It turns out that Hobbits actually existed [HT: Tyler Cowen]:
Researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York have confirmed that Homo floresiensis is a genuine ancient human species and not a descendant of healthy humans dwarfed by disease. Using statistical analysis on skeletal remains of a well-preserved female specimen, researchers determined the “hobbit” to be a distinct species and not a genetically flawed version of modern humans. Details of the study appear in the December issue of Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, published by Wiley-Blackwell.
In 2003 Australian and Indonesian scientists discovered small-bodied, small-brained, hominin (human-like) fossils on the remote island of Flores in the Indonesian archipelago. This discovery of a new human species called Homo floresiensis has spawned much debate with some researchers claiming that the small creatures are really modern humans whose tiny head and brain are the result of a medical condition called microcephaly.
Researchers William Jungers, Ph.D., and Karen Baab, Ph.D. studied the skeletal remains of a female (LB1), nicknamed “Little Lady of Flores” or “Flo” to confirm the evolutionary path of the hobbit species. The specimen was remarkably complete and included skull, jaw, arms, legs, hands, and feet that provided researchers with integrated information from an individual fossil.
Frodo lives! I’m sure that science will eventually prove that elves, dwarves, orcs, and balrogs also once walked the Earth.
UPDATE: I should add that the existence of trolls even more ferocious than those described by Tolkien has already been proven beyond doubt in many parts of the blogosphere.
troll_dc2 says:
So what about trolls?
December 8, 2009, 1:07 pmIlya Somin says:
So what about trolls?
Their existence has already been proven beyond reasonable doubt right here in the VC comments section, as well as other comment sections throughout the blogosphere.
December 8, 2009, 1:12 pmAJK says:
ZING!
December 8, 2009, 1:31 pmHarryEagar says:
He lives here“
December 8, 2009, 1:41 pmAnderson says:
Balrog and oliphaunt fossils have been discovered, but misidentified by ideologically biased Darwinists as “dinosaurs.”
With your donations, the Tolkienism Foundation can promote the TRUTH about this and related issues.
Let me go rent a P.O. box, and I’ll tell you shortly where you can direct those donations.
December 8, 2009, 1:48 pmFantasiaWHT says:
I’ve always wondered… If humans annihilated themselves tomorrow, would aliens in the far distant future, stumbling across our fossilized remains, conclude from those remains that we were all the same species or not? Dogs are all the same species, scientifically, but have bone structures and sizes that vary far more than modern human does from some of the earlier hominids of supposedly different species.
December 8, 2009, 2:42 pmBenjamin Davis says:
Back in 8th grade, I loved when we read the Hobbit in school and went on through so much of Tolkien over the years. Great words like “the Silmarillon” what a magic term.
Have not been here in a bit. Wish all the Volokhians a Merry Christmas, Chappy Chanukah and Merry and Happy other religious or secular times, and a Happy New Year.
Best,
December 8, 2009, 3:13 pmBen
SuperSkeptic says:
Sadly, they cannot have been Hobbits, since their feet are not enlarged, but proportional…
December 8, 2009, 3:25 pmkdackson says:
You know, sometimes a book is just a book. But a good cigar is a smoke.
Or something like that.
December 8, 2009, 3:34 pmBrett says:
It’s absolutely fascinating to think about how mere tens of thousands of years ago there were a number of hominid species running around, and not just homo sapiens sapiens.
December 8, 2009, 3:46 pmDan Hamilton says:
Talk about nit picking. So they had normal hairy feet, Tolkien was wrong on ONE small point.
I saw a Discovery show that had a dinosaur skull that was a perfect Dragon skull. Looked like it had come from a prop department.
Remember Trolls turn into stone in the light of day. They can only live in the dark. They are not very bright but like to cause trouble.
December 8, 2009, 3:47 pmAndrew says:
This is from Wikipedia, so take it with a few grains of salt:
Pretty intriguing, IMO.
December 8, 2009, 3:54 pmMark Field says:
They found the body of Sauron?
December 8, 2009, 3:56 pmloki13 says:
I think there’s a short and concise phrase that allows one to express that- Happy Holidays. But the War on Chistmas(tm) people get in a snit over expressions of cheer that conform to their ideology.
December 8, 2009, 3:57 pmPeteP says:
You doubt the existence of Balrogs ?
Apparently you’ve never met my mother-in-law.
December 8, 2009, 4:06 pmAnderson says:
It’s absolutely fascinating to think about how mere tens of thousands of years ago there were a number of hominid species running around, and not just homo sapiens sapiens.
