The Return Of The Shadow Part 4

'I wish you would say things plainer,' said Bingo. 'But I am glad to be told that I ought to go on; for that is what I want to do. Only I now rather wonder if I ought to take Odo and Frodo. The original plan was just a Journey, a sort of prolonged (and perhaps permanent) holiday from Hobbiton, and I am sure they did not expect any more adventures for a long time than getting wet and hungry. We had no idea we should be pursued.'

'O come! They must have known that if you intend to go wandering out of the Shire into the Wide World, you must be prepared for anything. I cannot see that it makes so much difference, if something has turned up rather soon. Are they not willing to go on?'

'Yes, they say so.'

'Then let them go on! (25) They are lucky to be your companions: and you are lucky to have them. They are a great protection to you.'

'What do you mean?'

'I think the Riders do not know that they are with you, and their presence has confused the scent, and puzzled them.'

'Dear me! It is all very mysterious. It is like solving riddles. But I have always heard that talking to Elves is like that.'

'It is,' laughed Gildor. 'And Elves seldom give advice; but when they do, it is good. I have advised you to go to Rivendell with speed and care. Nothing else that I could tell you would make that advice any better.(26) We have our own business and our own sorrows, and those have little to do with the ways of hobbits or of other creatures. Our paths cross those ways seldom, and mostly by accident. In our meeting there is perhaps something more than accident, yet I do not feel sure that I ought to interfere. But I will add a little more advice: if a Rider finds you or speaks to you, do not answer, and do not name yourself. Also do not again use the ring to escape from his search. I do not know(27), but I guess that the use of the ring helps them more than you.'

'More and more mysterious! ' said Bingo. 'I can't imagine what information would be more frightening than your hints; but I suppose you know best.'

'I do indeed,' said Gildor, 'and I will say no more.'

'Very well!' said Bingo. 'I am now all of a twitter; but I am much obliged to you.'

'Be of good heart! ' said Gildor. 'Sleep now! In the morning we shall have gone; but we will send our messages through the land. The wandering Companies shall know of you and your Journey. I name you elf-friend, and wish you well. Seldom have we had such delight in strangers; and it is pleasant to hear words of our own tongue from the lips of other wanderers in.the World.'

Bingo felt sleep coming upon him, even as Gildor finished speaking. 'I will sleep now,' he said. Gildor led him to a bower beside Odo and Frodo, and he threw himself upon a bed, and fell at once into a dreamless slumber.

NOTES.

1. For emendation of the typescript at this stage my father used black ink. This was fortunate, for otherwise the historical unravelling of the text would be scarcely possible: in a later phase of the work he returned to it and covered it with corrections in blue and red inks, blue chalk and pencil. In one case, however, an addition in black ink belongs demonstrably to the later phase. It is possible therefore that some of the emendations which I have adopted into the text are really later; but none seem to me to be so, and in any case all changes of any narrative significance are detailed in the following notes.

2. The meaning of this t.i.tle is not clear. The phrase 'Three's company, but four's more' is used however by Marmaduke Brandybuck during the conversation in Buckland, where he a.s.serts that he will certainly be one of the party (p. 103). Conceivably, therefore, my father gave the original second chapter this t.i.tle because he believed that it would extend as far as the arrival in Buckland. Subsequently he crossed out the words 'and Four's More', but it cannot be said when this was done.

3. In the second draft of the opening of the chapter, which had reached virtually the form of the typescript text in this pa.s.sage, the crossing of the East Road was omitted, and the omission remains here (see p.47).

4. In the draft text the verse The Road goes ever on and on is placed here (see p. 47).

5. Fos...o...b..lger, Bingo's uncle: see p. 38.

6. In FR (pp. 82-3) the verse has I for we in lines 4 and 8, but is otherwise the same; there, however, it is an echo from Bilbo's speaking it in Chapter x (FR p.44). For the earliest form see p. 47; and see further p.246 note 18.

