To be more specific...


God

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Called 'The One', and more commonly known in Middle-earth as Ilvatar. Eru was the creator of the Ainur, and through their Music founded the realm of Arda.


Ainur (basically bards)


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"There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought..."
First words of the Ainulindal

The primordial spirits, who existed with Ilvatar, and with Him created the world through the Music of the Ainur. After the creation of Arda, many of the Ainur descended into it to guide and order its growth; of these there were fifteen more powerful than the rest. Fourteen of these great Ainur became the Valar, or Powers of Arda. The fifteenth, Melkor, turned aside from that path and became the first Dark Lord. The many lesser Ainur that accompanied the Valar into Arda are known as Maiar.

Origins of the Ainur
The Ainur were the first, and mightiest, beings created by Ilvatar in the depths of time before the beginning of the World. The Ainur were the 'offspring of [Ilvatar's] thought', and each was given understanding only of that part of the mind of Ilvatar from which he or she came. The exception to this was Melkor, the greatest of the Ainur, who had a part of the gifts of all the others.
The Ainur were 'kindled with the Flame Imperishable', which can be taken to mean that they were granted free will by their creator. Ilvatar instructed them in the arts of music, until he brought them together to make the Music of the Ainur; the great song that created the Vision of Ilvatar and ultimately the real World.

The Ainur and the World
Through the Music of the Ainur, Ilvatar created a Vision of the World; he showed it to the Ainur, and explained much of its nature and destiny to them - so the Ainur have much knowledge of the World, but are not omniscient. Then, Ilvatar granted the World true being. Melkor and many of the other mighty Ainur desired to descend into it and form it in readiness for the coming of the Children of Ilvatar (that is, Elves and Men). These became the beings known as the Valar and the Maiar.
Those Ainur who entered the World at its beginning remain bound to it until its end. Though Melkor was eventually thrown into the Void by the others, he is prophesied to return before the end. Little is known of the ultimate future of the Ainur, even by themselves, but it is said that, after the great battle at the end of the World, they will make a Second, even greater, Music with the Children of Ilvatar.

The Line of Melian
Among the many Ainur that entered the World long ago, there was one of the order of the Maiar named Melian. Alone of all the Ainur, she wedded one of the Children of Ilvatar, King Elu Thingol of Doriath. From her, a strain of the Ainur entered the bloodlines of the Elves and Men, passed down through generation after generation, and was still present at the time of the War of the Ring. Elrond was Melian's great-great-grandson, and Aragorn, too, was her descendant, though through many more generations than Elrond.


Earth

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In the language of the Elder Days, 'Arda' signified the World and all that is in it. Arda was created through the Music of the Ainur to be a dwelling place for the Children of Ilvatar (that is, Elves and Men).


Dwarves

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Unlike Elves and Men, the Dwarves are not Children of Ilvatar; they were created by Aul the Smith, though Ilvatar granted them life. Aul made seven Fathers of the Dwarves, and these slept through many ages until after the Awakening of the Elves. Almost all the Dwarves that appear in Tolkien's works were descended from the eldest of the Seven Fathers, Durin the Deathless.

Like Aul their maker, the Dwarves delighted in smithcraft and stoneworking; they mined and worked metals throughout the mountains of Middle-earth. The Dwarves kept themselves apart from the other races; their language, Khuzdul, was a closely guarded secret, and they told their true names to none but themselves (all the Dwarf-names in Tolkien are in the tongues of Elves or Men, not true Dwarf names).

Origins of the Dwarves
The first Dwarves were made long ages ago by Aul the Smith. He had dimly perceived the coming Children of Ilvatar, and desired to make Children of his own to teach his many skills and arts.
Aul's work was doomed, though, because he did not have the power to grant independent life to his creations - that power belonged to Ilvatar alone. When the Dwarves were completed, though, the voice of Ilvatar spoke to Aul and agreed to grant them true life, and include them in His plan for Arda. Ilvatar would not allow the Dwarves to awaken, though, until after the Firstborn (the Elves), and so Aul set them to sleep far apart from one another, deep underground, until the time came for their awakening.

The History of the Dwarves Before the First Age
Ilvatar promised Aul that he would awaken the Fathers of the Dwarves 'when the time comes'. We must assume that he did so shortly after the Awakening of the Elves at Cuivinen (very approximately between 9,000 and 10,000 years before the beginning of the First Age).
It seems that not long passed after their awakening before Durin the Deathless, eldest of the Fathers, founded Khazad-dm (later called Moria) in the Misty Mountains. Certainly it was well established as their chief citadel by the time the first Dwarves crossed the Blue Mountains into Beleriand. This event is dated only as 'during the second age of the Captivity of Melkor', which would place it (approximately) between 3,000 and 6,000 years before the beginning of the First Age.

The Dwarves had no settlement in Beleriand itself, but they built two mighty citadels in the Blue Mountains; Gabilgathol to the north and Tumunzahar to the south. These fortress-cities are better known by the Elvish versions of their names: Belegost and Nogrod. The Dwarves also laid the long road that ran westwards out of the Blue Mountains and along the course of the River Ascar, crossing into East Beleriand at Sarn Athrad.

The Dwarves in Beleriand
For the Elves dwelling Beleriand, the first appearance of the Dwarves in the Blue Mountains was a startling revelation - until that time, the Elves had thought themselves the only speaking peoples in the World.
Throughout the long ages, the Elves and Dwarves developed a mutual respect which, if not quite friendship, was far from enmity. After their return to Middle-earth at the beginning of the First Age, the Noldor became closest in friendship with the Dwarves - both peoples revered Aul, and both had a love of craft and making that made them natural allies.

Of all the Elves of Beleriand, though, it was not a Noldo but a Sindarin Elf who became most trusted and respected by the Dwarves. This was El, the Dark Elf of Nan Elmoth, who travelled often to the dwarf-cities in the Blue Mountains, and who took also his son Maeglin during his youth.

The Nature of the Dwarves
Aul made the Dwarves at a time when the World outside Aman still lay under the dominion of Melkor, and so he made them sturdy and hard to survive the dangers and hardships of that time.
In nature, the typical Dwarf is stubborn and secretive. Though they make loyal and good friends, they are also a proud and stern race. They do not suffer grievance or insult, and their enmity is long-lasting. They are said, though, to be quick to learn new skills.

Probably the best known aspect of the Dwarvish character, though, is their strong instinctive skills in the working of metal and stone, no doubt derived from Aul their maker, the Vala whose province these things were. In ancient times, they were said to have preferred working with copper and iron, though in later days they wrought gold and silver, and the mithril they found in the Mines of Khazad-dm.

Dwarvish Mortality
Though they live much longer than Men (usually around 250 years), Dwarves are mortal creatures. What happens after their death, though, is a mystery. The Elves have said that the Dwarves return to the stone from which they were made, but the Dwarves have a different belief.
According to Dwarvish tradition, they are gathered by Mahal (their name for Aul) in a part of the Halls of Mandos set aside for them. After the end of the World and the Last Battle, they say, they will aid Aul in the rebuilding of Arda.


btw Aule is one of the original Ainur

Elves

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The first Elves awoke by Cuivinen, the Water of Awakening in the far east of Middle-earth, long Ages before the Rising of the Sun or Moon. Unlike Men, the Elves were not subject to illness or death, and at the time of the Lord of the Rings, there were still at least two Elves in Aman who had awoken by Cuivinen in the first days; Ingw, Lord of the Vanyar, and Olw, brother of King Elu Thingol.

Origins and Early History
In the far eastern land of Cuivinen, on the shores of the Inland Sea of Helcar and beneath the mountains of the Orocarni, the Elves awoke under the starlight of the Years of the Trees. The Valar at first knew nothing of their coming, but they were soon discovered by the spies of Melkor, who sent his creatures to watch them and harrass them.
How long they existed in this perilous and unprotected state is not known, but the legends of those times, of the Hunter and of a dark Rider, were preserved in Valinor by the Eldar that came there. It is known that many of the ancient Elves were captured by Melkor and imprisoned in Utumno - it is generally thought that these hapless beings were the origins of the race of Orcs.

The Valar discovered that the Elves had awoken when Orom, hunting in the lands of Middle-earth, heard their singing voices. He named them Eldar, the People of the Stars, but the Elves' own name for their kind was Quendi, those who speak with voices. Because of the horrors of Melkor, many of the Elves were at first suspicious of the Vala, but (after briefly returning to Valinor to tell the other Valar of his discovery) he remained with them and protected them for a time.

