求助：西方奇幻英文资料
大家好，不好意思，在这里的第一贴就是求助的。<br>我是中文系大四的学生，我的毕业论文是关于奇幻文学的<br>现在已经写完了，就差外文资料了<br>这里有很多大虾的英文都很好，而且手里有外文奇幻书籍<br>不知道哪位大虾能帮忙贴出龙枪编年史或是黑暗精灵或是魔戒的序言英文版<br>如能贴出<br>在下感激不尽 这个应该发到红龙酒店或者翻译区去啊～<br>请移动一下 托老关于魔戒的自述<br><br><br>FOREWORD <br><br>This tale grew in the telling, until it became a history of the Great War ofthe Ring and included many glimpses of the yet more ancient history thatpreceded it. It was begun soon after _The Hobbit_ was written and before itspublication in 1937; but I did not go on with this sequel, for I wished firstto complete and set in order the mythology and legends of the Elder Days,<br>which had then been taking shape for some years. I desired to do this for myown satisfaction, and I had little hope that other people would be interestedin this work, especially since it was primarily linguistic in inspiration andwas begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvishtongues.<br><br>When those whose advice and opinion I sought corrected _little hope_ to_no hope,_ I went back to the sequel, encouraged by requests from readers formore information concerning hobbits and their adventures. But the story wasdrawn irresistibly towards the older world, and became an account, as it were,<br>of its end and passing away before its beginning and middle had been told. Theprocess had begun in the writing of _The Hobbit,_ in which there were alreadysome references to the older matter: Elrond, Gondolin, the High-elves, and theorcs, as well as glimpses that had arisen unbidden of things higher or deeperor darker than its surface: Durin, Moria, Gandalf, the Necromancer, the Ring.<br>The discovery of the significance of these glimpses and of their relation tothe ancient histories revealed the Third Age and its culmination in the War ofthe Ring.<br><br>Those who had asked for more information about hobbits eventually got it,<br>but they had to wait a long time; for the composition of _The Lord of theRings_ went on at intervals during the years 1936 to 1949, a period in which Ihad many duties that I did not neglect, and many other interests as a learnerand teacher that often absorbed me. The delay was, of course, also increasedby the outbreak of war in 1939, by the end of which year the tale had not yetreached the end of Book One. In spite of the darkness of the next five years Ifound that the story could not now be wholly abandoned, and I plodded on,<br>mostly by night, till I stood by Balin's tomb in Moria. There I halted for along while. It was almost a year later when I went on and so came toLothlórien and the Great River late in 1941. In the next year I wrote thefirst drafts of the matter that now stands as Book Three, and the beginningsof chapters I and III of Book Five; and there as the beacons flared in Anórienand Théoden came to Harrowdale I stopped. Foresight had failed and there wasno time for thought.<br><br>It was during 1944 that, leaving the loose ends and perplexities of a warwhich it was my task to conduct, or at least to report, 1 forced myself totackle the journey of Frodo to Mordor. These chapters, eventually to becomeBook Four, were written and sent out as a serial to my son, Christopher, thenin South Africa with the RAF. Nonetheless it took another five years beforethe tale was brought to its present end; in that time I changed my house, mychair, and my college, and the days though less dark were no less laborious.<br>Then when the 'end' had at last been reached the whole story had to berevised, and indeed largely re-written backwards. And it had to be typed, andre-typed: by me; the cost of professional typing by the ten-fingered wasbeyond my means.<br><br>_The Lord of the Rings_ has been read by many people since it finallyappeared in print; and I should like to say something here with reference tothe many opinions or guesses that I have received or have read concerning themotives and meaning of the tale. The prime motive was the desire of a taleteller <br>to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention ofreaders, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeplymove them. As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or <br><br> <br>moving, and for many the guide was inevitably often at fault. Some who haveread the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd,<br>or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similaropinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidentlyprefer. But even from the points of view of many who have enjoyed my storythere is much that fails to please. It is perhaps not possible in a long taleto please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the samepoints; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages orchapters that are to some a blemish are all by others specially approved. Themost critical reader of all, myself, now finds many defects, minor and major,<br>but being fortunately under no obligation either to review the book or towrite it again, he will pass over these in silence, except one that has beennoted by others: the book is too short.<br><br>As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of theauthor none. It is neither allegorical nor topical. As the story grew it putdown roots (into the past) and threw out unexpected branches: but its maintheme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as thelink between it and _The Hobbit._ The crucial chapter, "The Shadow of thePast', is one of the oldest parts of the tale. It was written long before theforeshadow of 1939 had yet become a threat of inevitable disaster, and fromthat point the story would have developed along essentially the same lines, ifthat disaster had been averted. Its sources are things long before in mind, orin some cases already written, and little or nothing in it was modified by thewar that began in 1939 or its sequels.