While there are a truly incredible amount of high fantasy creations in the world, few can claim to be as universally well known as J. R. R. Tolkien’s books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In many ways, Tolkien’s work would go on to become part of the foundation that many high fantasy works draw from to this day. While it’s always been obvious that Tolkien’s work was the source of some degree of inspiration in the world of Zelda, an old article reveals that the Deku Scrubs in particular used to share names with the famous Hobbits of Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
In the Japanese magazine 64Dream, there’s a segment where some game developers discuss the game and one of them offhandedly mentions that their favorite character was a Deku Scrub who used to be called “Hobbit” in the early stages of development. It’s easy to tell, just by taking a quick glance at them, that the Deku Scrubs don’t share an awful lot with the short and stealthy Hobbits from Middle Earth. The only similarity I personally can think of is that they seem to have somewhat of a penchant for living in holes in the ground, as Hobbits live in Hobbit Holes, and Deku Scrubs like to take shelter in their Deku Flowers, even sometimes bartering the deeds to their flowers for high prices.
When looking at the other races introduced in Ocarina of Time, the Deku Scrub’s flagship title, it’s pretty easy to draw some comparisons to the other races of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The Zora resemble the grace and beauty of the elves, and the Goron resemble the Orcs with their muscular bodies and respect of strength. The Kokiri end up being the primary race in the forest over the Deku Scrubs in Ocarina of Time and, while they do end up somewhat resembling the Hobbits with their short stature, it’s evident that the Kokiri derive more from Peter Pan than any Tolkien work.
While there are absolutely many inspirational lines one can draw from Tolkien’s work to the land of Hyrule, it will always just be inspiration. It quickly becomes obvious that the name Hobbit that was given to the Deku Scrubs was nothing more than a place holder name for one of the many colorful races that would go on to populate Hyrule. Part of what makes the world of Zelda so lovable is that it truly takes its own approach to creating its own races in its own world. Personally, I have never cared for the Orc race in Tolkien’s works, but consider the Gorons one of my favorite groups in all of the Zelda series. In my opinion, this just goes to show you how different the Zelda series has been even when approaching familiar tropes.
