Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Characters: Shire Hobbits of the Fourth Age

While I previously discussed the appearances of upper class hobbit-lasses from the Shire at the beginning of the Fourth Age during my article about Elanor Gardner Fairbairn, I wanted to expand upon this explanation to include more Shire Hobbits from this time who would appear in the framing device. The opening scene of the hypothetical animated musical would occur during Shire Reckoning (S.R.) 1482 on the day after Mid-Summer and feature a diverse gathering of hobbits. Their clothing style would reflect real-world fashion from the 1890s in Western Europe and North America, while their physical appearances or phenotypes would follow the descriptions first presented in the “Prologue: 1 Concerning Hobbits”, and further explained below. As a leading scholar of medieval studies, Tolkien must have been well-acquainted with the variety of cultures living in Europe throughout its history, and I believe The Lord of the Rings paralleled his interpretation of real-world people and events.

A group of four hobbit-lads wearing 1890s clothing

A group of three hobbit-lasses wearing Victorian Era mourning dresses

Diversity in Medieval & Post-Medieval Europe

As I have emphasized throughout this essay series and will continue to harp upon for many posts to come, Europe is and has always been the home to a diverse array of cultures. According to a decently cited article hosted by the Barony of Northkeep, formerly the Shire of Northkeep, people found in Medieval Europe included Central Asian Buddhists; Scandinavian Vikings; Muslims from Arabia, the Ottoman Empire, and North Africa; pantheist Greeks and Romans; several sects of Jews; and multiple branches of Christians. In the post-Medieval period, European colonization meant expanding contact to people from North and South America, the Arctic, and coastal Africa. By the 16^th century, most Western Europeans would have possessed a basic understanding of other peoples around the globe. As an aside, the host site for this article is part of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group of researchers specializing in reenactment of pre-17^th century cultures. While the Northkeep chapter is based in Tulsa, OK, clubs are found throughout the world; Worcester County, MA is apparently known as the Shire of Quintavia in the East Kingdom.

Besides being a diverse society, social hierarchy in medieval Europe was not dictated strictly by race; in fact, modern social constructs of race did not yet exist. An essay by historical costume designer Harlie Des Roches for Fashion History Timeline explained that people who would now be considered racially Black lived in Europe since the Roman Empire. During the Tudor era in England, which lasted between 1485 and 1603, high ranking individuals with African ancestry included John Blanke the professional trumpeter at the Court of Henry VII, Reasonable Blackman the silk textile manufacturer who also wins “best name” for this post, and head salvage diver Jacques Francis who testified in court in defense of his employer.

Today, an increasing number of organizations are dedicated to rediscovering the stories of all people who lived in Europe. Historic England researches diversity in England with a focus on the transatlantic slave trade, while the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) concentrates on the stories of people who lived in rural areas, both Anglo-Saxon and Celtic people traditionally understood to inhabit the British Isles and Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic people, sometimes referred to by the acronym BAME. (In the United States, modern scholars use the similar term BIPOC meaning Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.) Locally focused groups such as Black Voices Cornwall or Levow du Kernow and Cornwall Archives or Kresen Kernow strive to teach people about the many cultures in this county, from revitalizing Celtic languages once suppressed by Anglo-Saxon political leaders to welcoming newly immigrated people from around the world.

Hobbit Phenotypes

I have previously used the word “phenotype” to describe physical appearance, including the potential for Frodo to have a Scandinavian phenotype as discussed in “Races: Men, Part 2” and the use of caricatures mocking common phenotypes of Semitic people in “Races: Dwarves”. While phenotypes of the three ancient hobbit “breeds” prior to the settlement of the Shire were thoroughly described in the original text, the appearance of hobbits at the time of the main text and the framing device were more vague. While the average hobbit is a “stout little fellow with red cheeks”, as told to Barleyman Butterbur by Gandalf (The Fellowship of the Ring, 189), their appearance should have varied widely, much more than most traditional illustrators depict them.

Hobbits were unique among the peoples of Middle-earth for their curly hair. The hair of Elves, Dúnedain, and Middle Men was implied to be straight, while Dwarves seemed to braid their curly hair. As a person with slightly wavy hair, I did not know much about other hair types until I listened to the 99 Percent Invisible podcast episode “The Hair Chart” in 2018. This audio story described the Andre Walker Hair Typing System designed by award-winning American hairstylist Andre Walker who is best known for his work with Oprah Winfrey. His chart classified hair into four levels of curliness and two or three subtypes depending on coarseness or thickness. My hair is likely classified as 2a, meaning that it is slightly wavy with thin strands. Hobbit hair is implied to be 2C, 3A, or 3B, which ranges from frizzy to curly.

This system is a great starting point for understanding how to appropriately describe and care for different hair types, as Walker created his system in order to sell hair care products. Unfortunately, some detractors believe his system added to racism surrounding hair. From the time of the transatlantic slave trade, Western Europeans derided Black people for their natural hair texture. Some places even passed laws prohibiting curly hair from being seen in public. For Spanish Louisiana in 1786, when the area had changed hands from France to Spain and would soon be sold to the young United States, Governor Don Estevan Miró passed a law forcing all women with African heritage to wear a scarf over their hair. This ruling was known as tignon law, from a French word meaning “well-curled hair”, and emphasized that some ancestors of these women had been enslaved. Not to be deterred by unfair laws, women turned the hair wraps into fashion statements by adding jewels and feathers, and the trend can still be seen today.

Across the water in South Africa, children who attended school during apartheid between 1948 and the early 1990s underwent a “pencil test”. Adults placed pencils in the hair of children and forced them to shake their heads; if the pencils stuck, the children were classified as “Coloured” or “Black” and faced discrimination. Confusingly, because of the diverse ancestry of many South African people, members of the same family could be classified into different categories.

Besides varying textures of hair, both Hobbits and people in the Real World have a range of hair colors. While hair color and skin color are often imagined to be linked, these traits are actually controlled by different genes. Northern Europeans are commonly recognized as carrying a genetic mutation that causes lighter hair colors or less pigmentation. However, approximately 10% of people from the Solomon Island in the South Pacific Ocean have light hair, while the entire population has “the darkest skin pigmentation outside of Africa”. Genetic testing revealed that 26% of the population carries the TYRP1 gene causing the mutation. Scientists and historians collaborated to determine that the ancestors of Solomon Island people and their closest relatives, other people of Melanesia, left Africa up to 40,000 years ago and settled in the present area around 25,000 years ago. The island lifestyle of these people kept them isolated from other groups and accounts for this unique mutation.

Similarly, the genes for eye color and skin tone are not linked, although people may imagine that those with lighter skin will also have lighter eyes. In fact, lighter eye pigmentation evolved before lighter skin pigmentation, as confirmed during a genetic study on 17,000-year-old infant human remains conducted in 2024: the baby “likely had brown skin, curly dark hair, and blue eyes”. This study proved that what modern people would consider an atypical or impossible phenotype was plausible or even common in ancient people.

My final Hobbit phenotype concept comes from descriptions of the text and attempts to decipher the single drawing of Bilbo created by Tolkien. Hobbits self-describe as having “brown hands” in the case of Sam or “long clever brown fingers” for Bilbo (The Hobbit, 2) and other “average” Hobbits. While I personally believe this points to some Hobbits being people of color, the traditional depictions of the characters are against me. Another explanation for this trait is point colorism, also known as acromelanism, where the coldest parts of the body such as hands, feet, and face have more pigmentation than warmer parts of the body. Domesticated animals like cats, rodents, and livestock have been bred to exhibit extreme point colorism because people think it looks cute. As for other people in Middle-earth who might share this trait, I last discussed acromelanism in my “Races: Orcs” essay, as the darker skin tone on the hands, feet, and face emphasized their “undeadness”. Since characters within the text exhibit confusion over whether Hobbits are orcs, a similar skin coloration would explain some of this confusion.