<br><br>The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or itsconclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, thencertainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he wouldnot have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-d.r would not have beendestroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, wouldm the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missinglinks in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have madea Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler ofMiddle-earth. In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred <br>and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves.<br><br>Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views ofthose who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegoryin all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and waryenough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, withits varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I thinkthat many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in thefreedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.<br><br>An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience,<br>but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremelycomplex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidencethat is inadequate and ambiguous. It is also false, though naturallyattractive, when the lives of an author and critic have overlapped, to supposethat the movements of thought or the events of times common to both werenecessarily the most powerful influences. One has indeed personally to comeunder the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go byit seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no lesshideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By1918 all but one of my close friends were dead. Or to take a less grievousmatter: it has been supposed by some that 'The Scouring of the Shire' reflectsthe situation in England at the time when I was finishing my tale. It doesnot. It is an essential part of the plot, foreseen from the outset, though inthe event modified by the character of Saruman as developed in the storywithout, need I say, any allegorical significance or contemporary politicalreference whatsoever. It has indeed some basis in experience, though slender(for the economic situation was entirely different), and much further back.<br>The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily destroyed before <br><br> <br>I was ten, in days when motor-cars were rare objects (I had never seen one)<br>and men were still building suburban railways. Recently I saw in a paper apicture of the last decrepitude of the once thriving corn-mill beside its poolthat long ago seemed to me so important. I never liked the looks of the Youngmiller, but his father, the Old miller, had a black beard, and he was notnamed Sandyman.<br><br>_The Lord of the Rings_ is now issued in a new edition, and theopportunity has been taken of revising it. A number of errors andinconsistencies that still remained in the text have been corrected, and anattempt has been made to provide information on a few points which attentivereaders have raised. I have considered all their comments and enquiries, andif some seem to have been passed over that may be because I have failed tokeep my notes in order; but many enquiries could only be answered byadditional appendices, or indeed by the production of an accessory volumecontaining much of the material that I did not include in the originaledition, in particular more detailed linguistic information. In the meantimethis edition offers this Foreword, an addition to the Prologue, some notes,<br>and an index of the names of persons and places. This index is in intentioncomplete in items but not in references, since for the present purpose it hasbeen necessary to reduce its bulk. A complete index, making full use of thematerial prepared for me by Mrs. N. Smith, belongs rather to the accessoryvolume. 序言，类似于中州的简史和三部曲的概要<br><br>PROLOGUE <br><br>This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader maydiscover much of their character and a little of their history. Furtherinformation will also be found in the selection from the Red Book of Westmarch <br>that has already been published, under the title of _The Hobbit_. That storywas derived from the earlier chapters of the Red Book, composed by Bilbohimself, the first Hobbit to become famous in the world at large, and calledby him _There and Back Again,_ since they told of his journey into the Eastand his return: an adventure which later involved all the Hobbits in the greatevents of that Age that are here related.<br><br>Many, however, may wish to know more about this remarkable people fromthe outset, while some may not possess the earlier book. For such readers afew notes on the more important points are here collected from Hobbit-lore,<br>and the first adventure is briefly recalled.<br><br> Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerousformerly than they are today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilledearth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt.<br>They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than aforge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful withtools. Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of 'the Big Folk', asthey call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.