7. Men from Dale: see pp. 20, 30.

8. The next portion of the narrative, from 'I have though,' said Frodo and extending to the end of the song Upon the hearth the fire is red (p. 57), was early re-typed to replace two pages of the original typescript, and a substantial alteration and expansion of the story was introduced (see notes g and x x).

9. This first part of the re-typed section (see note 8) was not greatly changed from the earlier form. In the earlier, Frodo described his encounter with a Black Rider 'up in the North Moors' in the previous spring in almost exactly the same words; but Bingo's response was somewhat different: 'That makes it even queerer,' said Bingo. 'I am glad I had the fancy not to be seen on the road. But, somehow, I don't believe either of these riders was one of the Big People, not of the Kind like the Dale-men, I mean. I wonder what they were? I rather wish Gandalf was here. But, of course, he went away immediately after the fireworks with the elves and dwarves, and it will be ages before we see him now.'

'Shall we go on now, or stay here and have some food?' asked Odo...

In the later versions of A Long-expected Party there is no reference to Gandalf after the fireworks (see pp. 31, 38; 63).

10. There the road bent southward: on the map of the Shire in FR the road does not bend southward 'at the end of the straight stretch'; it bends left or northward, while a side road goes on to Woodhall. But at this stage there was only one road, and at the place where the hobbits met the Elves it was falling steadily, 'making south-east towards the lowlands of the Brandywine River' (p. 56). Certainly by oversight, the present pa.s.sage was preserved with little change in the original edition of FR (p. 86): The sun had gone down red behind the hills at their backs, and evening was coming on before they came to the end of the long level over which the road ran straight. At that point it bent somewhat southward, and began to wind again, as it entered a wood of ancient oak-trees.

It was not until the second edition of 1966 that my father changed the text to agree with the map: At that point it bent left and went down into the lowlands of the Yale making for Stock; but a lane branched right, winding through a wood of ancient oak-trees on its way to Woodhall. 'That is the way for us,' said Frodo. Not far from the road-meeting they came on the huge hulk of a tree...

This is also the reason for change in the second edition of 'road' to 'lane' (also 'path', 'way') at almost all the many subsequent occurrences in FR pp. 86-90: it was the 'lane' to Woodhall they were on, not the 'road' to Stock.

11. The entire pa.s.sage from 'Close to the road they came on the huge hulk of an aged tree' is an expansion in the replacement typescript (see note 8) of a few sentences in the earlier: Inside the huge hollow trunk of an aged tree, broken and stumpy but still alive and in leaf, they rested and had a meal. Twilight was about them when they came out and prepared to go on again. 'I am going to risk the road now,' said Bingo, who had stubbed his toes several times against hidden roots and stones in the gra.s.s. 'We are probably making a fuss about nothing.'

Though the enlarged description of the hollow tree was preserved in FR (p. 86), the second pa.s.sage of a Black Rider was not, and the tree has again no importance beyond being the scene of the hobbits' meal. In the third chapter Bingo, talking to Marmaduke in Buckland, refers to this story of a Rider heard while they sat inside the tree (p. 103); see also note 19 below.

12. The version of the song in the rejected typescript (see note 8) had the second and third verses thus: Home is behind, the world ahead, And there are many paths to tread; And round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate, And hidden pathways there may run Towards the Moon or to the Sun.

Apple, thorn, etc.

Down hill, up hill walks the way From sunrise to the falling day, Through shadow to the edge of night, Until the stars are all alight; etc.

13. In the initial drafting for this pa.s.sage Bingo proposed that they stow their burdens in the hollow of an old broken oak and then climb it, but this was rejected as soon as written. This was no doubt where the 'hollow tree' motive first appeared.

14. In the original draft my father first wrote here: 'Suddenly there was a sound of laughter and a creak of wheels on the road. The shadow straightened up and retreated.' This was soon replaced, without the creak of wheels being explained; but it suggests that he had some intervention other than Elves in mind.

