The Hobbit book contains a lot of references to strange things. For example, if you’ve read it, perhaps you remember that Gollum used to teach his grandmother to suck “eggses”, but let’s not get into that right now. (maybe in a future article?) There are some things that make you wonder if they’re actually canonical. After all, the Hobbit was written as a children’s book – it was originally told to Tolkien’s son verbally as a bedtime story. Back then, it wasn’t even really meant to be related to the myths in the Silmarillion that he had earlier conceived. The world that the Hobbit was set in probably was somewhat based off the one in the Silmarillion, but it wasn’t originally meant to be the same. Later, when Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings, he tied the two together in as rational a manner as possible, but there are still some weird things in the Hobbit.

However, we can find an explanation for some things in the lore, and one of those things is talking animals. If you recall, the dwarves encounter ravens that can speak the common tongue, and the talking thrush is a vital plot point. Without him, Smaug would probably have not ever been defeated, as he told Bard the Bowman about that dragon’s weakness. Now, we do have talking birds in real life, but not sentient ones, as these seem to be. These birds seem to have more common sense and intellect than some people I could mention. There is actually an explanation for this, found in chapter 2 of the Silmarillion, “Of Aulë and Yavanna.” During the part when the Ents, or at least the idea of them is being created, (I’m too lazy to explain all that now, read the book yourself!!) Manwë says:

“Behold! When the Children (The Elves and the Men) awake, then the thought of Yavanna will awake also, and it will summon spirits from afar, and they will go among the kelvar (animals) and and the olvar (plants), and some will dwell therein. “

There you go. In one sentence, both walking trees and talking birds are explained. There are not only sentient animals in the Hobbit because it’s a children’s book, but they were part of Middle-Earth’s original creation. Perhaps this can also explain the fox in the Fellowship of the Ring that observed the hobbits and thought about them in a very human-like manner. It’s also possible that Mr. Fox was just an example of personification, though. Maybe Beorn’s animals are also sentient, for the same reason as the birds.

On the more unpleasant side of things, there are also massive spiders in the Hobbit which can talk and understand speech. These are also sentient beings; however, they were not created in the same way as the other speaking creatures. They are the spawn of Ungoliant, who was a fallen Maiar (kinda like angels) who took on the physical form of a giant spider.

So, there actually is an explanation for the talking animals in Middle-Earth. Beat that A. A. Milne.