First off, it intrigues me how Bilbo becomes the Mad Baggins of legends. I think the little detail of the stories of TH and LotR merging together clearly shows Tolkien's love of stories and fairytales, and his deep knowledge of them.
Also, funnily, like
skip, I ended up wondering about the origin of the Ring-verse. Sauron made it, you say? Makes sense, if we take into account the fact that he wrote it on the One Ring. But how on earth did it become a part of Elvish ring-lore?? Did Sauron already write it in Eregion and told it to the Elves while laughing secretly to himself and then went and made the Ring? Or when he had made it, did he perhaps send the Elven smiths a message: "Hi I made a Ring and now I'll kill you all. Btw, here's a poem about the Rings I made. Mwahahahahaa." Weird.
Ok, on a totally different topic, I've always liked the way Tolkien talk about autumn here, how the Bagginses always yearn to travel in the autumn. I wonder if it's because of that that I and many other Tolkien fans I know feel an urge to return to Tolkien's books especially in autumn. Whatever the reason, it's very beautiful, I think.
Lastly, it's funny how it's dercibed how Frodo's longing for an adventure grows when he grows older. It got me wondering if the whole Quest only took place because Frodo had a middle-age crisis...
