"GL3" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol06)

occasionally, and Hobbits are not mentioned. Elves"Dwarves,
Men, and other creatures only became aware of Hobbits after they
had actually existed, jogging along in their uneventful fashion, for
many ages. And they continued, as a rule, to jog along, keeping to
themselves and keeping out of stories. In the days of Bilbo (and
Frodo his heir) they became for a time very important, by what is
called accident, and the great persons of the world, even the
Necromancer, were obliged to take them into account, as these
stories show. Though Hobbits had then already had a long history
(of a quiet kind), those days are now very long ago, and geography
(and many other things) were then very different. But the lands in
which they lived, changed though they now are, must have been
more or less in the same place as the lands in which they still
linger: the North-west of the old world.
They are (or were) a small people, smaller than dwarves: less
stout and stocky, that is, even when they were not in fact much
shorter. Their height was, like the height of us Big People, rather
variable, ranging between two and four feet (of our length):
three feet was more or less an average. Very few hobbits, outside
their own more fantastic legends, touched three foot six. Only
Bandobras Took, son of Isengrim the First, known usually as the
Bullroarer, of all the hobbits of history exceeded four feet. He was
four foot five and rode a horse.(2)
There is, and always has been, very little magic about hobbits.
Of course they possess the power which we sometimes confuse
with real magic - it is really only a kind of professional skill, that
has become uncanny through long practice, aided by close friend-
ship with the earth and all things that grow on it: the power of
disappearing quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like us
come blundering along, making noises like elephants, which they
can hear a mile off. Even long ago their great desire was to avoid

trouble; and they were quick in hearing, and sharpsighted. And
they were neat and deft in their movements, though they were
inclined to be fat in the stomach, and did not hurry unnecessarily.
They dressed in bright colours, being particularly fond of green
and yellow; but they wore no shoes, because their feet grew
natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair, curly like the
brown hair of their heads. The only trade unknown among them
was consequently shoemaking; but they had long clever brown
fingers and could make many other useful things. They had good-
natured faces, being as a rule good-natured; and they laughed long
and deeply, being fond of simple jests at all times, but especially
after dinner (which they had twice a day, when they could get it).
They were fond of presents, and gave them away freely, and
accepted them readily.
All hobbits had originally lived in holes in the ground, or so they
believed; although actually already in Bilbo's time it was as a rule
only the richest and the poorest hobbits that still did so. The
poorest hobbits went on living in holes of the most antiquated