Concerned for the safety of the Elves in Middle-earth, which was at that time under the control of Melkor, the Valar left Valinor and made war against the Dark Lord: this was the Battle of the Powers, which saw Melkor taken as captive back to Valinor.

The Great Journey
After the defeat of Melkor, the Valar debated the fate of the Elves - whether they should be left to dwell in Middle-earth, or brought to Valinor to be kept under the direct protection of the Valar. It was decided to bring them to the land of the Valar, and Orom was sent back to Cuivinen to summon them.
When he returned, though, he found that the Elves feared the Valar, and were reluctant to make the journey. Three ambassadors were chosen, Ingw, Finw and Elw, to travel to Aman with Orom, and help the Elves decide on their course. These three were filled with awe by what they saw there, and by the light of the Two Trees, and counselled their people to follow the summons.

The followers of Ingw, and most of the peoples of Finw and Elw agreed, and set out on the Great Journey westwards across the wide lands of Middle-earth. These were the peoples later known as the Three Kindreds, the Vanyar, the Noldor and the Teleri. Not all the Elves obeyed the summons; those who refused are known as Avari, the Unwilling2.

Orom led the peoples of the Three Kindreds out of the east of Middle-earth. The Vanyar were the least numerous, and the most eager to reach Aman, and they came first on the Journey, followed by the Noldor of Finw.

The Teleri, led by Elw and his brother Olw, were the greatest host, and many were uncertain and doubtful. Not a few of these people left the Journey and remained in Middle-earth3. The most notable of those who turned from the Journey were the Nandor, who were led away down the Vales of Anduin by Lenw.

At last, the Vanyar and the Noldor reached the shores of the Great Sea, in the regions between the Bay of Balar and the Firth of Drengist (regions later known, at least for the most part, as the Falas). Ulmo brought a great island to the shores, and on it transported the Elves to Aman.

The Teleri were the hindcomers, though, and arrived in Beleriand too late to embark on Ulmo's island. They dwelt for a while on the banks of the Gelion in eastern Beleriand, but later spread to the shores. In this time, two events of historical importance occurred - their lord Elw was lost for a time in Nan Elmoth, and they encountered Oss, a Maia of the Sea.

Many of the Teleri wished to remain in Beleriand, some to seek for their lost lord, and others because of desires stirred in their hearts by Oss. When the time came for Ulmo to return to Beleriand to take the Teleri to Valinor, then, many of them remained behind. These people became known in after years as the Sindar, the Grey-elves, and those who dwelt by the shores under the lordship of Crdan became known as the Falathrim.

Melkor Chained: Three Ages of Bliss
Now came three ages of glory and bliss for the Elves, both east and west of the Great Sea. In Valinor, the Vanyar and the Noldor, and those of the Teleri who completed the Journey, dwelt with the Valar and learned from them. They dwelt in the jewelled city of Tirion in the Pass of Light, and at the Swanhaven of Alqualond, and beneath the tower of Avalln on the Lonely Isle of Tol Eressa. While the Two Trees still gave light to the realm of the Valar, three ages passed, and the Elves of Valinor became the wisest and noblest of all the Children of Ilvatar.
Meanwhile, in Beleriand, the Sindar dwelt beneath starlight. While most of Middle-earth still slept, awaiting the coming of the Sun and Moon, Melian the Maia brought life to the forests and plains of Beleriand under Thingol's rule, and Orom would still ride at times across the darkling lands.


The Nature of the Elves
Both Elves and Men are the Children of Ilvatar, and so have much in common, but there are also great differences between the two peoples. Of these, the most significant is that Elves are 'immortal', at least while the World lasts; they do not suffer ageing1 or disease, and if they are slain or wither with grief, they are reincarnated in the Halls of Mandos in Valinor.
Although, unlike Men, the Elves must remain in the world until its ending, they are not bound to Middle-earth. They may if they wish take the straight road, and sail into the Uttermost West, a road that is barred to mortals.

Elves also have far clearer sight and perception than Men; they are naturally aware of many things that are hidden from the Younger Children, but these gifts are not without limit.

