J.R.R.'s little joke!

[ringbearer]

I'm sure we all agree the true authors of LotR are Bilbo, Frodo and Samwise. Throughout the story they (the Hobbits) discuss how the story they are writing will end. eg. "they all lived happily, ever after until the end of their days" and various other forms.

Then tolkien ends it with Sam saying "Well, I'm back!"

Pure Genius!

[Finmandos12]

Originially, the ending was going to be that Sam and his family were talking about how Aragorn was going to come visit the Shire, but JRR dropped it.

[ringbearer]

Really? Had not heard that...glad he dropped the idea. Think the ending is perfect.:D

[Darth Tater]

Also a lot of the stuff in Appendix A is by Merry and (I think) Pippin

[ringbearer]

I also assume "The Red book of Westmarch" is LotR. This is why I think the single big "red" edition of LotR is the best one...hard to read in bed though...quite heavy!

[Erewe]

Speaking of which, I think it'd be cool if they included all the works of Tolkien in one large edition, in red, call it "The Red Book of Westmarch" and edit it together as if it were real history. That'd be awesome! (As in Awesome, Dude!)

--Erewë

[ringbearer]

That would be "one heck of a big book" but awesome to say the least!

[Ñólendil]

Yes, Tolkien originally did an Epilogue. But it was so universally condemned he decided not to put it in.

The Lord of the Rings is supposed to be Tolkien's translation of the Thain's Copy of the Red Book (the original is not supposed to have survived), which was completed by Findegil, the King's Scribe in the early Fourth Age. See Note on Shire Records in Book I.

[Fat middle]

yep, but i think that The Red Book included both LOTR and The Hobbit.

The Sil. was included in "Translations from the Elves"

[Ithildin]

Tolkien sure did a good job of making his books seem like real history. I don't think I'd be surprised if I ran across some sort of ancient hobbit artifact someday. ;)

[ringbearer]

Start digging in your backyards today!!!

[Erewe]

Thanks for correcting me on that. But it'd still be cool if they just published it all as if they were old copies of the Red Book, and Translations from Elvish. Weren't there three volumes to that?

--Erewë

[ringbearer]

from the Grey Havens...

...There was a big book with plain red leather covers; its tall pages were now almost filled. At the beginning there were many leaves covered with Bilbo's thin wandering hand; but most of it was written in Frodo's firm flowing script. It was devided into chapters, but chapter 80 was unfinished, and after that were some blank leaves. The title page had many titles on it, crossed out one after another, so:

My Diary. My Unexpected Journey. There and Back Again. And What Happened After.

Adventures of Five Hobbits. The Tale of the Great Ring, compiled by Bilbo Baggins from his own observations and the accounts of his friends. What we did in the War of the Ring.

Here Bilbo's hand ended and Frodo had written:

THE DOWNFALL

OF THE

LORD OF THE RINGS

AND THE

RETURN OF THE KING

(as seen by the Little People; being the memoirs of Bilbo and Frodo of the Shire, supplemented by the accounts of their friends and the learning of the Wise.)

Together with extracts from Books of Lore translated by Bilbo in Rivendell...."

This last line could mean "extracts from The Silmarillion"

[Ñólendil]

It probably had much to do with the Elder Days, the time Bilbo was most interested in, but the old Tales and Lays were supposed to have been edited and compressed into the Quenta Silmarillion by the Númenóreans before the Shadow fell on them. I don't doubt Bilbo translated parts of it into Westron.

[Glamdring]

i think it would be really cool if there was a red book just like in the lotr part in one writing part in another:D

[Tessar]

thats prety funny.