In "The Lord Of The Rings", J.R.R. Tolkien delineated how the other
sentient races "diminished" and so gave way to the rise of Man. The Elves
abandoned Middle-Earth and sailed into the West back to Valinor; the dwarves
retreated into the depths of the earth and inside the mountains; and having
never found the Entwives, the Ents finally slumbered and reverted to
trees.
As for the hobbits, here is a key point mentioned in Wikipedia:
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 (hence the colloquial terms "Big People"
and "Little People" used in Bree). 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.
It is the size difference that distinguishes man from hobbit, and I think
over generations that distinction disappeared.
While in the company of Treebeard, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Pippin Took
availed themselves of the "Entwash". Drinking that Nature-infused water made
both of them grow in stature. Eventually they both married (Merry to Estella
Bolger and Pippin to Diamond of Long Cleve) and their descendants inherited this
new growth potential.
Eventually, after more generations, the change to their DNA would affect
all future hobbits until they truly were indistinguishable from the "big folk".
And then cross-breeding between man and hobbit would have occurred until the
hobbit race was fully absorbed into that of Mankind.
But their heritage would endure, and that would be reflected at least in
their family names.
From Wikipedia:
BOFFIN
A family with many connections to the Bagginses and Tooks. Apparently found
in the Yale, Overhill, and other areas surrounding Hobbiton. The name is an
Anglicization of the old hobbit term 'Bophîn', of unknown meaning.
And so we see that the family name of "Boffin" survived into the Victorian
era with Nicodemus and Henrietty Boffin, whose lives were chronicled by Charles
Dickens in "Our Mutual Friend".
That's all well and good for BookWorld, but can we apply the same theory of
relateeveety to Toobworld?
So far, "The Lord Of The Rings" exists only in two dimensions of the TV
Universe - the Tooniverse and Skitlandia. "Our Mutual Friend" was adapted three
times for television, with the 1958-59 series taking preeminence in Earth
Prime-Time.
If we have to relegate the other adaptations to alternate TV dimensions,
then I would like to suggest that the 1978 televersion should be placed in the
Borderlands, where TV and movies intersect. There, the characters of Peter
Jackson's film epic can co-exist with the recastaways from Dickens' last fully
completed novel's adaptation. As such, we could claim that Nicodemus Boffin's
ancestors were hobbits.
Sound far-fetched?
Take a look at this comparison between Mr. Boffin and Everard
Proudfoot......
Looks a bit hobbitish to me!
BCnU!
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