Religion
The Elves never had any distinct 'religion' in the sense that Men would understand the word; indeed, the High Elves had travelled to Valinor and lived with the Valar (or 'gods') themselves for many ages before Men came into the world.
Of all the Valar, they most revered Varda Elentri, the spouse of Manw; and Lady of the Stars. In Middle-earth, they called her Elbereth, Star-Queen, and sang to her across the wide ocean Belegaer. Great respect was also given to Ulmo, especially during the First Age when he aided the Elves against Morgoth.


Notes
1 More correctly, Elves don't suffer ageing in the same way as Men. In fact they do age, as Tolkien makes clear in his Letters. There, he says, 'The Elves were sufficiently longeval to be called by Man 'immortal'. But they were not unageing or unwearying' (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien No 245, dated 1963).
2 This is the point where the term Eldar acquires its special meaning. Before the beginning of the Great Journey, it was applied to all Elves. After the Three Kindreds set out, it came to be used only for Elves belonging to these three peoples.
3 These Elves who turned aside from the Journey founded peoples and lands of their own. The Wood-elves of Mirkwood and the Galadhrim of Lrien were descended from them, for example.


Men

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The youngest of the races of Arda (with the possible exception of Hobbits), the first Men awoke in the far eastern land of Hildrien as the Sun first rose and the Noldor returned from Valinor. Seeing the sunrise, many of the first Men set out westwards, and so came eventually to Beleriand after some three hundred years of wandering.


Hobbits

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A mortal race almost certainly related to Men, though their origins are unknown. Their most distinguishing feature was their short stature; even the tallest Hobbits rarely exceeded four feet in height.

Originally a widespread people, hobbits were found in much of the north of Middle-earth and down the Vales of Anduin. As the Third Age passed, the Hobbits moved north and west, eventually founding the land of the Shire in III 1601.


The History of Hobbit

"On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why."
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No 163, to W.H. Auden, dated 1955


This is Tolkien's own account of his invention of the word 'hobbit', while marking School Certificate papers: he gives no date, but from the clues he gives, this most likely happened one summer in the late 1920's. This, then, is one of the most significant doodles in the history of literature: without it, there would have been no Hobbit, and without The Hobbit no Lord of the Rings, and without The Lord of the Rings, surely no Silmarillion. If not for those ten scrawled words, the world might never have heard of J.R.R. Tolkien.

On the face of it, the origins of 'hobbit' are easy to explain: a bored academic invents an amusing little word 'from nowhere' and jots it down. As the word became well known, though, debates began about its origins. Some doubt was even cast on whether Tolkien had invented the word himself. Probably of more importance to Tolkien himself, though, was the history of 'hobbit' within his universe, and we'll address this question first.

The Invented Etymology

Why do hobbits call themselves 'hobbits'? What is the history of the word within the world of Middle-earth? These are questions that most writers wouldn't even consider, but they gave Tolkien a problem. Most of his names for characters and places came from established languages, fictional or otherwise, and so they had a 'real' history in Tolkien's imagination that could be translated into his fictional world. 'Hobbit', though, had appeared spontaneously, and so had no history of its own. Tolkien needed to invent one.

In Middle-earth's past, the hobbits had dwelt in the northern reaches of the Vales of Anduin, and the language Tolkien used to represent that region was Old English, the tongue of the Anglo-Saxons. His task, then, was to find words from Old English that might transform over millennia into the form 'hobbit'.

The word hob (meaning 'sprite' or 'little man', as in hobgoblin) seems an obvious solution. It's a mark of Tolkien's attention to detail that he didn't use it - the word is far too young (less than a thousand years old) and was unknown to the Anglo-Saxons. Hence, the Northmen of Middle-earth wouldn't have known hob either.

The solution he chose was more sophisticated: he selected the Old English words hol byldan, or some similar variant, meaning 'to build a hole', and developed the fictional compound holbytla (plural holbytlan). It is easy to see how, over several thousand years, this could evolve into 'hobbit'.

The success and ingenuity of this solution, though, hide one inconvenient detail: 'hole-builder' is, at best, a highly unconventional use of English. One can no more 'build a hole' than one can 'dig a house'. It's noticeable that Tolkien's later works tend to interpret holbytla as 'hole-dweller' rather than 'hole-builder'. In particular, he submitted 'hole-dweller' to the Oxford English Dictionary (see The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No 316). We don't know what happened next - perhaps some sharp-eyed Anglo-Saxon-speaking researcher intervened - but the modern Dictionary has reverted to the more strictly accurate 'hole-builder'.

