Editing Hobbit (section)

== Fictional history ==

=== In Rhovanion ===

In their earliest [[fable|folk tales]], hobbits appear to have lived in [[Rhovanion]], in the [[Anduin|Valley of Anduin]], between [[Mirkwood]] and the [[Misty Mountains]]. According to ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', they had lost the genealogical details of how they are related to the [[Man (Middle-earth)|Big People]]. Still, Tolkien clearly states in "Concerning Hobbits" that hobbits are not technically a distinct race from Men, the way that Elves or Dwarves are, but branched off from other humans in the distant past of the Elder Days. Many eons later, but still early in the Third Age, the ancient hobbits lived in the valley of the [[Anduin River]], close by the [[Éothéod]], the ancestors of the Rohirrim. This led to some contact between the two, and as a result many old words and names in "Hobbitish" are derivatives of words in [[Rohirric]] (which Tolkien "translated" into his text by presenting it as Old English).<ref name="Prologue on Hobbits" group=T/>

The Harfoots lived on the lowest slopes of the Misty Mountains in Hobbit-holes dug into the hillsides. They were not only smaller and shorter, but also beard- and bootless. The Stoors lived on the marshy [[Gladden Fields]] where the Gladden River met the Anduin, and were broader and heavier in build; and the Fallohides preferred to live in the woods under the Misty Mountains. They were described as fairer of skin and hair, as well as taller and slimmer than the rest of the hobbits.<ref name="Prologue on Hobbits" group=T/>

=== Migration to the West ===

[[File:Anglo-Saxon Homelands and Settlements.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|The three peoples who founded England included those who came from the Angle between [[Flensburg Fjord]] and the [[Schlei]], from the East (across the [[North Sea]]), hence the name "England". The migrations of these three peoples are reflected in those of the three types of Hobbits.{{sfn|Shippey|2001|pp=198-199}}]]

In the [[History of Arda#Third Age|Third Age]], hobbits undertook the arduous task of crossing the Misty Mountains - a migration period they refer to as the "Wandering Days", the earliest remembered time in their history. Reasons for this trek are unknown, but they possibly had to do with [[Sauron]]'s growing power in nearby Greenwood, which later became known as [[Mirkwood]] as a result of the shadow that fell upon it during his search of the forest for the One Ring. Hobbits took different routes in their journey westward, but as they began to settle together in [[Bree (Middle-earth)|Bree-land]], [[Dunland]], and the Angle formed by the rivers Mitheithel and [[Bruinen]], the divisions between the hobbit-kinds began to blur. Shippey explains that the name "Angle" has a special resonance, as the name "England" comes from the Angle (Anglia) between the [[Flensburg Fjord]] and the [[Schlei|River Schlei]], in the north of Germany next to Denmark, the origin of the [[Angles (people)|Angles]] among the [[Anglo-Saxons]] who founded England. Further, the migrations of the three types of hobbit mirror those of England's founders.{{sfn|Shippey|2001|pp=198-199}}

=== Foundation of the Shire ===

{{further|The Shire}}

In the year 1601 of the Third Age (year 1 in the Shire Reckoning), two Fallohide brothers named Marcho and Blanco gained permission from the King of Arnor at Fornost to cross the [[Baranduin|River Brandywine]] and settle on the other side. The new land that they founded on the west bank of the Brandywine was called The Shire. <ref name="Prologue on Hobbits" group=T/> Many hobbits followed them, and by the end of the Third Age most hobbits outside The Shire could be found in their village of Staddle on the southeastern slopes of Bree-hill. However, some also lived with Men in the village of Bree itself and in nearby Archet and Combe. <ref group="T">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=At the Sign of ''The Prancing Pony''}}</ref>

Originally the hobbits of the Shire [[Feudal allegiance in The Lord of the Rings|swore nominal allegiance to the last Kings of Arnor]], being required only to acknowledge their lordship, speed their messengers, and keep the bridges and roads in repair. During the final fight against [[Angmar]] at the Battle of Fornost, the hobbits maintain that they sent a company of archers to help but this is nowhere else recorded. After the battle, the kingdom of Arnor was destroyed, and in the absence of the king, the hobbits elected a [[Thain (Middle-earth)|Thain]] of the Shire from among their own chieftains.<ref name="Prologue on Hobbits" group=T/>

The first Thain of the Shire was Bucca of the Marish, who founded the Oldbuck family. However, the Oldbuck family later crossed the Brandywine River to create the separate land of Buckland and the family name changed to the familiar "Brandybuck". Their patriarch then became Master of Buckland. With the departure of the Oldbucks/Brandybucks, a new family was selected to have its chieftains be Thain: the Took family (Pippin Took was son of the Thain and would later become Thain himself). The Thain was in charge of Shire Moot and Muster and the Hobbitry-in-Arms, but as the hobbits of the Shire generally led entirely peaceful, uneventful lives the office of Thain came to be seen as something of a formality.<ref name="Prologue on Hobbits" group=T/>

Hobbits first appear in ''The Hobbit'' as the rural people of the Shire; the book tells of the unexpected adventure that happened to one of them, Bilbo, as a party of Dwarves seeks to recover an ancient treasure from the hoard of a dragon. They are again central to ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', an altogether darker tale, where Bilbo's younger cousin Frodo sets out from the Shire to destroy the Ring that Bilbo had brought home.{{sfn|Kocher|1974|pp=22, 29-30}}