15. This was another portion that was re-typed. The pa.s.sage immediately preceding the Elves' song was different in the earlier form: It seemed to be singing in the secret elf-tongue, and yet as they listened the sounds, or the sounds and the tune together, seemed to turn into strange words in their own thought, which they only partly understood. Frodo afterwards said that he thought he heard words like these: The song also had certain differences, including a second verse that was rejected.

O Elbereth! O Elbereth!

O Queen beyond the Western Seas!

O Light to him that wandereth Amid the world of woven trees!

O Stars that in the Sunless Year Were kindled by her silver hand, That under Night the shade of Fear Should fly like shadow from the land!

O Elbereth! Gilthonieth!

Clear are thy eyes, and cold thy breath! etc.

In the last verse the form is Gilthoniel. Extensive rough workings are also found, in which the first line of the song appears also as O Elberil! O Elberil! (and the third O Light to us that wander still); from these is also seen the meaning of the Sunless Year, since my father first wrote the Flowering Years (with reference to the Two Trees; see the Quenta Silmarillion $19, V.212). - It seems to have been here that the name Elbereth was first applied to Varda, having been previously that of one of the sons of Dior Thingol's Heir: see V.351.

16. In the original draft it was added here that the Elves 'were crowned with red and yellow leaves'; rejected, no doubt, because it was dark and they bore no lights.

17. At an earlier point in the chapter (p. 52) the typescript read 'a day even finer and hotter than the day before (Bingo's birthday, that already seemed quite a long while past).' It was of course on the evening of the day following the birthday party that Bingo and his companions set out, and my father realising this simply changed 'before' to 'of' and removed the brackets, as in the text printed. Here, however, he neglected to change 'yesterday' (see also note 24). These slips are odd, but do not seem to have any particular significance.

It is seen subsequently how these Elves could have 'heard all about that from the Rivendell people', for Bingo tells Gildor (p. 63) that Gandalf 'went off with the dwarves and the Rivendell elves as soon as the fireworks were over.' The meeting between them is in fact mentioned later (p. 101).

18. The typescript runs straight on from me have heard all about that, of course, from the Rivendell people to 'O Wise People, ' said Frodo, and the pa.s.sage beginning 'Then who are you, and who is your lord?' said Bingo is an addition. In the typescript as typed the leader of the Elves is not named until towards the end, where after they had eaten 'Bingo remained talking with Gildor, the leader of the Elves' (p. 62); all references to Gildor before that are corrections in ink 19. As the text was typed, Bingo said: 'Because we have seen two Black Riders, or one twice over, today.' The changed text accompanies the story of the Rider who paused momentarily beside the hollow tree (see note 11).

20. For the 'elf-latin' (Qenya) see the Lhammas $4, V. 172.

21. This pa.s.sage is an alteration of the text as typed, which read: .. we are very easy to please (for hobbits). For myself I can only say that the delight of meeting you has already made this a day of bright Adventure.'

'Bilbo was a good master,' said the Elf bowing. 'Come now, join our company, and we will go. You had best walk in the middle...'

22. This sentence replaced the following: 'Be careful, friends,' said one laughing. 'Speak no secrets! Here is a scholar in the elf-latin and all the dialects. Bilbo was indeed a good master.'

See note 21 and the altered pa.s.sage referred to there.

23. This is the first occurrence of the name Gildor in the text as typed; see note 18.

24. For my birthday the day before yesterday the text as typed had yesterday; see note 17.

25. The conversation between Bingo and Gildor to this point, beginning at You can fence yourselves in, but you have no means of fencing it out (p. 63), is the last of the replacement typescript pages.

The differences from the earlier form are in fact very slight, except in these points. Bingo did not say that Gandalf had told him not to put off his journey later than the autumn, but simply 'He helped me, and seemed to think it a good idea'; and Gildor's reply therefore begins differently: 'I wonder. He may not have known they were in the Shire; yet he knows more about them than we do.' And Bingo said that Odo and Frodo 'only know that I am on a Journey - on a sort of prolonged (and possibly permanent) holiday from Hobbiton; and making for Rivendell to begin with.'

