The origin of halflings

[Ithaeliel]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I didn't find anything on it in the search.

Where, when and by what means did the halflings awaken in the world? Since they were not of the Children of Iluvatar, were they created by one of the Valar, like the dwarves were by Aule? Is there any record of their origin in any of Tolkien's works? There is no mention of it in the Lord of the Rings or the Silmarillion, so to me it is a mystery.

[*Varda*]

In my copy of LotR there's a prologue at the beginning with some information on hobbits. I'm not sure whether it's written by Tolkien himself though but it appears to be.

The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the Elder days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the elves still preserve any records of that vanished time, and their traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own history, in which Men appear seldom and Hobbits are not mentioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietly in Middle Earth for many long years before other folk became even aware of them.

Of their original home the Hobbits in Bilbo's time preserved no knowledge

It would appear that even Tolkien himself had little knowledge of where the hobbits came from.

[Belin]

If anyone's interested in reading the old thread about this, I did manage to find it here...
I knew I remembered this from somewhere.

Hope this is helpful.

--Belin Ibaimendi

[Ithaeliel]

Wow! That was interesting and insightful! Thank you Belin, I'd never have thought there was so much to know about hobbits. Dee-lightful! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Aule]

I think it was said somewhere in unfinished tales that Hobbits might be related to Men but split away from them. I don't think it says aywhere that they are not children of illuvatar.
I read an interesting idea somwhere sayng that the Hobbits were a secret weapon of Eru.
Delibrately made small and insignificant so that they would be overlooked by the enemy and could therefore in the very end surprise him.
This wasn't stated anywhere by tolkien or christopher tolkien but was just a theory i read on one of the websites

[Arathiriel]

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I read an interesting idea somwhere sayng that the Hobbits were a secret weapon of Eru. Delibrately made small and insignificant so that they would be overlooked by the enemy and could therefore in the very end surprise him.

You know I wouldn't be surprised if Eru did purposely create the Hobbits small and appear to be insignificant in the scheme of things because I know for a fact God DOES use people who are considered small or insignificant in our own world for His purposes! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]