Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Races: Hobbits

This post will be divided into three sections to explain how I used a combination of textual evidence, evolutionary theory, and historical fashion to illustrate the three breeds of Hobbits that will serve as my basis for designing future characters. In the first segment, I will discuss the evolutionary theories of the Hybrid-and-Replacement Model, Assimilation Model, and Convergent Evolution, relating these real-world theories about human history to descriptions presented in the first section of the Prologue, “1 Concerning Hobbits”, that appears in The Lord of the Rings: Part One, The Fellowship of the Ring. In the second segment, I review the physical descriptions of Hobbits overtly presented in the text along with making inferences based on this text and The Hobbit. Finally, I will describe the real-world 16^th and 17^th century cultures that inspired the outfits for these characters, including the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and the Sámi.

The Lord of the Rings is a work of fiction, although its author J.R.R. Tolkien would occasionally prank students by telling them his writing was about the true history of ancient Europe. This is emphatically not true. This essay is an exercise in applying evolutionary theory, textual analysis, and fashion research to create a derivative art piece. I am not trying to prove that the events of this book happened.

On the Origin of Hobbits

In the first part of the Prologue, “I Concerning Hobbits”, which I discussed on February 28, the author included descriptions of the original three “breeds” of Hobbits, providing detailed information that has subsequently been ignored by many illustrators, animators, and other adaptations. If the science of Middle-earth works in the same way as the real world, then how did the Hobbits evolve into three distinct groups before they came back together through colonization? I will consider three theories based on those used for human evolution: a hybridization-and-replacement model, an assimilation model, and a convergent model.

Using this framework for the theoretical evolution of the Homo genus in Arda, the fictional world on which Middle-earth is a continent, Hobbits diverged from Men around the First Age. Between then and the Third Age, Hobbits divided into three subspecies and intermarried with smaller variants of the other Races. (As a brief aside, one quirk of Tolkien’s work is the insistence that everyone’s parents were married, even if this seems implausible or the treatment of a character within the narrative implies otherwise. I cannot tell whether this an in-universe narrative choice by the fictional writer, a nod to the Christianization of pagan mythologies, or a product of Tolkien’s own beliefs as a Catholic in the early to mid-20th century.) Tolkien works do include references to variants. Hobbits describe “fairies”, seemingly small elves, in The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring as being relatives of the Took family, which appears to be the only surname used by the elf-like Fallohide Hobbits. The narrator of The Hobbit, likely Bilbo Baggins, mentions a rumor that “long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife”, but also dismissed this as “absurd”. (The Hobbit, 2) Appearing throughout the Tolkien’s legendarium, the petty-dwarfs were a smaller variant of dwarves who lived in the First Age and died out. Since neither of these variants appear in the books portraying the Third Age, the remnants may have been absorbed into the Hobbit populations.

However, the text suggests that this may not be the correct theory. Like the Hybridize-and-Replacement Model, the Assimilation Model also theorizes that Homo sapiens emerged from southern Africa to interbreed with other Homo populations, but over a length of time or at several times. The genes and possibly cultures of the other Homo species assimilated into Homo sapiens until they became one group. The Prologue described Hobbits as living for a prolonged time with Dwarves, Men, and Elves before the migrations, and each breed learned the skills used by each of the Big People.

A third theory, Convergent Evolution, demonstrates that species are not related despite their similarities in appearance but come by equivalent traits evolved from living in the same environment. An extreme case can be seen in the similarities between dolphins and sharks due to their life in the ocean, even though dolphins are mammals and sharks are fish. Convergent evolution occurs between races of Homo sapiens in the real world. For humans, both Europeans and East Asians have lighter skin tones than their African ancestors and contemporary Africans, but a genetic study from 2010 proved that the genes causing a reduction in melanin content are different. Using this theory, Hobbits are not closely related to the Elves and Dwarves despite similarities in physical appearance and temperance. Instead, they developed traits similar to those in Elves and Dwarves by living in the same region as the other Races.

Hobbit Traits by Breed

The differences between hobbit breeds are described when discussing the early Third Age of Middle-earth before the “crossing of the mountains” and then updated to explain how the groups were distinguished after the colonization of the Shire. The description focuses on skin tone, height and weight, size of hands and feet, facial hair, preference for shoes, affiliation with other Races, habitat, and ability to grow facial hair. Additionally, in the chart below, I have added standard eye color based on physical descriptions of characters known to be of a specific breed, or filled in plausible descriptions when they are absent.

