Quote Originally Posted by pendell View Post
Although, come to think of it, there are linguistic similarities between the Rohirrim and the Shire. The Rohirrim have the word "holybytla", which is the closest we have to "hobbit" in any other language.
This is mentioned in the lore. The Vales of Anduin region, where the Hobbits lived prior to their migration westward, abuts the territory of the Rohirrim. The groups were presumably neighbors for some time, during the early portion of Rohan's history, resulting in linguistic exchange.

This is also part and parcel of how Amazon's show is in wholly uncharted territory. The origin of Hobbits is never presented in the legendarium, but logically it falls out of the various experiments in the manipulation of humans by Morgoth and Sauron that also results in werewolves, vampires, and other nasty beings briefly mentioned at points. Hobbits, being naturally resistant to the shadow, were presumably either a failed experiment or some group of survivors redeemed by the influence of the Valar - broken out of the dungeons of Angband or something like that - at the conclusion of the War of Wrath. But how they got from this presumed origin state, one they would nominally share with various groups of humans liberated from Morgoth following the War of Wrath, to their arrival in the Vales of Anduin is completely unknown.

Deep involvement with one of the Wizards is actually not a bad seed, so far as things go.