again again as they went but Sam turned to BU water and so came back up the hill as day was ending once more and he went on and there was yellow light and Fire Within and the evening meal was ready and he was expected and Rose Drew him in and set him in his chair and put little Eleanor upon his lap he drew a deep breath well I'm back he said there and back again it's not just a cute little subtitle it is the core of the hobbits story arc they needed to go there in order to make the back again matter this story wasn't just an invention it was a distillation of token's own experiences he admitted once that I am in fact a hobbit in all but size he too was called unwillingly from his home to a terrible ordeal fighting in the trenches of the first world war including the battle of the P he too then returned to a home that was familiar and yet different many have observed the fascinating fact that all of token's greatest most accomplished writing occurred after his great adventures his biographer Humphrey Carpenter summarizes this part of his life saying that after all of the adventure action and drama of his youth you might say nothing else really happened in his adult life tolken didn't travel he didn't try new foods the most exciting thing that happened to him on a weekly basis was trying out a slightly more colorful waste coat but it is in this peace and quiet that he was able to reflect back on the journeys that he had taken and turn them into magic if he hadn't left home he never would have learned what made home so special just like the hobbits he needed to go there in order to be back again and since Hobbits are the entry point from which we the audience are meant to experience this story it means that all of us are a little bit like Hobbits the story reminds us that it is our humility our compassion our unfounded confidence our hobitti isness that makes us capable of great deeds in our stories we see Heroes we see gods and wizards Mighty Men and Magic but tolken reminds us that the real magic is the everyday sort the real magic is going there and getting to come back again this touch grounds the Lord of the Rings in a profound way without it I think the Epic may have gotten lost in the stratosphere of magic and mythical worldbuilding but tolken placed himself he placed us at the sole and center of his story a gentle reminder that sometimes all you need to do is step onto that road after all there's no telling where you might be swept off to it may be controversial but I think that Bilbo might be my favorite Hobbit Sam is great of course but there's something about Middle Earth in The Hobbit the lightness of the world that really allows his hobbi isness if that's a word to shine through but let me know in the comments which of the hobbits is your favorite this is my last video before the new year and also my last video for the next 2 weeks I'm taking an extended break to catch up on some reading and get ready for some larger videos but I will be back January 19th with my weekly uploads if you want to stay up to date with me over those weeks I will be around on my patreon Discord just chatting about stuff and giving occasional updates so if you're interested in that it's linked in the description subscribe if you want to catch all of my videos and like this video If you enjoyed it it has been a crazy fantastic year and I so so glad I got to share it with all of you so happy New Year and I hope you have a truly happy hoby [Music] day [Music]

Channel: Jess of the Shire

Views: 48,185

Keywords: lotr, lord of the rings, tolkien, the hobbit, hobbits, hobbitcore

Id: vmzzymcb8Yc

Length: 23min 15sec (1395 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2023