	Harfoots	Stoors	Fallohides
Skin Tone	“browner” (3)	No description. Assumed to be “fairer” than Harfoots and “browner” than Fallohides.	“fairer of skin and also of hair” (3)
Height & Weight	“smaller and shorter” (3)	“broader, heavier in build” (3) “large and heavy-legged” (7)	“taller and slimmer” (4)
Size of Hands & Feet	“neat and nimble”(3)	“larger” (3)	No description; presumed to be long and slim.
Facial Hair	“beardless” (3) “No Harfoot… had any trace of a beard.” (7)	“down that many grew on their chins” (7)	“No… Fallohide had any trace of a beard.” (7)
Shoes?	“bootless” (3)	“they wore dwarf-boots in muddy weather” (7)	No description; presumed to be bootless.
Other Races	“much to do with Dwarves” (4)	“more friendly with elves” (4)	“less shy of Men” (4)
Habitat	“highlands and hillsides” (3)	“flatlands and rivers” (3)	“lovers of trees and of woodlands”
Eye Color	“brown” (epithet for Sam’s eyes during descriptions in Frodo’s perspective found throughout The Lord of the Rings)	“blue” (Gollum’s eyes first described by Bilbo in The Hobbit)	No description; maybe yellow or green to match the preferred color of clothing. (2)

For a general description of all Hobbits, they tend to have “thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads which is curly” covering their feet, which are large relative to their bodies, and “long clever brown fingers” (The Hobbit, 2). They are generally depicted as having pointed ears, a fantasy trait that arose in the Victorian Era as people longed for the romanticized world before Industrialization and paintings of fairies in rural settings became a trend. In a case of Tolkien’s ambiguity in writing, Hobbits might be implied to control their ear movement, as “one or two of the Tooks pricked up their ears” (Fellowship, 31) at the long-expected eleventy-first birthday party of Bilbo. While this could be a figure of speech for listening up after not paying attention, descriptions of Bilbo in The Hobbit would support the large, moving ears. He is called a rabbit by trolls (Hobbit, 34) and by an eagle (Hobbit, 112), a bunny by Beorn the bear-man (Hobbit, 130), and a rabbit by himself when shaken by his former companion Thorin, just as the dwarf king calls him a rat (Hobbit, 276). His other rabbit-like trait is stamping (Hobbit, 236), something echoed by Odo Proudfoot after Bilbo’s disappearance from the eleventy-first birthday party (Fellowship, 32), suggesting that this may be a biological or cultural trait rather than a personal one. Because of these rabbit-like or rodent-like traits, I have decided to give my Hobbits large, protruding front teeth found throughout the order Rodentia. I also have large, slightly protruding front teeth, which I find very cute, so I thought it appropriate.

Cultural Inspiration for Hobbit Costume

Since each of the Hobbit breeds are similar to each of the Big People, or taller Races, I have designed costumes to align with the real-world cultures that inspired the fictional cultures and languages. Tolkien reported that Dwarf culture was Semitic or Jewish, the cultures of Men were broadly Western European, and Elven languages were similar to Finnish. I have chosen the 16^th and 17^th century as my time period for costuming, representing the start of exploration and colonization in the real world. At the time of my depiction, the three breeds had developed separate cultures that would converge after the “crossing of the mountains” (The Fellowship of the Ring, 3) and even more with the colonization of the Shire, called 1601 TA or Third Age by Elves and Men but 1 SR or Shire-reckoning by the Hobbits. (Fellowship, 5)

Harfoots

For the Harfoots, I have chosen the Ottoman Empire, a massive country stretching across the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. The empire survived from about 1299 to 1922, peaking with the 16^th century reign of Suleiman the Magnificent and continued to have significant growth and power until the 18^th century. During this time, its territory stretched north into Ukraine and Hungary, south to Sudan and Eritrea, east to Iraq, and west to Algeria, with Greece, Turkey, and Egypt at its center. While the Ottoman Empire kept Islam as its state religion, the country was remarkably tolerant of all beliefs within its borders, including Judaism and Christianity, until the final days of the empire, when it collapsed into genocides and revolts after its defeat during World War I.

