Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional, diminutive, humanoid race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fiction. Hobbits first appeared in the novel
The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit. The novel,
The Lord of the Rings, includes more Hobbits as major characters, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin Took and Meriadoc Brandybuck, as well as several other minor hobbit characters. Hobbits are also briefly mentioned in
The Silmarillion and
Unfinished Tales. According to the author in the prologue to
The Lord of the Rings, Hobbits are "relatives" of the race of Men. Elsewhere Tolkien describes Hobbits as a "variety" or separate "branch" of humans. Within the story, Hobbits and other races seem aware of the similarities. However, within the story, Hobbits considered themselves a separate people. At the time of the events in
The Lord of the Rings, Hobbits lived in the Shire and in Bree in the north west of Middle-earth, though by the end, some had moved out to the Tower Hills and to Gondor and Rohan.