A Lintip reading a book.
Lintips were a mysterious race of fairie-like creatures in Shire-hobbit-folklore that teased and played pranks on Tom Bombadil. Though no detail on their bases can be certain--they were considered to be small pixie like creatures--which is suggested in the poem, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, being about the size of Tom Bombadil's foot, also they apparently smelled "mousy". As they appeared at night under the moon, Bombadil wondered if they had they slided down from the Moon, or came in star-winks. When he told them to drink up the dew from the moon-grass, they ran away and laughed at him. Tom's wished them to stay but they were the only things not to talk to him, why he suspected them to have something to hide.
They may have been related to the Nandini, a kind of lesser Spirits serving the Valie Yavanna who were also called Pixies.Gleaming spirits who danced and sipped radiance from buttercups apparently were known to exist in or visit at Tathrobel. These may actually have been Lintips or related to them.
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Notes[]
Everything about the Lintips description is enigmatic. If they were not a race of fairy or pixie they may have been spirits of moon- or starlight or perhaps actual Moon-mice!
Editorial Note: This entry contains speculative or fan-based material — such as fanon, fanfiction, or theory constructs — that may not be directly supported by canonical texts. Interpretations offered here are part of the NNCA’s speculative corpus and should not be mistaken for primary Tolkien sources.