Who Invented 'Hobbit'?

Almost as soon as The Hobbit was published, questions started to be asked about the real origins of the word. Of course, Tolkien's use of it was his own invention, but was he definitely the first to use the word? Perhaps it had already been invented by someone else? Perhaps Tolkien had come across it in childhood and forgotten the event, only to have the word reappear from his subconscious years later?

These questions seem to have originated with a letter written to The Observer newspaper, published on 16 January 1938 (see The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No 25). The author, known only by the punning pseudonym of Habit, claimed that a friend remembered a fairy-tale called The Hobbit dating from about 1904. Other mentions of this tale (apparently about a rather ferocious creature) have surfaced since, with dates that vary around the turn of the twentieth century.

Was there a hobbit before Tolkien's? We just don't know. So far as we can establish, no-one has yet produced a copy of this 'proto-hobbit'. Tolkien himself, while not entirely dismissive of the idea, suggested that a similar-sounding title might have been misremembered in light of his own invented word. If an earlier hobbit ever did exist, a century has passed since it was published, so the chances of finding any proof are negligible (though if you should happen across a copy, please let us know!).

The last word on this topic came from the Oxford English Dictionary, when they decided to honour Tolkien by including 'hobbit' in their hallowed pages. For the etymology, they needed to establish definitively when the word was first used. Their conclusion effectively closes the matter:

"hobbit n. one of an imaginary race of half-sized persons in stories by Tolkien; hence ~RY (5) n. [invented by J.R.R. Tolkien, Engl. writer d. 1973, and said by him to mean 'hole-builder']"
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English


(If you have any old books in your attic, though, it might be worth leafing through them!)

Of Hobs and Boggarts

Throughout northern Europe, there exists a prevailing tradition of 'Little People'. They have an endless list of names: brownies, pixies, fays, leprechauns are just some of the more common. In some regions, these beings are far more than just myths or folklore: even today, they have an effect on people's everyday lives.

Take, for example, the Isle of Man in the middle of the Irish Sea: an island with a severe fairy infestation. In the southern parts of the island is the 'Fairy Bridge', a bridge that no Manxman would cross without greeting the Little People that live there. To most, of course, this is just superstition, but there are those who literally believe that they share their island with all manner of fairy creatures. Among these is a being known as a phynnodderee; shy of humans, friendly and happy-go-lucky, hairy-legged, fond of wine and beer and given to farm-work. Sound familiar?

The Manx aren't alone, of course: from Germany, where miners are helped by friendly burrowing 'kobolds', all the way to Iceland, whose Elves occupy a ghostly realm curiously similar to Tolkien's 'wraith-world', there are similar traditions.

What's more, even their names are familiar: we've already mentioned hob, but boggart, boggard, flibbertigibbet and even Hobberdy, Hobbidy and Hobberdy Dick (these last three are listed by Tolkien himself; The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No 319, dated 1971).

Perhaps surprisingly, Tolkien denies that he was influenced by this in choosing the name 'hobbit', but he seems to have embraced the tradition by the time he wrote the Foreword to The Lord of the Rings. There, he says that hobbits are 'more numerous formerly than they are today', and that they 'avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find'. We can only realistically see this as an attempt to marry his fictional people with the 'hobbits' of folklore and tradition.

Addendum
Since this article was written, we've discovered that the name 'hobbit' goes back far further than even Tolkien suspected. We're indebted to Mark Blanton for sending along a long list of magical beings collected by a certain Michael Aislabie Denham before the year 1859. In the middle of this list, among the 'boggleboes', 'freiths' and 'wirrikows' lies the term 'hobbits'. Even more remarkably, the list predates even the nineteenth century - it was apparently taken from an even earlier work, Discovery of Witchcraft, dated 1584.





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A story that started with an idle note on a blank piece of paper has, in the end, taken us back through thousands of years of myth and language. This is one of the great joys of Tolkien - his work has an almost 'fractal' quality. The more you examine a single detail, the more it unravels into an epic mesh of connections and complexity. The last word on this matter is best left to the master himself:

"Oh what a tangled web they weave who try a new word to conceive!"
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No 319, dated 1971


And if this isn't enough explaination enough for you go HERE and be ready to be stunned at the sheer magnitude of detail of Tolkien's creation. He is much more than a novelist.