Who Are The Harfoots In ‘The Rings Of Power’?
Image Source: Den Of Geek
Unless you have been living under a very large rock, you have probably heard about or seen trailers for Amazon’s The Rings of Power based on the works of J.R.R Tolkien. In the first two episodes, fans were introduced to new characters that looked incredibly similar to the Hobbits from Peter Jackson’s film. However, confusion arose when the characters did not live in The Shire and were called Harfoots instead of Hobbits. This confusion grew as episode three was released, and there was still no explanation as to why these characters were not called Hobbits. While the show has brought back a few familiar characters like Galadriel and Elrond, Harfoots are actually not the Hobbits fans of the films are used to. They are their ancestors!
So, for all the fans that have seen the films but haven’t yet checked out the books, let's break down who the Harfoots are and how they are different from Hobbits. This post will contain spoilers from episodes one and two of The Rings of Power series, The Hobbit film trilogy, and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
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First and foremost, fans need to understand that The Rings of Power series is taking place during the Second Age. The events of the films took place during the Third Age, thousands of years later.
Hobbits played a pivotal role in the Peter Jackson films. Bilbo Baggins helped the dwarves take back the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit films, and his nephew, Frodo Baggins, carried the One Ring across Middle Earth to have it destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom before Sauron could get a hold of it in The Lord of the Rings. In the films, Hobbits are happy creatures that live in The Shire in Hobbit Holes that have been dug into hills. They are fairly social and enjoy good food, the luxuries of their homes, and good manners.
The Harfoots featured in The Rings of Power are different. They are nomadic creatures that hide from “giants” or humans and live in homes that can be not only easily packed up and moved but also that can be disguised as hills. The Harfoots themselves disguise themselves as rocks and trees to hide themselves from passing travellers. Tolkien also described the Harfoots as being smaller in stature and having darker complexions than Hobbits. The Harfoots are one of three types of Hobbits that existed during the second age. They originated at the foot of the Misty Mountains and were the first to travel to Eriador which is where Bree and The Shire are located. After they arrived, another type of Hobbit, the Fallonhides, arrived in Bree, and it was then that the Harfoots and the Fallonhides began to crossbreed which led to the creation of the Hobbits we see in the films.
While it is not yet certain how much we will see of the Harfoots in The Rings of Power, it is exciting to get a glimpse at the ancestors of the Hobbits from the films, especially for fans that had not read the books and thus did not know that other types of Hobbits existed.
Image Source: IMDB
Fans have theorized that the small nomadic homes that the Harfoots use are glimpses of what led to the creation of Hobbiton in The Shire. Their homes utilize the environment around them similarly to how the Hobbits built their homes into the hillsides and worked with their environment rather than against it. It will be interesting to see if by the time the series is over if we will see the Harfoots make it to The Shire and begin building Hobbiton.
New episodes of The Rings of Power stream every Friday on Amazon Prime Video.
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