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Museum-Quality Matte Paper Print available in two sizes:
12" x 16" (30cm x 40cm): $35.00
24" x 32" (60cm x 80cm): $48.00
 
"Their earliest tales seem to glimpse a time when they dwelt in the upper vales of Anduin, between the eaves of Greenwood the Great and the Misty Mountains." - Prologue to The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
 
Are you turning a corner of your home into a hobbit history museum? Tolkien fans who keep the lore alive are a benefit to society! This print represents a chance to capture some of the earliest details of known hobbit history. This original, hand done painting depicts a chance meeting of two Harfoots, two Fallohides, and a Stoor in the vales of Anduin prior to their great westward migration over the Misty Mountains.
 
Hobbits are an ancient people, and part of the Elder Days, just like larger Men. Can you see the goodly ancestors of the Third Age hobbits we later come to know so well when you notice details in this Tolkien-inspired art print like:
 
The Harfoots
Here we see two Harfoots out gathering wild ramsons in the valley. This most numerous branch of the hobbit family has the dark, curly hair, warm complexions, and stoutness we most readily associate with hobbits. They are the shortest folk, small-footed, and clever-handed, with a fondness for living in hillsides and high country, and a particular affinity with dwarves. They keep up the traditions of living in smials the longest of any of the ancestral hobbit groups. I hope you can see the good nature of their faces here, and their kindness in telling chance companions the location of the delicious plants they've been harvesting. We do not know the full history of hobbit agriculture, but surely their later love of tilled earth and gardens has very ancient roots.
 
The Fallohides
Here, two Fallohide brothers are going hunting in the eaves of Greenwood the Great in the time before it became Mirkwood. Perhaps they are the longfathers of Marcho and Blanco who will lead the further westward migration over the Brandywine some 1,300 years before the events of The Hobbit. Fallohides are taller, slenderer, cooler-complected, and have fairer hair than is usual in the other branches, and their skill with bows is a hint at why we later learn of hobbit archers supposedly going to the Battle of Fornost. They are not as dexterous at crafts as the Harfoots, but have special facilities with music and language, a love of woodlands, and an affinity with elves. They appear to posses the talent of leadership, eventually becoming the chieftains of other hobbit groups, and by the time of The Lord of the Rings, the descendants of this least-numerous branch are most commonly found in Buckland and the Tookland. Perhaps you can see something of the princely merriment of Merry and Pippin in this painting, as the two Fallohides share a moment of laughter with the little Harfoots.
 
The Stoors
Poling along in his little reed boat, we see a sturdily-built, big-footed-and-handed, bearded Stoor on a fishing trip. They are a remarkable folk, both for their love of water and their facial hair. They felt the closest affinity to Men. Readers may feel a little worried about the Stoors, given that they are the branch from which the unfortunate Sméagol hails, but if you take the time to imagine this rustic, simple Little Folk living peacefully along rivers, weaving watercraft in level lands, and rowing about amid reeds and rushes, they are truly charming. Near the end of the Third Age, there was still a notable Stoor presence in water-rich Buckland, where boating was still practiced, and local hobbits sometimes had facial hair. Might Old Rory, the Master of Brandy Hall, have had a beard? How about Merry in his maturity?
 
This print would make an original gift for any serious hobbit historians or Middle-earth scholars in your life!