Elements of clothing worn by the Harfoots mimic clothing found in the Ottoman Empire. Most important is the layering effect. Ottoman clothing expert Charlotte A. Jirousek has written that “The layers were not merely worn one on top of the other, they were designed and arranged so as to reveal the materials of all the layers, to sumptuous effect.”. I used the many layers of green blouses held together by a thick belt similar to what would tie together a chepken or jacket to create this effect. The hobbit-lad wears şalvar, also called Turkish trousers or harem pants, which are tight at the waist and baggy around the legs. One noticeable departure from traditional şalvar design is where these pants end. Hobbit şalvar end at the knees to create breeches, while real-world şalvar end at the ankles. The hobbit-lass wears a layered skirt and likely has şalvar underneath. Finally, no Ottoman outfit would be complete without a hat. Both hobbits wear turbans, as the popular fez would not enter fashion until the 19^th century.

Stoors

The clothing design of the Stoors Hobbits reflects fashion to the north in Western Europe, especially England and the Netherlands, at the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Era of Exploration and colonization. Throughout Europe, the Protestant Reformation changed religious ideologies, while early industrialization introduced new ways of working. In England, the Tudor Period came to an end after the reign of Elizabeth I, signaling a change in women’s wear. Cartographers of the Netherlands created maps of the known world to improve the trading routes of the Verenigde Oostindische Compangie (VOC) or the Dutch East India Company. This wealth from global trade allowed wealthy merchants to become patrons of the arts, heralding Early Netherlandish or Golden Age painters like Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Antoon van Dyck.

These artists recorded the elaborate costumes of the rich along with everyday wear for working people. For the hobbit-lad, I took inspiration from “Banquet at the Crossbowmen’s Guild in Celebration of the Treaty of Münster” painted by Bartholomeus van der Helst in 1648. He wears a long coat with matching his breeches tucked into his boots, as Stoors are the only Hobbits to wear boots. Underneath the coat is a jerkin or vest made of blue fabric rather than traditional leather. Peeking out from beneath the jerkin and coat is his doublet, a tight-fitting jacket with a high collar. His mustache and goatee combination were a popular facial hair style during the 17^th century and sometimes called the van Dyck for its frequent appearance in paintings by that artist. The hobbit-lass was inspired by “The Milkmaid” painted by Vermeer in 1660. She wears a button-down waistcoat, which is similar to a tight-fitting shirt, on top of a collared shrift. Her petticoat extends nearly to the ground, and an apron lays atop it. On her head is a coif or light bonnet. Both Hobbits carry paddles and are ready for a boat ride as the breed that calls itself the river people.

Fallohides

Since Elven languages are similar to Finnish, or more broadly in the Uralic language group, I investigated the culture of the Sámi. This indigenous people of Europe arrived more recently in their homeland than many other indigenous people around the world. According Arnljot Elgsæter, a part-Sámi biophysics professor from Norway who conducted research on his own DNA, the people now known as Sámi or Saami first arrived in northern Finland from Siberia around three thousand years ago, with a form of their language recognizable as Sámi developing about two thousand years ago. These Iron Age immigrant communities merged with the local Scandinavian Stone Age population, who had first arrived 12,000 years ago. Many Sámi maintain their culture of nomadic reindeer herding and fishing to the present day. Sámi spiritual beliefs, known as shamanism, coexisted with the Christianity of Swedish and Danish neighbors until intense persecution began in the 17^th century.

Fallohide clothing is inspired on a traditional Sámi outfit called the gákti. Bands of color circle the neck, wrist, hem, and ankles. According to the cultural organization Pacific Sámi Searvi, Sámi would historically be able to identify a person’s ancestry based on the design of their gákti, similar to tartans in Celtic tradition. Because of the cultural importance to the design, the blue-and-red traditional gákti are only worn by Sámi. The variation worn by the hobbits is yellow and green, known to be their favorite colors (Fellowship, 2).

Conclusion

Much information about the Hobbits can be gleaned through reading the text of The Lord of the Rings and other works of Tolkien, but some interpretation is left to additional research and imagination. These depictions are one presentation based on my own knowledge and artistic ability. I hope my thorough investigation on what Hobbits might look like has laid a solid foundation for future character design and will encourage other artists to create their own variations of the characters.

Past Installments

Read past installments of Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical

• New Project Announcement
• Introduction by Peter S. Beagle
• Foreword by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Introduction to the History of Animation
• Prologue, 1 Concerning Hobbits
• Introduction to Maps