Fashion of the Gay 90s

Tolkien was born in 1892, and the fashion of this time may have influenced his apparent love of natty three-piece suits in addition to the description of clothing found throughout the text. The 1890s were called the Gay Nineties in America and the Naughty Nineties in England, similar to how the 1920s were called the Roaring Twenties. In fact, nostalgic authors like Edith Wharton (whose mansion, The Mount, I visited in 2023) popularized the Gay Nineties term during the Roaring Twenties. As a linguistic note, the word “gay” came into English during the late 14^th century and always had a split meaning, either synonymous with joyful, merry, and happy or lewd and promiscuous. The phrase “Gay 90s” was a blend of these two meanings as young people had a good time while rejecting the conservative norms of the Victorian Era. The seemingly more modern meaning of “male homosexuality” or more broadly “member of the LGBTQIA+ community” began in the United States during the Roaring Twenties and became mainstream by the 1950s.

I already showed the clothing for upper class women of this period during my prototypes for Elanor. A version of Queen Victoria’s mourning dress would be appropriate for other hobbit-lasses at the wake. Upper class men’s clothing was not much different than the formal clothing of today. They often wore three-piece suits with frock coats, starched shirts, and pants or knee-breeches. Head gear was a must, with some of the most popular hats including fedoras or homburgs, straw boater hats, fabric newsboy caps, top hats, and bowler or derby hats. Men liked to walk with fancy canes as a fashion statement rather than a mobility aid. As for colors, grey, black and dark brown were popular for coats, in contrast with the green or yellow tinge for hobbit-clothes. Upper class children were equally fashionable as they dressed similarly to their parents, although little girls had shorter skirts, while little boys had knickerbockers buckled below the knee. Hobbits would likely wear outfits more similar to real-world children than adults.

Modern photograph of the side of Queen Victoria's original mourning dress on the left, hobbit-lass wearing a similar dress on the right

Modern photograph of the front of Queen Victoria's original mourning dress on the left, hobbit-lass wearing a similar dress on the right

The Look for the Hobbits

My primary inspiration for hobbit-wear came from a print of men’s golfing outfits created by Sackett & Wilhelm Lithography & Printing Company for the “American Fashions” supplement in The Sartorial Art Journal of May 1898, which was digitized by fellow blogger Notes from the Victorian Man, along with an outfit of men’s sportswear from an exhibition currently held at the MET. These sets were geared towards athletic activity, so grown men wore breeches buckled below the knee much like young boys from the time. The biggest difference between the real-world outfit and the Hobbit version is the silhouette. Men of the 1890s emphasized a high waist with a strap on the back of the jacket to cinch the waist, as seen on the golfer facing away from the viewer. Hobbits were too chubby for this style and instead had a relaxed waist.

Lithograph of an 1890s golfer on the left and the hobbit wearing the same outfit on the right

Modern photograph of an 1890s sporting outfit on the left and the hobbit wearing the same outfit on the right

Besides using primary sources to design the costumes of Fourth Age Hobbits, I created illustrations comparing these Hobbits to their forefathers from the beginning of the Third Age. While belonging to the same clan, they differed greatly both in clothing and phenotype. The Hobbits of the Fourth Age tended to be taller than their paternal ancestor with the exception of the Fallohide prototype, since members of different “breeds” frequently intermarried. Additionally, variation in hair color became less extreme, changing from a range between black and sandy to shades of brown. The skin tone of the Hobbits also became more similar, as the Harfoot prototype is less red-faced and the Fallohide prototype has a healthy tan. However, they still retain the traits most noticeable for their “breed”: the Harfoot prototype is smaller and “browner of skin”, the Stoor prototype has facial hair and blue eyes, and the Fallohide prototype is taller and “fairer”. As much as Hobbits claimed to be “plain” and seemed to deny their visible differences, they were still a diverse population.