26. Struck from the typescript here: 'and it might prevent you from taking it.'

27. Struck from the typescript here: '(for the matter is outside the concern of such Elves as we are).'

It is characteristic that while the dramatis personae are not the same, and the story possesses as yet none of the dimension, the gravity, and the sense of vast danger, imparted by the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring, a good part of 'Three is Company' was already in being; for once the journey has started not only the structure of the final narrative but much of the detail is present, though countless modifications in expression were to come, and in several substantial pa.s.sages the chapter was scarcely changed afterwards.

While 'Bingo' is directly equatable with the later 'Frodo', the other relations are more complex. It is true that, comparing the text as it was at this stage with the final form in FR, it may be said simply that 'Odo' became 'Pippin' while Frodo Took disappeared: of the individual speeches in this chapter which remained into FR almost every remark made by Odo was afterwards given to Pippin. But the way in which this came about was in fact strangely tortuous, and was by no means a simple subst.i.tution of one name for another (see further pp. 323 - 4). Frodo Took is seen as a less limited and more aware being than Odo, more susceptible to the beauty and otherness of the Elves; it is he who speaks The Road goes ever on and on, and it is to him that the recollection of the words of the song to Elbereth is first attributed (note 15). Some element of him might be said to be preserved in Sam Gamgee (who of course imparts a new and entirely distinctive air to the developed form of the chapter); it was Frodo Took who with bated breath whispered Elves! when their voices were first heard coming down the road.

Most remarkable is the fact that when the story of the beginning of the Journey, the coming of the Black Riders, and the meeting with Gildor and his company, was written, and written so that its content would not in essentials be changed afterwards, Bingo has no faintest inkling of what the Riders want with him. Gandalf has told him nothing. He has no reason to a.s.sociate the Riders with his ring, and no reason to regard it as more than a highly convenient magical device - he slips it on each time a Rider pa.s.ses, naturally.

Of course, the fact that Bingo is wholly ignorant of the nature of the pursuing menace, utterly baffled by the black hors.e.m.e.n, does not imply that my father was also. There are several suggestions that new ideas had arisen in the background, not explicitly conveyed in the narrative, but deliberately reduced to dark hints of danger in the words of Gildor (that this was so will be seen more clearly at the beginning of the next chapter). It may be that it was the 'unpremeditated' conversion of the cloaked and m.u.f.fled horseman who overtook them on the road from Gandalf to a 'black rider' (p. 48), combining with the idea already present that Bilbo's ring was of dark origin and strange properties (pp. 42 - 3) that was the impulse of the new conceptions.

From the early rewriting of the conversation between Gildor and Bingo (see p. 63 and note 25) it emerges that Gandalf had warned Bingo not to delay his departure beyond the autumn (though without, apparently, giving him any reason for the warning), and in both forms of the text Gildor evidently knows something about the Riders, says that 'by what seems strange good luck you went just in time', and a.s.sociates them with the Ring: warning Bingo against using it again to escape them, and suggesting that the use of it 'helps them more than you.' (The Ring had not been mentioned in their conversation, but we can suppose that Bingo had previously told Gildor that he had used it when the Riders came by).

The idea of the Riders and the Ring was no doubt evolving as my father wrote. I think it very possible that when he first described the halts of the black hors.e.m.e.n beside the hiding hobbits he imagined them as drawn by scent alone (see p. 75); and it is not clear in any case in what way the use of the Ring would 'help them more than you.' As I have said, it is deeply characteristic that these scenes emerged at once in the clear and memorable form that was never changed, but that their bearing and significance would afterwards be enormously enlarged. The 'event' (one might say) was fixed, but its meaning capable of indefinite extension; and this is seen, over and over again, as a prime mark of my father's writing. In FR, from the intervening chapter The Shadow of the Past, we have some notion of what that other feeling was which struggled with Frodo's desire to hide, of why Gandalf had so urgently forbidden him to use the Ring, and of why he was driven irresistibly to put it on; and when we have read further we know what would have happened if he had. The scenes here are empty by comparison, yet they are the same scenes. Even such slight remarks as Bingo's 'I don't know, and I don't want to guess' (p. 55) - in the context, a mere expression of doubt and discomfort, if with a suggestion that Gandalf must have said something, or rather, that my father was beginning to think that Gandalf must have said something - survived to take on a much more menacing significance in FR (p. 85), where we have a very good idea of what Frodo chose not to guess about.