Yeah, we sure kicked THEIR asses, eh?
December 8, 2009, 4:35 pmMatthew Carberry says:
Sauron hasn’t been corporeal since the Second Age.
Gosh!
December 8, 2009, 4:38 pmAnderson says:
See, people like Field are the ones Tolkienism needs to reach.
December 8, 2009, 4:42 pmBama 1L says:
So he got the Ring out of Númenor how, exactly? “[O]ne need boggle,” Professor.
December 8, 2009, 4:47 pmPeteP says:
“So he got the Ring out of Númenor how, exactly? ”
Fed Elf.
December 8, 2009, 4:50 pmTweets that mention The Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Scientific Evidence for the Lord of the Rings -- Topsy.com says:
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December 8, 2009, 5:04 pmAnderson says:
So he got the Ring out of Númenor how, exactly?
Magic.
December 8, 2009, 5:20 pmAnderson says:
Btw, if you were thinking that everything you know about Wikipedia indicates that it would have an absurdly lengthy article about Sauron, then boy were you ever right.
December 8, 2009, 5:22 pmMatthew Carberry says:
“He took it up again”.
Being a spirit doesn’t necessarily make you incapable of interacting with physical objects, at least that doesn’t seem to be the case in Tolkein.
As the Necromancer he apparently had some undefined physical presence, that doesn’t mean he had his own “body” anymore. Could have been animating a corpse or an empty suit of armor. The Ring was focussed on domination, he could have had dominated a fish to bring it to the surface and a bird to fly it home.
I’m not sure magic on the level of top Maiar is going to be very limited at least not to the point of making getting a small ring from A to B particularly difficult.
December 8, 2009, 5:22 pmLTEC says:
Actually, no. They are just guessing. Their guess may fall out of favor, or become accepted by others, or become accepted and then fall out of favor. But it will not lead to an interesting prediction that can be tested, and it can never be proved wrong. These purely historical sciences, like astrophysics, are deeply problematical.
December 8, 2009, 5:28 pmSteve G says:
At the risk of going way too far with this: The fall of Númenor, and Sauron’s “escape” from its destruction was in the Second Age (the Second Age ended when he lost the ring in the War of the Last Alliance, which came after the fall of Númenor).
Having said that, while in the movies he explicitly had not taken corporeal form, in the books he definitely had a physical form.
December 8, 2009, 5:34 pmBruce Hayden says:
You could argue that there still are, since we are arguably close enough genetically to be of the same genus as the two chimp species, and since genus “homo” was identified before genus “pan”, maybe they should be named homo troglodytes and homo paniscus. Besides, technically, chimps, gorillas, and orangutans are hominids, as they are all members of family Hominidae.
December 8, 2009, 5:36 pmMatthew Carberry says:
Sauron escaped Numenor as a spirit, his body went down with the ship. He didn’t know the breaking of the world was going to happen.
At least that’s how I remember my Simarillion.
December 8, 2009, 5:42 pmAnatid says:
Fortunately, genetic similarity has little or nothing to do with our Linnean, morphological classification system of life-forms. So we can draw the genus distinction wherever we like, and there seems to be some utility in distinguishing the branches pan and homo that split off about 12 million years ago.
December 8, 2009, 6:00 pmAnderson says:
Actually, no. They are just guessing. Their guess may fall out of favor, or become accepted by others, or become accepted and then fall out of favor. But it will not lead to an interesting prediction that can be tested, and it can never be proved wrong. These purely historical sciences, like astrophysics, are deeply problematical.
LTEC’s grasp of science in general, paleontology, and astrophysics are all sadly wanting.
Astrophysics makes no predictions? See “cosmic background radiation.”
Paleontology has made predictions that were disproved, for instance the notion that human descent was linear, or that Ramapithecus was a direct ancestor.
I think LTEC is a prime donor for Tolkienism however. Depending on your donation, you can be “Valar” for $10K, “Maiar” for $5K, “High Elf” for $1K. At the other end, five bucks gets you “Honorary Half Orc.”
December 8, 2009, 6:21 pmMark Field says:
The discussion has already been geeky enough without my adding to it. I’ll just say that the fact that he’s incorporeal means only that his body is somewhere else.
December 8, 2009, 6:37 pmAnderson says:
I’ll just say that the fact that he’s incorporeal means only that his body is somewhere else.
At the bottom of the ocean, repulsing fishes with its vile taste, I would suppose.