<br>They are quick of hearing and sharp-eyed, and though they are inclined to befat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble and deft intheir movements. They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftlyand silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blunderingby; and this an they have developed until to Men it may seem magical. ButHobbits have never, in fact, studied magic of any kind, and their elusivenessis due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a closefriendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clumsierraces.<br><br> For they are a little people, smaller than Dwarves: less tout and stocky,<br>that is, even when they are not actually much shorter. Their height is <br><br> <br>variable, ranging between two and four feet of our measure. They seldom nowreach three feet; but they hive dwindled, they say, and in ancient days theywere taller. According to the Red Book, Bandobras Took (Bullroarer), son ofIsengrim the Second, was four foot five and able to ride a horse. He wassurpassed in all Hobbit records only by two famous characters of old; but thatcurious matter is dealt with in this book.<br><br> As for the Hobbits of the Shire, with whom these tales are concerned, inthe days of their peace and prosperity they were a merry folk. They dressed inbright colours, being notably fond of yellow and green; but they seldom woreshoes, since their feet had tough leathery soles and were clad in a thickcurling hair, much like the hair of their heads, which was commonly brown.<br>Thus, the only craft little practised among them was shoe-making; but they hadlong and skilful fingers and could make many other useful and comely things.<br>Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-<br>eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking.<br>And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond ofsimple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them).<br>They were hospitable and delighted in parties, and in presents, which theygave away freely and eagerly accepted.<br><br>It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits arerelatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of oldthey spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked anddisliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship iscan no longer be discovered. The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in theElder Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still preserve anyrecords of that vanished time, and their traditions are concerned almostentirely with their own history, in which Men appear seldom and Hobbits arenot mentioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietlyin Middle-earth for many long years before other folk became even aware ofthem. And the world being after all full of strange creatures beyond count,<br>these little people seemed of very little importance. But in the days ofBilbo, and of Frodo his heir, they suddenly became, by no wish of their own,<br>both important and renowned, and troubled the counsels of the Wise and theGreat.<br><br> Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and theshape of all lands has been changed; but the regions in which Hobbits thenlived were doubtless the same as those in which they still linger: the North-<br>West of the Old World, east of the Sea. Of their original home the Hobbits inBilbo's time preserved no knowledge. A love of learning (other thangenealogical lore) was far from general among them, but there remained still afew in the older families who studied their own books, and even gatheredreports of old times and distant lands from Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Their ownrecords began only after the settlement of the Shire, and their most ancientlegends hardly looked further back than their Wandering Days. It is clear,<br>nonetheless, from these legends, and from the evidence of their peculiar wordsand customs, that like many other folk Hobbits had in the distant past movedwestward. Their earliest tales seem to glimpse a time when they dwelt in theupper vales of Anduin, between the eaves of Greenwood the Great and the MistyMountains. Why they later undertook the hard and perilous crossing of themountains into Eriador is no longer certain. Their own accounts speak of themultiplying of Men in the land, and of a shadow that fell on the forest, sothat it became darkened and its new name was Mirkwood.<br><br> Before the crossing of the mountains the Hobbits had already becomedivided into three somewhat different breeds: Harfoots, Stoors, andFallohides. The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and theywere beardless and bootless; their hands and feet were neat and nimble; andthey preferred highlands and hillsides. The Stoors were broader, heavier inbuild; their feet and hands were larger, and they preferred flat lands andriversides. The Fallohides were fairer of skin and also of hair, and they were <br><br> <br>taller and slimmer than the others; they were lovers of trees and ofwoodlands.<br><br> The Harfoots had much to do with Dwarves in ancient times, and long livedin the foothills of the mountains. They moved westward early, and roamed overEriador as far as Weathertop while the others were still in the Wilderland.<br>They were the most normal and representative variety of Hobbit, and far themost numerous. They were the most inclined to settle in one place, and longestpreserved their ancestral habit of living in tunnels and holes.