The Peoples of Middle-earth Read Online Free PDF

several years to translate, select, and arrange the matter of the Red Book of Westmarch in the form in which it is now presented to Men of a later Age, one no less darkling and ominous than were the great years 1418 and 1419 of the Shire long ago.(15)

    This text was followed by a typescript copy (P 7). To this my father made the corrections and additions that brought the Prologue to its final form (many being made to its exemplar P 6 as well); and it was on this typescript that he rejected the original tale of Bilbo's encounter with Gollum and introduced the 'true tale' (FR pp. 20-2). The story is told here on appended pages in exactly its form in the published Prologue, ending with Gollum's cry 'Thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it for ever!'
    From this point, however, there are two texts. In one of these the original story, now become Bilbo's untrue version, is not mentioned at all, and the text moves at once from Gollum's cry of hatred to 'Of Bilbo's later adventures little more need be said here'. But my father was in doubt, whether or not to say anything in the Prologue about Bilbo's doctored accounts of the events; for at the point where the actual story ends ('We hates it for ever!') he subsequently added in this text a direction to a 'Note' on a separate sheet, which was apparently written quite independently. In this 'Note' (which was the origin of the passage concerning the two versions in FR p. 22) the satisfying explanation of the difference in the story as told in the two editions of The Hobbit is probably seen at its emergence. He began: 'This is not the story as Bilbo first told it to his companions and to Gandalf, or indeed as he first set it down in his book' (my italics), but struck out the words following 'Gandalf'; he then went on to say that though Bilbo set down the false story in his memoirs, and 'so it probably appeared in the original Red Book', nonetheless 'many copies contain the true account (alone or as an alternative), derived, no doubt, from notes made by Frodo or Samwise, both of whom knew the truth.'
    On this page he noted (later): 'Alternative, if the only reference to this is made in Chapter II (second fair copy).' This is a reference to the final typescript of the chapter The Shadow of the Past, that went to the printers. The explanation of this apparently very obscure comment is as follows. On the text preceding the one to which he referred, that is to say the penultimate typescript, he had introduced a long rider (16) after Gandalf's words (FR p. 66) 'I put the fear of fire on him, and wrung the true story out of him, bit by bit, with much snivelling and snarling.' In this rider Gandalf continued:

    '... I already suspected much of it. Indeed I already suspected something that I am sure has never occurred to you: Bilbo's story was not true.'
    'What do you mean?' cried Frodo. 'I can't believe it.'
    'Well, this is Gollum's account. Bilbo's reward for winning was merely to be shown a way out of the tunnels. There was no question of a present, least of all of giving away his "precious".
    Gollum confesses that he went back to his island to get it, simply so as to kill Bilbo in safety, for he was hungry and angry.
    But as Bilbo had already picked up the ring, he escaped, and the last Gollum knew of him was when he crept up behind and jumped over him in the dark. That is much more like Gollum!'
    'But it is quite unlike Bilbo, not to tell the true tale,' said Frodo. 'And what was the point of it?'
    'Unlike Bilbo, yes. But unlike Bilbo with the ring? No, I am afraid not. You see, half-unknown to himself he was trying to strengthen his claim to be its rightful owner: it was a present, a prize he had won. Much like Gollum and his "birthday-present". The two were more alike than you will admit. And both their tales were improbable and hobbitlike. My dear Frodo, Elven-rings are never given away as presents, or prizes: never. You are a hobbit yourself or you would have doubted the tale, as I did at