December 8, 2009, 6:38 pmMark Field says:
Ok Anderson, I’m throwin’ down. LOTR trivia contest, you and me, any time, any where.
December 8, 2009, 6:39 pmAnderson says:
Sorry, my duties with the Tolkienism Foundation consume all of my spare time, as you can see!
[Runs away.]
December 8, 2009, 6:41 pmAnderson says:
Damned if there isn’t “Tolkienism” btw. ‘Cept it makes creationism look smart.
Another instance of life imitating Onion.
December 8, 2009, 6:49 pmInstapundit » Blog Archive » SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR THE LORD OF THE RINGS: Fossil Hobbit Evidence Is Real. Plus this: “I shou… says:
[...] EVIDENCE FOR THE LORD OF THE RINGS: Fossil Hobbit Evidence Is Real. Plus this: “I should add that the existence of trolls even more ferocious than those [...]
December 8, 2009, 6:54 pmPunkindrublic says:
Trolls? Just check the halls of Congress; they’re running rampant!
December 8, 2009, 8:10 pmPersonFromPorlock says:
I do think, though, that the differences between troglodytes and paniscus are significant enough that paniscus ought to be in its own genus.
December 8, 2009, 8:18 pmAnatid says:
Agreed. But then, the entire Linnean system is probably going to fall out of use entirely in the next 10 or 20 years. Genetic sequencing is becoming so cheap that we’ll be able to create better phylogenetic trees and a classification system to reflect this. How, for example, can you possibly fit ring species into the Linnean system?
December 8, 2009, 8:33 pmLifeofthemind says:
Now if we found a skeleton that was missing a finger we’d be onto something.
Sauron as has been noted was a Maiar and therefor of the Ainur akin to the Valar of whom Professor T said that their real appearance was of images of power and dread but that they clothed themselves in a physical body as a form of raiment. Over time the ability to change appearance, like all powers brought into the world, diminishes. Sauron while only a Maiar, a big Balrog, in the First Age could transform himself into a Werewolf and a giant Vampire bat. Later he could still assume an appearance that was pleasing or terrifying. The later efforts of Saruman with King Theoden are a shadowy reminder of the creative power that all who were present at the Singing into Creation could draw upon and a pale echo of how Sauron had dealt with Ar Pharazon. When Sauron was caught in the Fall of Númenor he lost the ability to assume an appearance that was fair. He did not lose the ability to assume a physical presence. Kindly old Professor T said that he appeared as a large man. After the destruction of the Ring he lost even that power, becoming a shadow that gnawed on itself in corners until eventually it gained enough of a presence to cause mischief. My guess is that after sulking for another 4,000 years Sauron invented Athlete’s Foot.
When men die their souls go to the Halls of Mandos and stay there until at the End they will be sent Elsewhere (cue music). When elves die they go to the Halls and then get sent back to Middle Earth to try again. Orcs being degenerate elves it is unclear what happens to their spirits or if there was a time line as Morgoth corrupted them that would have clued the Valar into what was happening.
The Ainur are truly Immortal spirits and their physical presence in the world may be seen as a projection while their reality remains elsewhere. They are hard to contain or control. The actual expulsion of Morgoth from the Circles of the World was a major task, taking the combined efforts of all of his peers. When Saruman died his spirit looked to the West and the West rejected him. Something similar happened to Sauron. Perhaps the slow ebbing of their power, what I suspect was linked to their memory of the Great Song, was like a battery slowly losing its charge, until it could be dispersed. Gandalf alone of those who was at the Beginning remembered and therefor kept his Power and could go back.
Since there was a physical union between Maiar and Elves (hard to see how that could be) and then Elves and Men some echo of that memory ran in the bloodlines of both Aragorn and his distant cousin Arwen. How this view of the linking of Power to the memory of the Song before Eru Ilvutar relates to the fate of Radagast or Bombadil I do not know. Radagast’s fate was a loose end and Bombadil, like Beorn in The Hobbit was simply outside the Cosmology.
There is a Plan B explanation. The hobbits in Flores are an indication of what happens to Heros of Socialist Labor when they live under a strict carbon neutral regime for the benefit of the rapacious Demon Manbearpig Gore.
December 8, 2009, 9:00 pmJohn Costellol says:
If H. flor.. is in fact representative of a long lasting species, then e can make a prediction: we will find others. Until then, or until genetic analyssis can prove it is different or the same as modern humans, then it is as real as the Tassaday.