<br><br>The Stoors lingered long by the banks of the Great River Anduin, and wereless shy of Men. They came west after the Harfoots and followed the course ofthe Loudwater southwards; and there many of them long dwelt between Tharbadand the borders of Dunland before they moved north again.<br><br>The Fallohides, the least numerous, were a northerly branch. They weremore friendly with Elves than the other Hobbits were, and had more skill inlanguage and song than in handicrafts; and of old they preferred hunting totilling. They crossed the mountains north of Rivendell and came down the RiverHoarwell. In Eriador they soon mingled with the other kinds that had precededthem, but being somewhat bolder and more adventurous, they were often found asleaders or chieftains among clans of Harfoots or Stoors. Even in Bilbo's timethe strong Fallohidish strain could still be noted among the greater families,<br>such as the Tooks and the Masters of Buckland.<br><br> In the westlands of Eriador, between the Misty Mountains and theMountains of Lune, the Hobbits found both Men and Elves. Indeed, a remnantstill dwelt there of the Dúnedain, the kings of Men that came over the Sea outof Westernesse; but they were dwindling fast and the lands of their NorthKingdom were falling far and wide into waste. There was room and to spare forincomers, and ere long the Hobbits began to settle in ordered communities.<br>Most of their earlier settlements had long disappeared and been forgotten inBilbo's time; but one of the first to become important still endured, thoughreduced in size; this was at Bree and in the Chetwood that lay round about,<br>some forty miles east of the Shire.<br><br>It was in these early days, doubtless, that the Hobbits learned theirletters and began to write after the manner of the Dúnedain, who had in theirturn long before learned the art from the Elves. And in those days also theyforgot whatever languages they had used before, and spoke ever after theCommon Speech, the Westron as it was named, that was current through all thelands of the kings from Arnor to Gondor, and about all the coasts of the Seafrom Belfalas to Lune. Yet they kept a few words of their own, as well astheir own names of months and days, and a great store of personal names out ofthe past.<br><br>About this time legend among the Hobbits first becomes history with areckoning of years. For it was in the one thousand six hundred and first yearof the Third Age that the Fallohide brothers, Marcho and Blanco, set out fromBree; and having obtained permission from the high king at Fornost, theycrossed the brown river Baranduin with a great following of Hobbits. Theypassed over the Bridge of Stonebows, that had been built in the days of thepower of the North Kingdom, and they took ail the land beyond to dwell in,<br>between the river and the Far Downs. All that was demanded of them was that <br>they should keep the Great Bridge in repair, and all other bridges and roads,<br>speed the king's messengers, and acknowledge his lordship.<br><br>Thus began the _Shire-reckoning,_ for the year of the crossing of theBrandywine (as the Hobbits turned the name) became Year One of the Shire, andall later dates were reckoned from it. At once the western Hobbits fell in <br>love with their new land, and they remained there, and soon passed once moreout of the history of Men and of Elves. While there was still a king they werein name his subjects, but they were, in fact, ruled by their own chieftainsand meddled not at all with events in the world outside. To the last battle at <br>Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of theking, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men record it. But in that warthe North Kingdom ended; and then the Hobbits took the land for their own, and <br><br> <br>they chose from their own chiefs a Thain to hold the authority of the kingthat was gone. There for a thousand years they were little troubled by wars,<br>and they prospered and multiplied after the Dark Plague (S.R. 37) until thedisaster of the Long Winter and the famine that followed it. Many thousandsthen perished, but the Days of Dearth (1158-60) were at the time of this talelong past and the Hobbits had again become accustomed to plenty. The land wasrich and kindly, and though it had long been deserted when they entered it, ithad before been well tilled, and there the king had once had many farms,<br>cornlands, vineyards, and woods.<br><br>Forty leagues it stretched from the Far Downs to the Brandywine Bridge,<br>and fifty from the northern moors to the marshes in the south. The Hobbitsnamed it the Shire, as the region of the authority of their Thain, and adistrict of well-ordered business; and there in that pleasant comer of theworld they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded lessand less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to thinkthat peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of allsensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of theGuardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace ofthe Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it.