Hobbits: Ten things you never knew about them

1. In the mid-19th century, ‘hobbit’ (or ‘hobbet’) meant a seed basket or a measure of 2.5 bushels. 

2. When Tolkien re-invented the word, he said it meant ‘hole-builder’ or ‘hole-dweller’.

3. ‘Hobbit’ is also the nickname given to the extinct race of dwarf humans, Homo floresiensis, found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003.

4. There are no female characters in The Hobbit. The only one mentioned is Belladonna Took.

5. According to Tolkien, Hobbits have a great passion for eating mushrooms.

6. In the film of The Hobbit, the Great Goblin is voiced by Barrie Humphries (Dame Edna), who said, “I was able to bring a healthy Australian vulgarity to my role.”

7. Hobbits, also known as halflings, are around 3ft tall and have furry feet, but never grow beards.

8. A total of 263 beards were made for the first film in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy.

9. For the many wigs used in the film, the makers had to buy 60-80 kilograms of yak-hair, which was all the yak hair in Britain at the time.

10. The first Portuguese edition of The Hobbit was called “O Gnomo” (The Gnome).