December 8, 2009, 9:05 pmLinda Seebach says:
Linguist John McWhorter has pointed out that some of the languages on Flores have features rare or unknown elsewhere, consistent with simplifications likely to occur when two different populations share a language exotic to one of them.
December 8, 2009, 9:57 pmhttp://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_9.html
Mark Field says:
Take the Old Forest route. It’s safe, really.
December 8, 2009, 10:01 pmMoe Lane » Hobbitses! says:
[...] HT: Instapundit and The Volokh Conspiracy. [...]
December 8, 2009, 10:08 pmBad Lag says:
There is pohotgraohic evidence that George Bush has The One Ring.
December 8, 2009, 10:56 pmCareless says:
Lifeofthemind wins the 2009 award for best post, long form, non-legal subject
December 8, 2009, 11:16 pmChrisIowa says:
I haven’t read so much about LotR since Hubert Humphrey was President.
December 8, 2009, 11:46 pmuberVU - social comments says:
Social comments and analytics for this post…
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December 8, 2009, 11:48 pmCareless says:
Wow, it’s basically the Silmarillion written in Wikipediaese
December 9, 2009, 12:00 amedit: it’s 34 pages when shoved into Word
theobromophile says:
There are elves around – or at least people with pointy elf ears. Now, boring scientific types will happily tell you that it’s just a misplaced Darwin’s point, but it’s obviously a clear indication of cross-breeding between elves and humans.
December 9, 2009, 2:13 amShag from Brookline says:
All this has me humming “You’re Getting To Be A Hobbit With Me” and “I Was Trolling Along, Minding Your Business ….”
And Justice Scalia’s Lawrence v. Texas slippery slope comes to mind with potential cross-breeding.
December 9, 2009, 7:42 amSmooth, like a Rhapsody says:
theobromophile:
Has the Vulcan lobby been heard from on that “point”?
December 9, 2009, 8:44 amAchillea says:
I will never look at sequoias the same way again.
December 9, 2009, 11:59 amohwilleke says:
Particularly fascinating is the likeihood that interaction between the two species impacted the local language, perhaps because Homo sapien sapien children were nannied by Homo f. members, producing changes similar to those seen in modern human populatins when children are raised by non-native speakers of the language of the child’s parents.
In contrast, there is little if any evidence that Neanderthals and modern humans co-existed in single communities and had social bonds to each other that have left any trace. (Neither case reveals any evidence of genetic admixture of the species either).
The presumed common ancestor of Homo f. and modern humans is from about 1.9 million years ago. In contrast, all people with non-African ancestry have a common ancestor something like 0.1 million years ago, and all modern humans have a common ancestor something like 0.2 million years ago. This is the only known example of pre-Neanderthal homo and modern humans co-existing at the same time and place. (Neanderthal and modern humans co-existed many places as many as tens of thousands of years, but apparently were socially isolated from each other).
December 9, 2009, 1:17 pmLifeofthemind says:
Careless,
Thank you. I will visit more and write less.
BTW, When Sauron went to Númenor he left the Ring behind with The Nine for safekeeping. When he rebuilt the Dark Tower he took it up again. So apparently precious as it was he was confident that it was safe off his finger and he did not need it to effect the destruction of Númenor.
ohwilleke:
You never met any of my old bosses.
December 9, 2009, 7:53 pmThe Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Peter Jackson Reveals Some Details of Planned Hobbit Movie says:
[...] influenced by the recent discovery of real-life Hobbits, Peter Jackson has revealed some details of his upcomingHobbit movie, including the return of Ian [...]
December 9, 2009, 9:35 pmPat Conolly says:
Probably not the best place to ask this, but I wonder if “Homo floresiensis” is not simply a short race, like current pygmies of the Ituri. What criteria makes them considered a separate species?
December 10, 2009, 6:57 pmHobbits Are Real! « says:
[...] December 2009 by hamerdinger Via Instapundit, the Volokh Conspiracy tells us: Researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York have confirmed that Homo [...]
December 11, 2009, 8:59 amSteyniac 401th « Free Canuckistan! says:
[...] AND LO, ALL THE NERDS REJOICED… Scientific Evidence for the Lord of the Rings …. [...]
December 11, 2009, 7:00 pmThe Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » More Scientific Evidence on Prehistoric Hobbits says:
[...] on the heels of proof of the existence of hobbits, we now have evidence that they settled much of the world before humans did, and battled dragons [...]
February 26, 2010, 4:36 pm