<br><br>At no time had Hobbits of any kind been warlike, and they had neverfought among themselves. In olden days they had, of course, been often obligedto fight to maintain themselves in a hard world; but in Bilbo's time that wasvery ancient history. The last battle, before this story opens, and indeed theonly one that had ever been fought within the borders of the Shire, was beyondliving memory: the Battle of Greenfields, S.R. 1147, in which Bandobras Tookrouted an invasion of Orcs. Even the weathers had grown milder, and the wolvesthat had once come ravening out of the North in bitter white winters were nowonly a grandfather's tale. So, though there was still some store of weapons inthe Shire, these were used mostly as trophies, hanging above hearths or onwalls, or gathered into the museum at Michel Delving. The Mathom-house it wascalled; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwillingto throw away, they called a _mathom_. Their dwellings were apt to becomerather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand tohand were of that son.<br><br> Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough.<br>They were, if it came to it, difficult to daunt or to kill; and they were,<br>perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good things not least because they could,<br>when put to it, do without them, and could survive rough handling by grief,<br>foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who did not know them well andlooked no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces. Though slow toquarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay,<br>and at need could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for theywere keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If anyHobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as alltrespassing beasts knew very well.<br><br>All Hobbits had originally lived in holes in the ground, or so theybelieved, and in such dwellings they still felt most at home; but in thecourse of time they had been obliged to adopt other forms of abode. Actuallyin the Shire in Bilbo's days it was, as a rule, only the richest and thepoorest Hobbits that maintained the old custom. The poorest went on living inburrows of the most primitive kind, mere holes indeed, with only one window ornone; while the well-to-do still constructed more luxurious versions of thesimple diggings of old. But suitable sites for these large and ramifyingtunnels (or _smials_ as they called them) were not everywhere to be found; andin the flats and the low-lying districts the Hobbits, as they multiplied,<br>began to build above ground. Indeed, even in the hilly regions and the oldervillages, such as Hobbiton or Tuckborough, or in the chief township of theShire, Michel Delving on the White Downs, there were now many houses of wood,<br>brick, or stone. These were specially favoured by millers, smiths, ropers, andcartwrights, and others of that sort; for even when they had holes to live in. <br><br> <br>Hobbits had long been accustomed to build sheds and workshops.<br><br>The habit of building farmhouses and barns was said to have begun amongthe inhabitants of the Marish down by the Brandywine. The Hobbits of thatquarter, the Eastfarthing, were rather large and heavy-legged, and they woredwarf-boots in muddy weather. But they were well known to be Stoors in a largepart of their blood, as indeed was shown by the down that many grew on theirchins. No Harfoot or Fallohide had any trace of a beard. Indeed, the folk ofthe Marish, and of Buckland, east of the River, which they afterwardsoccupied, came for the most part later into the Shire up from south-away; andthey still had many peculiar names and strange words not found elsewhere inthe Shire.<br><br> It is probable that the craft of building, as many other crafts beside,<br>was derived from the Dúnedain. But the Hobbits may have learned it direct fromthe Elves, the teachers of Men in their youth. For the Elves of the HighKindred had not yet forsaken Middle-earth, and they dwelt still at that timeat the Grey Havens away to the west, and in other places within reach of theShire. Three Elf-towers of immemorial age were still to be seen on the TowerHills beyond the western marches. They shone far off in the moonlight. Thetallest was furthest away, standing alone upon a green mound. The Hobbits ofthe Westfarthing said that one could see the Sea from the lop of that tower;<br>but no Hobbit had ever been known to climb it. Indeed, few Hobbits had everseen or sailed upon the Sea, and fewer still had ever returned to report it.<br>Most Hobbits regarded even rivers and small boats with deep misgivings, andnot many of them could swim. And as the days of the Shire lengthened theyspoke less and less with the Elves, and grew afraid of them, and distrustfulof those that had dealings with them; and the Sea became a word of fear amongthem, and a token of death, and they turned their faces away from the hills inthe west.<br><br> The craft of building may have come from Elves or Men, but the Hobbitsused it in their own fashion. They did not go in for towers. Their houses wereusually long, low, and comfortable. The oldest kind were, indeed, no more thanbuilt imitations of _smials,_ thatched with dry grass or straw, or roofed withturves, and having walls somewhat bulged. That stage, however, belonged to theearly days of the Shire, and hobbit-building had long since been altered,<br>improved by devices, learned from Dwarves, or discovered by themselves. Apreference for round windows, and even round doors, was the chief remainingpeculiarity of hobbit-architecture.