Etimologia e História de Hobbit

Em 1937, a palavra foi criada nas histórias de fantasia de J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).

On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why. [Tolkien, letter to W.H. Auden, dated 1955]

Em uma folha em branco, escrevi apressadamente: 'Em um buraco no chão, vivia um hobbit.' Não sei e nunca soube por quê. [Tolkien, carta a W.H. Auden, datada de 1955]

A palavra também aparece em uma lista muito longa de criaturas sobrenaturais folclóricas nos escritos de Michael Aislabie Denham (morto em 1859), como um aparte à sua explicação de que aqueles nascidos na véspera de Natal não conseguem ver espíritos. Denham foi um dos primeiros folcloristas, concentrando-se em Northumberland, Durham, Westmoreland, Cumberland, na Ilha de Man e na Escócia. Isso foi impresso no volume 2 de "The Denham Tracts" [editado por James Hardy, Londres: Folklore Society, 1895], uma compilação das publicações dispersas de Denham.

What a happiness this must have been seventy or eighty years ago and upwards, to those chosen few who had the good luck to be born on the eve of this festival of all festivals; when the whole earth was so overrun with ghosts, boggles, bloody-bones, spirits, demons, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, black dogs, specters, shellycoats, scarecrows, witches, wizards, barguests, Robin-Goodfellows, hags, night-bats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, hobgoblins, hobhoulards, boggy-boes, dobbies, hob-thrusts, fetches, kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars, mum-pokers, Jemmy-burties, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, sirens, tritons, centaurs, calcars, nymphs, imps, incubuses, spoorns, men-in-the-oak, hell-wains, fire-drakes, kit-a-can-sticks, Tom-tumblers, melch-dicks, larrs, kitty-witches, hobby-lanthorns, Dick-a-Tuesdays, Elf-fires, Gyl-burnt-tales, knockers, elves, rawheads, Meg-with-the-wads, old-shocks, ouphs, pad-foots, pixies, pictrees, giants, dwarfs, Tom-pokers, tutgots, snapdragons, sprets, spunks, conjurers, thurses, spurns, tantarrabobs, swaithes, tints, tod-lowries, Jack-in-the-Wads, mormos, changelings, redcaps, yeth-hounds, colt-pixies, Tom-thumbs, black-bugs, boggarts, scar-bugs, shag-foals, hodge-pochers, hob-thrushes, bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns, bolls, caddies, bomen, brags, wraiths, waffs, flay-boggarts, fiends, gallytrots, imps, gytrashes, patches, hob-and-lanthorns, gringes, boguests, bonelesses, Peg-powlers, pucks, fays, kidnappers, gallybeggars, hudskins, nickers, madcaps, trolls, robinets, friars' lanthorns, silkies, cauld-lads, death-hearses, goblins, hob-headlesses, bugaboos, kows, or cowes, nickies, nacks necks, waiths, miffies, buckies, ghouls, sylphs, guests, swarths, freiths, freits, gy-carlins Gyre-carling, pigmies, chittifaces, nixies, Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen, hell-hounds, dopple-gangers, boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins, brown-men, cowies, dunnies, wirrikows, alholdes, mannikins, follets, korreds, lubberkins, cluricauns, kobolds, leprechauns, kors, mares, korreds, puckles korigans, sylvans, succubuses, blackmen, shadows, banshees, lian-hanshees, clabbernappers, Gabriel-hounds, mawkins, doubles, corpse lights or candles, scrats, mahounds, trows, gnomes, sprites, fates, fiends, sibyls, nicknevins, whitewomen, fairies, thrummy-caps, cutties, and nisses, and apparitions of every shape, make, form, fashion, kind and description, that there was not a village in England that had not its own peculiar ghost. Nay, every lone tenement, castle, or mansion-house, which could boast of any antiquity had its bogle, its specter, or its knocker. The churches, churchyards, and crossroads were all haunted. Every green lane had its boulder-stone on which an apparition kept watch at night. Every common had its circle of fairies belonging to it. And there was scarcely a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit!

