One of my favorite authors of all time is J.R.R. Tolkien. I read The Hobbit in the third grade, or maybe the summer before, and finished the Lord of the Rings the same year. I’m currently reading the Silmarillion and am about half way through with that. The hobbits are a race created in the imagination of Tolkien in Middle Earth who are down to earth enjoyable people. They love food; hobbits have about 7 meal times a day. They also love to enjoy tobacco and ale. Maybe not the healthiest of choices, but I don’t know of any hobbits that have suffered from lung disease. They might have an immunity to lung disease, or the tobacco they grow could be healthier, not sure. They also, as a culture, do not wear shoes. In fact they are known throughout Middle Earth and creatures who do not wear shoes, if they are known about at all. And they live out their lives, walking, eating, traveling all barefoot, and some of the Took family adventures barefoot too.
I’m not saying that everything about the hobbits should be copied, but I think Tolkien considered the hobbits as an ideal representation of what a near perfect society would look like. Now they still had family arguments and shrewd businessmen who had little emotion, but hobbits as a whole were a much “gentler folk” than the rest of the world. I can’t say that I was inspired to go barefoot by the hobbits. I have the barefoot wife to thank for that. But I do think it is interesting that Tolkien has a society that is easy going and carefree, and a prominent feature is that they don’t wear shoes. They live simply, tend their gardens, drink their tea, all without shoes. Some good points can be learned from these people for sure.
Tolkien isn’t the only one with characters who are barefoot. Here’s a condensed list taken mostly from barefoot-spring.net/barefoot/bf-movies of books and/or movies with characters who are barefoot as a trait or barefoot for a specific scene:
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Aladdin
- Avatar
- Big Fish
- The Black Stallion
- The Flintstones
- George of the Jungle
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- The Jungle Book
- The Karate Kid
- The Little Mermaid
- The Lord of the Rings
- Peter Pan
- Pocahontas
- Where the Red Fern Grows
We have surrounded ourselves entertainment of all kinds; books, movies, and even video games. And significantly, a greater portion of those characters are barefoot than you see in our real population. Our entertainment kind of idealizes that characters can go barefoot, and they usually do so without any problems. And we want to be as free, brave, smart, healthy, lucky, [fill in the adjective] of the characters we read about. And it’s easy to take off your shoes.
The Barefoot Husband
Barefoot Sanfords 