Middle-Earth Tours

Tour 1: The People of Middle-Earth

Hobbits

detail from A Long Expected
Party, by Inger Edelfeldt

 For they are a little people, smaller than Dwarves: less stout and stocky, that is, even when they are not actually much shorter. Their height is variable, ranging between two and four feet of our measure. They seldom now reach three feet; but they have dwindled, they say, and in ancient days they were taller....
     As for the hobbits of the Shire, ... in the days of their peace and prosperity they were a merry folk. They dressed in bright colours, being notably fond of yellow and green; but they seldom wore shoes, since their feet had tough leathery soles and were clad in a thick curling hair, much like the hair of their heads, which was commonly brown....Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking. And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily..... --FotR, Prologue

You do not know your danger, Théoden,' interrupted Gandalf. 'These hobbits will sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table, or the small doings of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and remoter cousins to the ninth degree, if you encourage them with undue patience.' --TTT, "The Road to Isengard"

The Scouring of the Shire,
by Inger Edelfeldt
detail of hobbits (hiding from
Black Rider), by John Howe
detail of Frodo, Sam and Bilbo,
by Michael Kaluta

And now some pictures from the movie trilogy. Frodo is played by Elijah Wood, a human hobbit if I ever saw one. Sam is played by Sean Astin, Merry by Dominic Monaghan, and Pippin by Billy Boyd.

image from the Cannes film book
on the official movie site.
image from the
official LotR movie site
the hobbits hiding from a Black Rider, image courtesy of Herr
der Ringe


an image from the limited edition New Line calendar		 Bilbo's page

Frodo's Page

Gollum's Page

Sam's page

Merry and Pippin's page
Elijah Wood as Frodo, from the October 2000 issue of Vanity Fair

detail of Gollum, by
Ted Nasmith
image from the October 2000 Vanity Fair, with thanks to ringbearer.org
image from the Cannes film book
on the official movie site
Full-size versions of these pictures are on display at Rolozo Tolkien, the official LotR movie site, and theonering.net.