Que felicidade deve ter sido, há setenta ou oitenta anos ou mais, para aqueles poucos escolhidos que tiveram a sorte de nascer na véspera deste festival de todos os festivais; quando toda a terra estava tão infestada de fantasmas, boggles, ossos-sangrentos, espíritos, demônios, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, cães-negros, espectros, shellycoats, espantalhos, bruxas, magos, barguests, Robin-Goodfellows, bruxas, morcegos noturnos, scrags, quebracervos, fantasmas, hobgoblins, hobhoulards, boggy-boes, dobbies, hob-thrusts, fetches, kelpies, bruxos, mendigos fingidos, mum-pokers, Jemmy-burties, urchins, sátiros, pans, faunos, sereias, tritões, centauros, calcars, ninfas, duendes, incubos, spoorns, homens-da-sombra, hell-wains, dracos de fogo, kit-a-can-sticks, Tom-tumblers, melch-dicks, larrs, kitty-witches, hobby-lanthorns, Dick-a-Tuesdays, Elf-fires, Gyl-burnt-tales, knockers, elfos, rawheads, Meg-with-the-wads, old-shocks, ouphs, pad-foots, pixies, pictrees, gigantes, anões, Tom-pokers, tutgots, snapdragons, sprets, spunks, conjuradores, thurses, spurns, tantarrabobs, swaithes, tints, tod-lowries, Jack-in-the-Wads, mormos, changelings, redcaps, yeth-hounds, colt-pixies, Tom-thumbs, black-bugs, boggarts, scar-bugs, shag-foals, hodge-pochers, hob-thrushes, bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns, bolls, caddies, bomen, brags, wraiths, waffs, flay-boggarts, fiends, gallytrots, imps, gytrashes, patches, hob-and-lanthorns, gringes, boguests, bonelesses, Peg-powlers, pucks, fays, kidnappers, gallybeggars, hudskins, nickers, madcaps, trolls, robinets, friars' lanthorns, silkies, cauld-lads, death-hearses, goblins, hob-headlesses, bugaboos, kows, ou cowes, nickies, nacks necks, waiths, miffies, buckies, ghouls, sylphs, guests, swarths, freiths, freits, gy-carlins Gyre-carling, pigmies, chittifaces, nixies, Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen, hell-hounds, dopple-gangers, boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins, brown-men, cowies, dunnies, wirrikows, alholdes, mannikins, follets, korreds, lubberkins, cluricauns, kobolds, leprechauns, kors, mares, korreds, puckles korigans, sylvans, succubuses, blackmen, shadows, banshees, lian-hanshees, clabbernappers, Gabriel-hounds, mawkins, doubles, luzes ou velas de cadáveres, scrats, mahounds, trows, gnomos, sprites, fadas, demônios, sibilas, nicknevins, whitewomen, fadas, thrummy-caps, cutties, e nisses, e aparições de todas as formas, tipos, estilos, espécies e descrições, que não havia uma aldeia na Inglaterra que não tivesse seu próprio fantasma peculiar. Na verdade, cada tenência isolada, castelo ou mansão que pudesse se orgulhar de alguma antiguidade tinha seu bogle, seu espectro ou seu knocker. As igrejas, cemitérios e encruzilhadas eram todos assombrados. Cada caminho verde tinha sua pedra boulder sobre a qual uma aparição vigiava à noite. Cada campo comum tinha seu círculo de fadas pertencente a ele. E era raro encontrar um pastor que não tivesse visto um espírito!

[Ênfase adicionada] É curioso que o nome não apareça em mais nenhum outro lugar do folclore, e não há evidências de que Tolkien tenha algum dia visto isso. A palavra também foi registrada a partir de 1835 como "um termo geralmente usado no País de Gales para expressar uma quantidade equivalente a quatro alqueires galeses" [em registros judiciais ingleses do caso Hughes vs. Humphreys, uma disputa sobre pesos e medidas]. Hobbitry atestado a partir de 1947.