Origin of Hobbits

[Beleg]

Although Hobbit's seem to be the main character's of Tolkien's two most famous books, Little is said about their Origin or Exact entrance into the Middle Earth Anals. i wonder if this is a suitble topic for a Discussion.

Hobbit's are Humans.
Tolkien writes in a letter to Milton Waldman Tolkien writes,

*The hobbits offcourse are really meant to be a branch of the specifically human race (NOT ELVES OR DWARVES) hence the two kinds can dwell togather and are just called Big Folk and Small folk*

So is it because of this Reason that Hobbit's have not disappeared from the world but are still there for they are a clan of Men.
So because of this is it wrong to Mention Hobbit's as a seperate Race along with Elves, Dwarves and Men.

[Lhunithiliel]

I strongly reccommend this essay=survey (http://www.tolkienwiki.org/wiki.cgi?Hobbits)
:)

[Eledhwen]

It is interesting that the King of Gondor was aware of the Hobbits and their dwelling place from the start...Tolkienwiki - Hobbits “..it was in the one thousand six hundred and first year of the Third Age that the Fallohide brothers, Marcho and Blanco, set out from Bree; and having obtained permission from the high king at Fornost (As the records of Gondor relate this was Argeleb II, the twentieth of the Northern line, which came to an end with Arvedui three hundred years later.), they crossed the brown river Baranduin with a great following of Hobbits. They passed over the Bridge of Stonebows, that had been built in the days of the power of the North Kingdom, and they took all the land beyond to dwell in, between the river and the Far Downs. All that was demanded of them was that they should keep the Great Bridge in repair, and all other bridges and roads, speed the king's messengers, and acknowledge his lordship……… Thus began the Shire-reckoning, for the year of the crossing of the Brandywine (as the Hobbits turned the name) became Year One of the Shire, I am wondering what prompted Gandalf's interest in The Shire. Did the foresight of the Valar mean that Hobbits were in Gandalf's brief even as he embarked at the Grey Havens? Because of this, were the Dunedain watching the Shire borders throughout its history? It seems impossible that a people barely three feet high would have been able to hold such a temperate, fertile land otherwise; look what happened the moment the Rangers were gone.