Fairies

Fairies are a race mentioned in The Hobbit, The History of Middle-earth, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and Beren and Lúthien.

Background

Apparently, fairies was a Hobbit name for Elves. Some lived in the land of the Faerie.

It was rumored that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. Belladonna Took, one of three remarkable daughters of the Old Took, was said to have descended from the fairies. There was something not hobbit-like about the Tooks.^[1]

In the poem Errantry, a hobbit rhyme made by Bilbo based loosely on the the legends of Eärendil, there is reference to the archipelagos where yellow marigolds grow, and where countless silver fountains are, and mountains are of fairy-gold.

Earlier legends

Behind the scenes

Fairies were a race originally in earlier tales of J.R.R. Tolkien in The Book of Lost Tales, The Lays of Beleriand, and The Shaping of Middle-earth.

They were like the prototypes of the high elves in later versions of Middle-earth. They have very different personalities from the latter race.

Elements of the fairy motif remain in the final edition of the Hobbit, and is the last source to maintain some of those details before Tolkien switched directions.

were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West.^[2]

John Ratelafe noted in the 'History of the Hobbit;

The rumor of fairy (i.e., elf) or goblin blood is another point modified in the third edition, where all mention of the malicious slander about possible goblin ancestry was dropped and the idea of a Took ancestor having ‘taken a fairy wife’ is dismissed as ‘absurd’.

Beren and Luthien (2017) reintroduces the usage of fairy as synonymous term to 'elves'/'elfin'.

In the earlier versions of legendarium Tolkien conceived the Kaukareldar, a race of 'False-fairies' were fashioned by Melko in the likeness of the Fairies, and these deceived and betrayed Men.

In Other Media

There are several references to Fairy in The Lord of the Rings Online usually associated with the elves. Some of these references include Fairy Flax Fibre and "Scourge of the Fairy Folk," a monster player title obtained in Monster Play by finishing the deed Elf-Killer. The description includes "All who draw breath and hold ties to the Elven Folk fear your blade. You drive their number from the fields of battle."

References