I also came across the interesting fact that after the introduction of paper for books a number of early Icelandic velum books were simply destroyed - in one case a page was used to make a pattern for a waistcoat.
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Once their contents had been transferred to a more easily read format, the vellum books lost almost all value to the contemporary population. In fact, they were viewed as so unimportant that the stiff pages of one of them were cut up into patterns for making clothes. (Byock 'Viking Age Iceland')
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Now, given the fondness among Hobbits for that particular item of clothing, one has to wonder what happened to the original Red Book....