Niggle is the title character of J.R.R. Tolkien’s story Leaf by Niggle.
The story follows an artist named Niggle who is preoccupied with painting an enormous tree and its leaves. He is a perfectionist and keeps postponing practical tasks because he wants to complete every detail of his picture. His artistic obsession is interrupted by illness, death, and a journey into an unfamiliar afterlife-like landscape.
Leaf by Niggle was written during the late 1930s or early 1940s and first published in 1945 in the Dublin Review. It was later reprinted in Tree and Leaf, alongside Tolkien’s essay On Fairy-Stories. The story is often read as a reflection on artistic creation, unfinished work, duty, and the relationship between small acts and larger purposes.
Niggle is not a character from The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien created him for this short allegorical tale, which is separate from the mythology of Middle-earth.