<br><br>The houses and the holes of Shire-hobbits were often large, and inhabitedby large families. (Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were as bachelors veryexceptional, as they were also in many other ways, such as their friendshipwith the Elves.) Sometimes, as in the case of the Tooks of Great Smials, orthe Brandybucks of Brandy Hall, many generations of relatives lived in(comparative) peace together in one ancestral and many-tunnelled mansion. AllHobbits were, in any case, clannish and reckoned up their relationships withgreat care. They drew long and elaborate family-trees with innumerablebranches. In dealing with Hobbits it is important to remember who is relatedto whom, and in what degree. It would be impossible in this book to set out afamily-tree that included even the more important members of the moreimportant families at the time which these tales tell of. The genealogicaltrees at the end of the Red Book of Westmarch are a small book in themselves,<br>and all but Hobbits would find them exceedingly dull. Hobbits delighted insuch things, if they were accurate: they liked to have books filled withthings that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.<br><br> There is another astonishing thing about Hobbits of old that must bementioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of <br><br> <br>clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of a herb, which they called_pipe-weed_ or _leaf,_ a variety probably of _Nicotiana._ A great deal ofmystery surrounds the origin of this peculiar custom, or 'art' as the Hobbitspreferred to call it. All that could be discovered about it in antiquity wasput together by Meriadoc Brandybuck (later Master of Buckland), and since heand the tobacco of the Southfarthing play a part in the history that follows,<br>his remarks in the introduction to his _Herblore of the Shire_ may be quoted.<br><br>'This,' he says, 'is the one art that we can certainly claim to be ourown invention. When Hobbits first began to smoke is not known, all the legendsand family histories take it for granted; for ages folk in the Shire smokedvarious herbs, some fouler, some sweeter. But all accounts agree that ToboldHornblower of Longbottom in the Southfarthing first grew the true pipe-weed inhis gardens in the days of Isengrim the Second, about the year 1070 of Shire-<br>reckoning. The best home-grown still comes from that district, especially thevarieties now known as Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star.<br><br>'How Old Toby came by the plant is not recorded, for to his dying day hewould not tell. He knew much about herbs, but he was no traveller. It is saidthat in his youth he went often to Bree, though he certainly never wentfurther from the Shire than that. It is thus quite possible that he learned ofthis plant in Bree, where now, at any rate, it grows well on the south slopesof the hill. The Bree-hobbits claim to have been the first actual smokers of <br>the pipe-weed. They claim, of course, to have done everything before thepeople of the Shire, whom they refer to as "colonists"; but in this case theirclaim is, I think, likely to be true. And certainly it was from Bree that theart of smoking the genuine weed spread in the recent centuries among Dwarvesand such other folk, Rangers, Wizards, or wanderers, as still passed to andfro through that ancient road-meeting. The home and centre of the an is thusto be found in the old inn of Bree, _The Prancing Pony,_ that has been kept bythe family of Butterbur from time beyond record.<br><br>'All the same, observations that I have made on my own many journeyssouth have convinced me that the weed itself is not native to our parts of theworld, but came northward from the lower Anduin, whither it was, I suspect,<br>originally brought over Sea by the Men of Westernesse. It grows abundantly inGondor, and there is richer and larger than in the North, where it is neverfound wild, and flourishes only in warm sheltered places like Longbottom. TheMen of Gondor call it _sweet galenas,_ and esteem it only for the fragrance ofits flowers. From that land it must have been carried up the Greenway duringthe long centuries between the coming of Elendil and our own day. But even theDúnedain of Gondor allow us this credit: Hobbits first put it into pipes. Noteven the Wizards first thought of that before we did. Though one Wizard that Iknew took up the art long ago, and became as skilful in it as in all otherthings that he put his mind to.'<br><br> The Shire was divided into four quarters, the Farthings already referredto. North, South, East, and West; and these again each into a number offolklands, which still bore the names of some of the old leading families,<br>although by the time of this history these names were no longer found only intheir proper folklands. Nearly all Tooks still lived in the Tookland, but thatwas not true of many other families, such as the Bagginses or the Boffins.<br>Outside the Farthings were the East and West Marches: the Buckland (seebeginning of Chapter V, Book I); and the Westmarch added to the Shire in S.R.<br>1462.<br><br> The Shire at this time had hardly any 'government'. Families for the mostpart managed their own affairs. Growing food and eating it occupied most oftheir time. In other matters they were, as a rule, generous and not greedy,<br>but contented and moderate, so that estates, farms, workshops, and smalltrades tended to remain unchanged for generations.<br><br>There remained, of course, the ancient tradition concerning the high kingat Fornost, or Norbury as they called it, away north of the Shire. But there <br><br> <br>had been no king for nearly a thousand years, and even the ruins of Kings'Norbury were covered with grass. Yet the Hobbits still said of wild folk andwicked things (such as trolls) that they had not heard of the king. For theyattributed to the king of old all their essential laws; and usually they keptthe laws of free will, because they were The Rules (as they said), bothancient and just.