Chapter Text
The heritage of hobbits is not oft spoken of, though it is said they hold kinship with Men. Others believe they share ancestry with the dwarves, which is closer to the truth but not wholly accurate. When asked, hobbits simply shrug and answer that they know not. To learn this secret, you must first understand the term 'Halfling', which is an apt description for a race that is only half of a being. For hobbits are beings raised from the earth.
“Raised,” you ask,” By what?"
Well, that is the secret. The hobbits are no children of Ilúvatar, Yavanna, or Aulë. They were begotten by earth magic wielded by the Fae.
When Yavanna plead for beings to protect the forests, Eru also spread life to the mountains. Stone giants arose as their protectors, but a spark of life was left over. From that spark the Fae came into being. Immortal but unable to bear children (for there are no discernible genders among them), they are small beings with beautiful gems embedded in their stony flesh. It is for that reason that they hid themselves away from the rest of the world, knowing the greed of Dwarf and Man would pose them threat.
It was in hills too small to be called mountains, yet too treacherous to settle that the Fae made their home. There they lived happily with only each other for company and the magic gathered in the earth for entertainment. Yet as the years wore on, boredom weighted heavily on the mind of one Fae.
This Fae, known as Took, was an adventurous sort where others were not. One night, while everyone slept, Took left the hills to visit the forest below. At the bottom, however, the Fae came upon a camp of dwarves. Unfortunately, one dwarf remained awake as lookout and let out a mighty shout. Both beings were startled, though the fear of a fae awoke the hills and before anything could be done otherwise, great rocks came crashing down upon the dwarf camp.
Poor Took was distraught. All that had been wanted was a closer look at these children of Aulë, spoken about only in tales of terror. An hour was spent digging them out and mourning briefly. Then inspiration struck the Fae, who rushed back to the hills to fetch the others.
Boredom hadn't set upon solely Took, thus when the idea to give new life to the dwarves was explained, some of the others latched upon it eagerly. They returned to the camp all together and gathered supplies for their magic from the wood. Branches, stones, and seeds were arranged intricately, if a bit randomly, around the bodies before they could begin. The Fae separated, each to a dwarf, and began weaving their magic up from the earth and into the corpses.
Now, magic can be finicky and it chose to be so with this use, for when the dwarves rose, why... They could hardly be called dwarves at all! Their beards had been lost, as well as nearly a foot to their height. But they were grateful nonetheless, for it had been quite uncomfortable being dead. Their memories as dwarves were lost to them and the Fae named them Halflings, born half of magic, but called them hobbits. Each Fae felt a connection to the hobbit they raised, and the hobbits to them. So it was that when names were chosen, they added the name of their Fae at the end.
The Hobbits settled at the foot of the hills and the Fae returned above, venturing down on special occasions. The most common, and most celebrated, were births. When a fauntling was born, the fae of the families born from would bestow upon the child a Gift. Not just any gift, but one born of magic and ingrained into their being. Perhaps a skill, or inherent knowledge, but each living hobbit was granted something different (even if Gifts of old were reused).
Some of those Fae who had not assisted in the creation of hobbits soon grew jealous of their kinship with their brethren. Splitting into two groups, the other Fae left to find new homes, and perhaps even to raise Halflings anew.
Years passed until one generation of hobbits grew tired of how dangerous life was by the hills; wolves from the forest sometimes ventured too close and the hills themselves shifted dangerously at times. Word came that other hobbits, raised by the groups who left, had also grown restless and discontent. The Fae yearned to see the rest of their race, for they were family after all, and agreed to journey with their hobbits to find a new home.
The groups came together west of the Mitheithel and began to settle the land. The hobbits built their homes right into the ground for each family, though their Fae elected to dig their own home deep underground in the middle of each town. Town halls were erected above their caverns, as a meeting place for the Halflings and Fae when it became necessary.
Despite the content that the races felt, some were not fully ready to settle. Ever taking after their adventurous fae, Took's hobbits led a group across the Baranduin river to start their own lives. Took and a few Fae who had not joined with any families followed along, connecting with these new branches of families and helping create the land now known as The Shire.