Frodo Took's story of his meeting with a Rider on the moors in the North of the Shire in the previous spring is the forerunner of Sam's sudden remembering that a Rider had come to Hobbiton and spoken with Gaffer Gamgee on the evening of their departure; but it seems strange that the beginning of the hunt for 'Baggins' should be set so long before (see p. 74 and note 4).

The striking out of Gildor's words 'for the matter is outside the concern of such Elves as we are' (note 27) is interesting. At first, I think, my father thought of these Elves as 'Dark-elves'; but he now decided that they (and also the Elves of Rivendell) were indeed 'High Elves of the West', and he added in Gildor's words to Bingo on p. 60 (see note 18): they were 'Wise-elves' (Noldor or Gnomes), 'one of the few companies that still remain east of the Sea', and he himself is Gildor Inglorion of the house of Finrod. With these words of Gildor's cf. the Quenta Silmarillion $28, in V.332: Yet not all the Eldalie were willing to forsake the Hither Lands where they had long suffered and long dwelt; and some lingered many an age in the West and North... But ever as the ages drew on and the Elf-folk faded upon earth, they would set sail at eve from the western sh.o.r.es of this world, as still they do, until now there linger few anywhere of their lonely companies.

At this time Finrod was the name of the third son of Finwe (first Lord of the Noldor). This was later changed to Finarfin, when Inglor Felagund his son took over the name Finrod (see I.44), but my father did not change 'of the house of Finrod' here (FR p. 89) to 'of the house of Finarfin' in the second edition of The Lord of the Rings. See further p. 188 (end of note 9).

The geography of the Shire was now taking more substantial shape. In this chapter there emerge the North Moor(s); the Green Hill Country lying to the south of Hobbiton; the Pool of Bywater (described in rough drafting for the pa.s.sage as a 'little lake'); the East Road to the Brandywine Bridge, where the Water joined the Brandywine; the road branching off from it southward and leading in a direct line to Buckland; and the hamlet of Woodhall in the Woody End.

III. OF GOLLUM AND THE RING.

I have suggested that by this stage my father knew a good deal more about the Riders and the Ring than Bingo did, or than he permitted Gildor to tell; and evidence for this is found in the ma.n.u.script draft referred to on p. 48. This begins, at any rate, as a draft for a part of the conversation between Bingo and Gildor, but the talk here moves into topics which my father excluded from the typescript version (pp. 62-5). Gildor is not yet named, in fact, and indeed it was apparently in this text that he emerged as an individual: at first the conversation is between Bingo and an undifferentiated plural 'they'.

The pa.s.sage begins with an apparently disconnected sentence: 'Since he did not tell his companions what he discovered I think I shall not tell you.' (Does this refer to what Bingo discovered from the Elves?) Then follows: 'Of course,' they said, 'we know that you are in search of Adventure; but it often happens that when you think it is ahead, it comes up unexpectedly from behind. Why did you choose this moment to set out?'

'Well, the moment was really inevitable, you know,' said Bingo. 'I had come to the end of my treasure. And by wandering I thought I might find some more, like old Bilbo, and at least should be able more easily to live without any. I thought too it might be good for me. I was getting rather soft and fat.'

'Yes,' they laughed, 'you look just like an ordinary hobbit.'

'But though I can do a few things - like carpentry and gardening: I did not feel inclined somehow to make other people's chairs, or grow other people's vegetables for a living. I suppose some tiny touch of dragon-curse came to me. I am gold-lazy.'

