LotR - Prologue

[Bêthberry]

Little green men, Helen! Trust our balroggie fan girl to come up with a hotness rating for weapons.

I think there was one battle in Britiannia's past that was determined by the long bow, no? I could be mistaken.

There are a couple of questions about "this very specific lens" which has not yet been considered. When was it written or added to the typescript? Before "The Long Expected Party" or after the book proper was completed?

I can understand how the Appendices came about. I wonder what urges prompted Tolkien to offer a short history of Hobbits as a prologue to the story. What was to be gained? Why not just let Bilbo's party speak for Hobbits?

Or was it necessary to prepare the 'fiction' that this is recorded history, recorded by representatives of a group of people who did not write histories and in conjunction with other peoples who did? And necessary to recap The Hobbit?