Halfling
An illustration of a halfling.
Genre	Fantasy
Other name	Hobbit

Halflings, sometimes calledhobbits, are a fictionalrace found in somefantasynovels andgames.

Halflings are often depicted as similar tohumans except about half as tall, and are not quite as stocky as the similarly sizeddwarves. They have slightlypointed ears along with leathery-soled feet which are covered with curly hair. They tend to be portrayed as stealthy and lucky.

AuthorJ. R. R. Tolkien originated the race of halflings in hisMiddle-earth works, usually calling them 'hobbits'.^[1] TheOxford English Dictionary used to credit Tolkien with inventingthe word hobbits,^[2] andMiddle-earth Enterprises trademarked the term hobbits, butevidence of earlier use was discovered.^[3]

The termHalfling had previously been used in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Northern England for a boy or girl who is not yet fully grown; a youth, an adolescent, and formerly sometimes a boy or young man employed in a junior role in domestic, agricultural, or industrial work.^[4]Halflin derives from the Scot wordhauflin, which was used before bothThe Hobbit andDungeons & Dragons^[5] and has the synonymshobbledehoy andhobby.^[5]

AuthorJ. R. R. Tolkien included halflings in hisMiddle-earth works like 1937'sThe Hobbit and 1954-1955'sThe Lord of the Rings. The term has since been used in other fiction works as an alternate name for hobbit-like peoples inspired byTolkien's legendarium.^[6]

A prominent example isDungeons & Dragons (D&D), wherehalflings have long been one of the playable humanoid races.^[5] In the original 1974 Men & Magic,^[7] they were calledhobbits,^[5] but later editions of the original D&D box set changed the name tohalfling^[8] to avoid infringing on the trademark for the term hobbit.^[9] Besides licensed D&D novels, halfling characters have appeared in various tabletop and video games.

Some fantasy stories use the termhalfling to describe a person born of a human parent and a parent of another race, often a female human and a maleelf.^[10]Terry Brooks describes characters such asShea Ohmsford from hisShannara series as a halfling of elf–human parentage. InJack Vance'sLyonesse series of novels, "halfling" is a generic term for beings such asfairies,trolls andogres, who are composed of both magical and earthly substances.^[11] InClifford D. Simak's 1959 short story "No Life of Their Own", halflings are invisible beings in a parallel dimension who, likebrownies orgremlins, bring good or bad luck to people.^{[citation needed]}

• Fictional humanoids
• Fictional human hybrids
• Fictional species and races

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