Hobbits are akin to the race of men, being counted amoung them in the eyes of Eru but they are not the same, differing greatly in appearence and custom. They are short, being generally between two and four feet tall and divided into three distinct breeds, the Harfoots, the Fallohides and the Stoors. The origins of the Hobbits are unclear and shrouded in mystery with Hobbits own records only going back to the settling of the Shire and their oldest tales only as far as when they dewelt on the banks of the Anduin at some time in the early third age.

At some in the third age they moved from the eastern lands, a time referred to in the Prologue of Lord of the Rings as their 'Wandering Days'and their earliest tales give the impression that they once dwelt in the Upper Valley of the Anduin between the eaves of Greenwood the Great and the Misty Mountains.Their accounts mention the increase in Men in the land and a darkness falling over Mirkwood.
One Marmadoc tells of part of his journey across the Misty mountains, this tale must have been related at a later date and the language altered so that modern Hobbits can understand it.

".....it was a cold and hungry journey. I remember being hungry alot, we had to be careful with the food you see, to make it last. We were all scared as well, we knew what we'd left behind and heard great stories about the western lands from the Dwarves and Men we had met and we just hoped they were true. It turned out that they were, which was a relief. We risked alot crossing the mountains and many folk lost their lives in the journey. It was worth it."

Once they had crossed the Misty Mountains into the Westlands Hobbits met Elves and Men unlike the ones that had driven them from the Upper Banks of the Anduin. They encountered the remnants of the Dunedain, who were in decline at that time and so there was space enough for the new come Hobbits settle in that area, forming several communities. Bree is what was once one of those early settlements, though now greatly changed and somewhat smaller.The few Dunedain still in that area taught those Hobbits to read and write and from then on Hobbits spoke only Westron, the Common Speech and their old languages only linger on in names.

In the year 1601 of the Third Age, two brothers from Bree applied to the High King, Argeleb II, of Fornost for permission to cross the Great river Baranduin and establish another Hobbit settlements. Marco and Blancho were these two brothers and they had a great following as they moved out of Bree and crossed the River by the bridge of Stonebows. This group of Hobbits took all the land beyond the river for their own and so founded the Shire and so the Shire reckoning begins with Year one being the year that Marcho and Blanco led the Hobbits across the River and the Shire was founded.

One Hobbit lads letter to his Uncle as he left to follow Marcho and Blanco was uncovered:

"Dear Ga[rest of name smudged],
Guess where were going? Da, Ma, Daisy and me, we're leaving here and heading further West, Marcho and Blanco are going to lead us across the great river Baranduin, do you remember them? They came to your yule party the other year, you must remember Blanco, he slipped on the path and fell into the pond on the way home. But we're all packing up and following them, it's such an adventure, Da has spent months planning everything we need to do and take with us. We leave in two days but I [words smudged again, most likely want or wish] to go now. Two days seems such a long time. I'll make sure I come visit you, bring you something back from there, quite where 'there' is I'm not sure but Da knows..."

It was from now that the Hobbits began to slip out of the happenings in the wider world. In love with their new home they felt no need to concern themselves with the happenings in the wider world and slipped out of the records of Men and Elves, they were still nominally ruled by the King they managed their own matters with their own Cheiftains. Hobbits own records state that they sent bowmen to the aid of the King in the battle with the Witchking at Fornost but no records of men record this. They retained their loyalty to the King, even after the North Kingdom ended but began to select a Thain to hold authority of the King that was gone and they began to spread, with the Oldbucks settling on the Eastern banks of the Brandywine and becoming the Brandybucks.

Little threatened the Hobbits in theirland of plenty, there was a great plague in the year 1637, year 37 by the Shire reckoning and there was one battle, the battle of Greenfields which took place in 1147 by the Shire reckoning. Bandoras (Bullroarer)Took routed an invasion of Orcs from the borders of the Shire. In between these two events however the Hobbits first began to cultivate Pipeweed, one Hobbit in fact, Tobold Hornblower.

May Took wrote an interesting letter to her sister concerning these two events:

Rose,
Well blow me if that cousin of mine hasn't got himself into trouble again. He took it upon himself to go fight a bunch of Orcs somewhere in the Northfarthing, and won! I told him that if he just let them along they'd pass the Shire right by but he had to go fight. Roused up a gang of likely lads to do it with him and off they went, and not all of them came back, there was two young lads lost and others injured but the Orcs are dead and evryone his hailing Bandoras as a hero, some have begun to call him 'Bullroarer' now thats a daft name for a Hobbit.
So how're the kids? I see that your grandad Tobolds weed has taken like a storm, I'll have to order some more from you all there, we get through it at a rate now. Bet Old Tobold never knew how popular this would be when he started mucking about with drying leaves out, shame he didn't get to see this new surge in interest. Though a small number of Hobbits appreciated his ideas from the start...."

The Shire faced more hard winters in the past than they do now, they went through the 'Days of Dearth' in the years 1158-60 by the Shires reckoning where there was a hard winter and famine through all of the Shire, as well as the Fell Winter in the year 1311 by Shire reckoning, where wolves invaded the Shire and the Brandywine froze but apart from the seasons little threatened the peace of the Shire until the war of the Ring.

In 1419 Sharkey arrived in the Shire, as did many big folk and began to take control. They exported pipeweed and other things out of the Shire, as well as building new mills and tearing down Smials to make way for 'industry'. Luckily the return of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin put an end to Sharkey and his mens mischeif and there was the last battle in the Shire. The Battle of Bywater where nineteen Hobbits lost their lives to seventy of the ruffians and the Hobbits who took part are honoured in the history books and the Red Book.

Note: Italised text is non-factual diary/letter entries, main text is based on information found in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings