LotR --- Appendix A: III -- Durin's Folk - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

The Squatter of Amon Rûdh · 12-12-2005, 05:52 AM

It's probably stretching things a bit to name Elanor. One-hundred and twenty years is a very long life even for a Hobbit. My money would be on one of the Fairbairns, but to say which would be to build speculation on speculation.

Sadly, it would appear that the original Red Book of Westmarch is lost forever. Tolkien mentions copyists in his foreword, and were he working from the prototype he would not have encountered them. Since Tolkien failed to document the locations of the remaining manuscripts (a shocking omission for so experienced a scholar), and since the prototype, if it survived into our era at all, is lost, we are denied the graphological and linguistic analysis that might have suggested an author and date for this closing comment.

12-12-2005, 05:52 AM	#5
The Squatter of Amon Rûdh Spectre of Decay Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Bar-en-Danwedh Posts: 2,178	Westmarch scribe 'D'? It's probably stretching things a bit to name Elanor. One-hundred and twenty years is a very long life even for a Hobbit. My money would be on one of the Fairbairns, but to say which would be to build speculation on speculation. Sadly, it would appear that the original Red Book of Westmarch is lost forever. Tolkien mentions copyists in his foreword, and were he working from the prototype he would not have encountered them. Since Tolkien failed to document the locations of the remaining manuscripts (a shocking omission for so experienced a scholar), and since the prototype, if it survived into our era at all, is lost, we are denied the graphological and linguistic analysis that might have suggested an author and date for this closing comment. __________________ Man kenuva métim' andúne?