Warrior Hobbits?

[Eönwë]

Well, this hasbeen puzzling me ever since I read the hobbit. Did we just meet te hobbits at a peaceful time, or were they always that way?

Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took led the hobbits against the orcs at Mt Gram, and (if yoou thought hobbits were peaceful) knocked off the leader, Golfimbul's head with a club (and it then fell into a rabbit hole, and was meant to have inspired golf. Note: Golfimbal). That was one of the major battles, but still, where do all these weapons come from (and it was only around 300 years before the war of the ring, and hobbits live longer than us). And in the Fell Winter, wolves came, the hobbits must have had self-defence. And in the Battle of Bywater ("Scouring of the shire" ROTK, LOTR), where did all the bows and arrows (not to mention other weapons) come from? They must have been made recently, if you think about it, because wood rots.

They are meant to be descended from Druedain, who are, by the thirs age, a very-warrior like people, and Tolkien is a great fan of giving people ancestral fates and features (except with the whole Aragorn-Isildur thing). For example, even with hobbits, they are like the Druedain because of their love of nature and because of how quiet they can be, so why not inherit their ways of war.

So obviously, hobbits are not as simple (and petty) and peaceful as Tolien led us to believe.

[Elmo]

They are not descended from the Druedain! Read Unfinished Tales! Also they did hunt which would explain the bows and arrows.

[Selmo]

The Shire sent a Company of archers to fight for the King in the last defence of Arnor against the forces of Angmar. None returned. ( From the Tale of Years in the appendices to LoTR).

In peacetime, Hobbits maintained their martial skills through sport, especially in archery. (From the prologue to LoTR - Concerning Hobbits).

In The Hobbit, Bilbo demonstrates his skill with stones and sword against the spiders of Mirkwood.

The Hobbits of the Fellowship showed that they had some training in swordsmanship (or should that be swordshobbitship?) when they successfully defended themselves against orcs in Moria.

In the last chapters of LoTR we see that Hobbits in The Shire and in Bree could fight and win (and die) when pushed.

It seems that throughout their history, Hobbits practiced the arts of war and could use them when needed, though they had little liking for them and never fought amongst themselves.
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[Estelyn Telcontar]

"Concerning Hobbits" (Prologue to LotR) gives some very good information on this topic. I'd like to quote a few phrases from the passage that pertains to war and weaponry:

...they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth...

They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it.

At no time (my emphasis) had Hobbits of any kind been warlike, and they had never fought among themselves. In olden days they had, of course, been often obliged to fight to maintain themselves in a hard world...

...though there was still some store of weapons in the Shire, these were used mostly as trophies, hanging above hearths or on walls, or gathered into the museum at Michel Delving.

They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark.

The Hobbits are in many ways child-like, protected from harm most of the time. They have no quarrels among themselves and with others only when attacked from without. Actually, I think they are not like real children in that respect - most children are not always peaceful!!

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Elmo

Read Unfinished Tales!

I have. I would show a quote if i still had it. Maybe some time in the near future?