<br><br>It is true that the Took family had long been pre-eminent; for the officeof Thain had passed to them (from the Oldbucks) some centuries before, and thechief Took had borne that title ever since. The Thain was the master of the <br>Shire-moot, and captain of the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-in-arms, but asmuster and moot were only held in times of emergency, which no longeroccurred, the Thainship had ceased to be more than a nominal dignity. The Tookfamily was still, indeed, accorded a special respect, for it remained bothnumerous and exceedingly wealthy, and was liable to produce in everygeneration strong characters of peculiar habits and even adventuroustemperament. The latter qualities, however, were now rather tolerated (in therich) than generally approved. The custom endured, nonetheless, of referringto the head of the family as The Took, and of adding to his name, if required,<br>a number: such as Isengrim the Second, for instance.<br><br>The only real official in the Shire at this date was the Mayor of MichelDelving (or of the Shire), who was elected every seven years at the Free Fairon the White Downs at the Lithe, that is at Midsummer. As mayor almost hisonly duty was to preside at banquets, given on the Shire-holidays, whichoccurred at frequent intervals. But the offices of Postmaster and FirstShirriff were attached to the mayoralty, so that he managed both the MessengerService and the Watch. These were the only Shire-services, and the Messengerswere the most numerous, and much the busier of the two. By no means allHobbits were lettered, but those who were wrote constantly to all theirfriends (and a selection of their relations) who lived further off than anafternoon's walk.<br><br> The Shirriffs was the name that the Hobbits gave to their police, or thenearest equivalent that they possessed. They had, of course, no uniforms (suchthings being quite unknown), only a feather in their caps; and they were inpractice rather haywards than policemen, more concerned with the strayings ofbeasts than of people. There were in all the Shire only twelve of them, threein each Farthing, for Inside Work. A rather larger body, varying at need, wasemployed to 'beat the bounds', and to see that Outsiders of any kind, great orsmall, did not make themselves a nuisance.<br><br>At the time when this story begins the Bounders, as they were called, hadbeen greatly increased. There were many reports and complaints of strangepersons and creatures prowling about the borders, or over them: the first signthat all was not quite as it should be, and always had been except in talesand legends of long ago. Few heeded the sign, and not even Bilbo yet had anynotion of what it portended. Sixty years had passed since he set out on hismemorable journey, and he was old even for Hobbits, who reached a hundred asoften as not; but much evidently still remained of the considerable wealththat he had brought back. How much or how little he revealed to no one, noteven to Frodo his favourite 'nephew'. And he still kept secret the ring thathe bad found.<br><br> As is told in The Hobbit, there came one day to Bilbo's door the greatWizard, Gandalf the Grey, and thirteen dwarves with him: none other, indeed,<br>than Thorin Oakenshield, descendant of kings, and his twelve companions inexile. With them he set out, to his own lasting astonishment, on a morning ofApril, it being then the year 1341 Shire-reckoning, on a quest of greattreasure, the dwarf-hoards of the Kings under the Mountain, beneath Erebor inDale, far off in the East. The quest was successful, and the Dragon thatguarded the hoard was destroyed. Yet, though before all was won the Battle ofFive Armies was fought, and Thorin was slain, and many deeds of renown weredone, the matter would scarcely have concerned later history, or earned more <br><br> <br>than a note in the long annals of the Third Age, but for an 'accident' by theway. The party was assailed by Orcs in a high pass of the Misty Mountains asthey went towards Wilderland; and so it happened that Bilbo was lost for awhile in the black orc-mines deep under the mountains, and there, as he gropedin vain in the dark, he put his hand on a ring, lying on the floor of atunnel. He put it in his pocket. It seemed then like mere luck.<br><br>Trying to find his way out. Bilbo went on down to the roots of themountains, until he could go no further. At the bottom of the tunnel lay acold lake far from the light, and on an island of rock in the water livedGollum. He was a loathsome little creature: he paddled a small boat with hislarge flat feet, peering with pale luminous eyes and catching blind fish withhis long fingers, and eating them raw. He ate any living thing, even orc, ifhe could catch it and strangle it without a struggle. He possessed a secrettreasure that had come to him long ages ago, when he still lived in the light:<br>a ring of gold that made its wearer invisible. It was the one thing he loved,<br>his 'precious', and he talked to it, even when it was not with him. For hekept it hidden safe in a hole on his island, except when he was hunting orspying on the ores of the mines.<br><br>Maybe he would have attacked Bilbo at once, if the ring had been on himwhen they met; but it was not, and the hobbit held in his hand an Elvishknife, which served him as a sword. So to gain time Gollum challenged Bilbo tothe Riddle-game, saying that if he asked a riddle which Bilbo could not guess,<br>then he would kill him and eat him; but if Bilbo defeated him, then he woulddo as Bilbo wished: he would lead him to a way out of the tunnels.<br><br>Since he was lost in the dark without hope, and could neither go on norback. Bilbo accepted the challenge; and they asked one another many riddles.