TCG Letter #1063

Tolkien writes to Miss Allen and notes that the Mewlips of his poem are mere legend, and that although the Hobbits are treated in his work as 'historical', their story would have a good deal of fiction mixed up with it.

In Collected Poems, it is remarked on that Tolkien explained "(no doubt inventing on the spot) that Mewlips were merely legend to Hobbits, and that Hobbit minds would not dwell only on comfort, implying that on occasion they would turn to thoughts of the grotesque."