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Old 12-04-2004, 02:32 PM   #21
Firefoot
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 7,547
Firefoot has been trapped in the Barrow!
Hold on a minute. The

"My Diary. My Unexpected Journey. There and Back Again. And What Happened After.
Adventures of Finve Hobbits. The Tale of the Great Ring, compiled by Bilbo Baggins from his own obswervations and the accounts of his friends What we did in the War of the Ring."

is what Bilbo was going to name the Red Book - he was having some trouble coming up with a title. Frodo got rid of all that and replaced it with "The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King." Those titles are NOT the names of those other volumes.

All of these different books are getting confused on this thread. They are:

The Red Book of Westmarch: Includes Bilbo's diary of his journey (The Hobbit), Frodo's telling of the events of the War of the Ring, and Sam's reflections. This book was started by Bilbo in Hobbiton, taken with him to Rivendell to finish (though he didn't), given to Frodo in Rivendell on Frodo's way back to the Shire, nearly finished by Frodo in the Shire, and given to Sam to finish before Frodo passed into the West.

Three volumes (also bound in red leather): Includes the compilation of the tale of Elves in the First Age (The Silmarillion). These were written by Bilbo in Rivendell. They were finished by the time Bilbo gave these volumes to Frodo. Frodo used them as references while writing his part of the Red Book, but he himself did not write in these volumes. They are separate from the Red Book, but they go together like books in a series.

A fifth volume: Included genealogies, commentaries, etc. concerning the hobbit members of the Fellowship (i.e. Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin). This was added later in Westmarch. This volume is like the Appendices at the back of RotK.

Frodo did add to the diary (The Red Book) after he received the three volumes.

I hope this will straighten things out.
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