'Then Gandalf did not tell you anything? You were not actually escaping.'

'What do you mean? What from?'

'Well, this black rider,' they said.

'I don't understand them at all.'

'Then Gandalf told you nothing? '

'Not about them. He warned Bilbo a long time ago about the Ring, of course (1). Don t use it too much!> he used to say.

'I seldom saw Gandalf after Bilbo went away. But about a year ago he came one night, and I told him of the plan I was beginning to make for leaving Bag-end. "What about the Ring?" he asked. "Are you being careful? Do be careful: otherwise you will be overcome by it." I had as a matter of fact hardly ever used it - and I did not use it again after that talk until my birthday party.'

'Does anyone else know about it?'

'I cannot say; but I don't think so. Bilbo kept it very secret. He always told me that I was the only one who knew about it (in the Shire).(2) I never told anyone else except Odo and Frodo who are my best friends. I have tried to be to them what Bilbo was to me. But even to them I never spoke of the Ring until they agreed to come with me on this Journey a few months ago. They would not tell anyone - though we often speak of it among ourselves. - Well, what do you make of it all? I can see you are bursting with secrets, but I cannot guess any of them.'

'Well,' said the Elf. 'I don't know much about this. You must find Gandalf as quick as you can - Rivendell I think is the place to go to. But it is my belief that the Lord of the Ring' is looking for you.'(3) 'Is that bad or good?'

'Bad; but how bad I cannot say. Bad enough if he only wants the ring back (which is unlikely); worse, if he wants payment; very bad indeed if he wants you as well (which is quite likely). We fancy that he must at last after many years have found out that Bilbo had it. Hence the asking for Baggins.'(4) But somehow the search for Baggins failed, and then something must have been discovered about you. But by strange luck you must have held your party and vanished just as they found out where you lived. You put off the scent; but they are hot on it now.'

'Who are they?'

'Servants of the Lord of the Ring - [? people] who have pa.s.sed through the Ring.'

This ends a sheet, and the following sheet is not continuous with what precedes; but as found among my father's papers they were placed together, and on both of them he wrote (later) 'About Ring-wraiths'. The second pa.s.sage is also part of a conversation, but there is no indication of who the speaker is (whoever it is, he is obviously speaking to Bingo). It was written at great speed and is extremely difficult to make out.

Yes, if the Ring overcomes you, you yourself become permanently invisible - and it is a horrible cold feeling. Everything becomes very faint like grey ghost pictures against the black background in which you live; but you can smell more clearly than you can hear or see.(5) You have no power however like a Ring of making other things invisible: you are a ringwraith. You can wear clothes. [> you are just a ringwraith; and your clothes are visible, unless the Lord lends you a ring.] But you are under the command of the Lord of the Rings.(6) I expect that one (or more) of these Ringwraiths have been sent to get the ring away from hobbits.

In the very ancient days the Ring-lord made many of these Rings: and sent them out through the world to snare people. He sent them to all sorts of folk - the Elves had many, and there are now many elfwraiths in the world, but the Ring-lord cannot rule them; the goblins got many, and the invisible goblins are very evil and wholly under the Lord; dwarves I don't believe had any; some say the rings don't work on them: they are too solid. Men had few, but they were most quickly overcome and..... The men-wraiths are also servants of the Lord. Other creatures got them. Do you remember Bilbo's story of Gollum? (7) We don't know where Gollum comes in - certainly not elf, nor goblin; he is probably not dwarf; we rather believe he really belongs to an ancient sort of hobbit. Because the ring seems to act just the same for him and you. Long ago [? he belonged].... to a wise, cleverhanded and quietfooted little family. But he disappeared underground, and though he used the ring often the Lord evidently lost track of it. Until Bilbo brought it out to light again.

Of course Gollum himself may have heard news - all the mountains were full of it after the battle - and tried to get back the ring, or told the Lord.

