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Lord of the rings creature3/9/2024 Tolkien's take on goblins/Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, etc. The Balrogs, too, can probably be called his. He can probably also be credited with the flying fell beasts of the Nazgul-although those owe something to legends of dragons, wyverns and other such legendary creatures. Well, Tolkien did not invent the word 'hobbit'īut the Hobbits of Middle-earth are his own, original invention. But the rest Tolkien took to a completely new level.Ĭulinary journey through Middle Earth continues! Join us on the Main board for the renewed thread! Possibly an exclusion would be the orcs which are just orcs. His Elves are far more developed than any elves we have in our legends. Tolkien turned fairy creatures into races. To me he used some basic traits of what Europe already had in legends and built on it. Now, we do have, and other nations have them too, legends about little people living in holes, we also have places where we think they live but they are not called "hobbits" and overall, their existence is not what Tolkien made of his hobbits. Where I come from and the lands whose mythology I've studied (as well as Tolkien did because I'm also a phylologist and European phylology education hasn't changed much over the years), hobbits do not exist as such in legends thus he invented them. While we're on the topic, as far as the real-world legendary creatures go, did Tolkien adhere very closely to the way they (elves, dwarves, goblins, etc) are described in legends or did he sort of re-invent them to be the way he wanted them? For example: I'm pretty sure elves in most real-world legends are generally described as being small, whimsical, almost fairy-like creatures, not these statuesque, graceful, beings Tolkien made them into. Nazgul, and fell beasts? Did he invent those too? Are there any other creatures Tolkien invented that I'm missing? Can you think of any other real-world legendary creatures that he had in his books that I failed to list? Was I right about Tolkien inventing hobbits? What about orcs, barrow-wights, wraiths a.k.a. ![]() As I recall he also mentioned things like werewolves and vampires too. I know there are real-world legends about elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins, skin-changers, and trolls. This got me to wondering, which creatures/types of people in ME did Tolkien invent and which ones were already in real-world legends? My mom and I were talking Tolkien last night and she said she thought she had heard of hobbits being in real legends and I said I thought they were something Tolkien invented all on his own. Which creatures did Tolkien invent and which were already in real-world legends?
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