‘Lord of the Rings’ Harfoots Have 5 Similarities, 1 Major Difference From Hobbits
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings back all the creatures of Middle-earth. There are elves, orcs, dwarves and even humans. But you may have noticed there are no Hobbits. Hobbits were central to Tolkien’s main books, but the Lord of the Rings prequel has Harfoots instead.
Showbiz Cheat Sheet interviewed The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power creators JD Payne and Patrick McKay on Aug. 13. As we delved into their interpretation of Tolkien’s work, they laid out the similarities and differences between Harfoots and Hobbits. New episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiere Fridays on Prime Video.
Harfoots are 1 of 3 pre-Hobbits
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power pulls from Tolkien’s resources in appendices and The Silmarillion. In those writings, Tolkien describes the predecessors of the Hobbits.
“Harfoots predate Hobbits,” Payne told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “Concerning Hobbits, Tolkien tells us about three branches of Hobbitdom that are sort of the ancestors. There’s Stoor, Fallohides and Harfoots. Each of them have unique characteristics to them. He also speaks of the wandering days of halflings. So we thought that was an area that was really bright for exploration.”
Harfoots share 5 qualities with ‘Lord of the Rings’ Hobbits
Payne suggested four qualities of Harfoots they passed down to their Hobbit descendents. You’ll see these in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
“In terms of the similarities between Harfoots and Hobbits, there’s a heart,” Payne said. “There is a friendship. There is a loyalty to each other and there’s a willingness to punch above one’s weight.”
Executive Producer Lindsey Weber suggested a fifth: love of food.
“We were really excited to explore these slightly more rugged proto Hobbits,” Payne continued. “Eventually those branches might come together to point towards the Hobbits who we will eventually come to know in the third age.”
Harfoots don’t stay in one place in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’
The biggest difference between Harfoots and Hobbits, McKay says, is that Harfoots are nomadic. By the time of The Hobbit, all the Hobbits lived in The Shire. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power shows Harfoots hiding in the woods where other species don’t notice them.
When the show starts, the Harfoots as a community have been nomadic and migratory, as JD says, for many generations. They do a migration cycle with the seasons and the crops in a very rugged and dangerous part of the world. The way they survive is very strict rules about who you can and can’t be and what you can and can’t do. That’s been very successful. They’ve been keeping their heads down but our protagonist in that story, Nori played by a wonderful Australian actress Markella Kavenagh, she’s a Harfoot who’s a little different. She’s a little curious about the world beyond. There are reasons why that can get handlings like her into trouble so we’re excited for you to see her journey.
Patrick McKay, interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, 8/13/22
The wandering Harfoots provide plenty of drama for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
“This was before The Shire, the wonderful green Hobbit homeland that people know about,” Payne said. “Hobbits were nomads and wanderers. Imagine a world that is filled with as many dangers as Middle-earth is and then imagine being between 4 and 5 feet tall in that world and having to contend with all kinds of different creatures and dangers. It felt incredibly ripe for dramatic potential.”