At this point the ma.n.u.script stops. Here is a first glimpse of an earlier history of Gollum; a suggestion of how the hunt for the Ring originated; and a first sketching of the idea that the Dark Lord gave out Rings among the peoples of Middle-earth. The Rings conferred invisibility, and (it is at least implied) this invisibility was a.s.sociated with the fate (or at least the peril) of the bearers of the Rings: that they become 'wraiths' and - in the case of goblins and men - servants of the Dark Lord.

Now at some very early stage my father wrote a chapter, without number or t.i.tle, in which he made use of the pa.s.sage just given; and this is the first drafting of (a part of) what ultimately became Chapter z, 'The Shadow of the Past'. As I have noticed, in the second of these two pa.s.sages marked 'About Ring-wraiths' it is not clear who is speaking. It may be Gildor, or it may be Gandalf, or (perhaps most likely) neither the one nor the other, but indeterminate; but in any case I think that my father decided when writing the draft text of the second chapter that he would not have Gildor discussing these matters with Bingo (as he certainly does in the first of these 'Ring-wraith' pa.s.sages, p. 74), but would reserve them for Gandalf's instruction, and that this was the starting-point of the chapter which I now give, in which as I have said he made use of the second 'Ring-wraith' pa.s.sage. Whether he wrote this text at once, before going on to the third chapter (IV in this book), seems impossible to say; but the fact that Marmaduke is mentioned shows that it preceded 'In the House of Tom Bombadil', where 'Meriadoc' and 'Merry' first appear. This, at any rate, is a convenient place to put it. Subsequently my father referred to it as a 'foreword' (see p. 224), and it is clear that it was written as a possible new beginning for the book, in which Gandalf tells Bingo at Bag End, not long before the Party, something of the history and nature of his Ring, of his danger, and of the need for him to leave his home. It was composed very rapidly and is hard to read. I have introduced punctuation where needed, and occasionally put in silently necessary connective words. There are many pencilled alterations and additions which are here ignored, for they are antic.i.p.ations of a later version of the chapter; but changes belonging to the time of composition are adopted into the text. There is no t.i.tle.

One day long ago two people were sitting talking in a small room. One was a wizard and the other was a hobbit, and the room was the sitting-room of the comfortable and well-furnished hobbit-hole known as Bag-end, Underhill, on the outskirts of Hobbiton in the middle of the Shire. The wizard was of course Gandalf and he looked much the same as he had always done, though ninety years and more (8) had gone by since he last came into any story that is now remembered. The hobbit was Bingo Bolger- Baggins, the nephew (or really first cousin once removed) of old Bilbo Baggins, and his adopted heir. Bilbo had quietly disappeared many years before, but he was not forgotten in Hobbiton.

Bingo of course was always thinking about him; and when Gandalf paid him a visit their talk usually came back to Bilbo. Gandalf had not been to Hobbiton for some time: since Bilbo disappeared his visits had become fewer and more secret. The people of Hobbiton had not in fact seen or at any rate noticed himfor many years: he used to come quietly up to the door of Bag-end in the twilight and step in without knocking, and only Bingo (and one or two of his closest friends) knew he had been in the Shire. This evening he had slipped in in his usual way, and Bingo was more than usually glad to see him. For he was worried, and wanted explanations and advice.'(9) They were now talking of Bilbo, and his disappearance, and particularly about the Ring (which he had left behind with Bingo) - and about certain strange signs and portents of trouble brewing after a long time of peace and quiet.'(10) 'It is all very peculiar - and most disturbing and in fact terrifying,' said Bingo. Gandalf was sitting smoking in a high chair, and Bingo near his feet was huddled on a stool warming his hands by a small wood-fire as if he felt chilly, though actually it was rather a warm evening for the time of the year [written above: at the end of August].(11) Gandalf grunted - the sound might have meant 'I quite agree, but it can't be helped,' or else possibly 'What a silly thing to say.' There was a long silence. 'How long have you known all this?' asked Bingo at length; 'and did you ever talk about it to Bilbo?'