<br>In the end Bilbo won the game, more by luck (as it seemed) than by wits; forhe was stumped at last for a riddle to ask, and cried out, as his hand cameupon the ring he lad picked up and forgotten: _What haw I got in my pocket?_<br>This Gollum failed to answer, though he demanded three guesses.<br><br>The Authorities, it is true, differ whether this last question was a mere'question' and not a 'riddle' according to the strict rules of the Game; butall agree that, after accepting it and trying to guess the answer, Gollum wasbound by his promise. And Bilbo pressed him to keep his word; for the thoughtcame to him that this slimy creature might prove false, even though suchpromises were held sacred, and of old all but the wickedest things feared tobreak them. But after ages alone in the dark Gollum's heart was black, andtreachery was in it. He slipped away, and returned to the island, of whichBilbo knew nothing, not far off in the dark water. There, he thought, lay hisring. He was hungry now, and angry, and once his 'precious' was with him hewould not fear any weapon at all.<br><br>But the ring was not on the island; he had lost it, it was gone. Hisscreech sent a shiver down Bilbo's back, though he did not yet understand whathad happened. But Gollum had at last leaped to a guess, too late. _What has itgot in its pocketses?_ he cried. The light in his eyes was like a green flameas he sped back to murder the hobbit and recover his 'precious'. Just in timeBilbo saw his peril, and he fled blindly up the passage away from the water;<br>and once more he was saved by his luck. For just as he ran he put his hand inhis pocket, and the ring slipped quietly on to his finger. So it was thatGollum passed him without seeing him, and went to guard the way out, lest the'thief' should escape. Warily Bilbo followed him, as he went along, cursing,<br>and talking to himself about his 'precious'; from which talk at last evenBilbo guessed the truth, and hope came to him in the darkness: he himself hadfound the marvellous ring and a chance of escape from the orcs and fromGollum.<br><br> At length they came to a halt before an unseen opening that led to thelower gates of the mines, on the eastward side of the mountains. There Gollumcrouched at bay, smelling and listening; and Bilbo was tempted to slay himwith his sword. But pity stayed him, and though he kept the ring, in which hisonly hope lay, he would not use it to help him kill the wretched creature at a <br><br> <br>disadvantage. In the end, gathering his courage, he leaped over Gollum in thedark, and fled away down the passage, pursued by his enemy's cries of hate anddespair: _Thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it for ever!_<br><br> Now it is a curious fact that this is not the story as Bilbo first toldit to his companions. To them his account was that Gollum had promised to givehim a _present,_ if he won the game; but when Gollum went to fetch it from hisisland he found the treasure was gone: a magic ring, which had been given tohim long ago on his birthday. Bilbo guessed that this was the very ring thathe had found, and as he had won the game, it was already his by right. Butbeing in a tight place, he said nothing about it, and made Gollum show him theway out, as a reward instead of a present. This account Bilbo set down in hismemoirs, and he seems never to have altered it himself, not even after theCouncil of Elrond. Evidently it still appeared in the original Red Book, as itdid in several of the copies and abstracts. But many copies contain the trueaccount (as an alternative), derived no doubt from notes by Frodo or Samwise,<br>both of whom learned the truth, though they seem to have been unwilling todelete anything actually written by the old hobbit himself.<br><br>Gandalf, however, disbelieved Bilbo's first story, as soon as he heardit, and he continued to be very curious about the ring. Eventually he got thetrue tale out of Bilbo after much questioning, which for a while strainedtheir friendship; but the wizard seemed to think the truth important. Thoughhe did not say so to Bilbo, he also thought it important, and disturbing, tofind that the good hobbit had not told the truth from the first: quitecontrary to his habit. The idea of a 'present' was not mere hobbitlikeinvention, all the same. It was suggested to Bilbo, as he confessed, byGollum's talk that he overheard; for Gollum did, in fact, call the ring his'birthday present', many times. That also Gandalf thought strange andsuspicious; but he did not discover the truth in this point for many moreyears, as will be seen in this book.<br><br> Of Bilbo's later adventures little more need be said here. With the helpof the ring he escaped from the orc-guards at the gate and rejoined hiscompanions. He used the ring many times on his quest, chiefly for the help ofhis friends; but he kept it secret from them as long as he could. After hisreturn to his home he never spoke of it again to anyone, save Gandalf andFrodo; and no one else in the Shire knew of its existence, or so he believed.<br>Only to Frodo did he show the account of his Journey that he was writing.<br><br>His sword, Sting, Bilbo hung over his fireplace, and his coat ofmarvellous mail, the gift of the Dwarves from the Dragon-hoard, he lent to amuseum, to the Michel Delving Mathom-house in fact. But he kept in a drawer atBag End the old cloak and hood that he had worn on his travels; and the ring,<br>secured by a fine chain, remained in his pocket.<br><br>He returned to his home at Bag End on June the 22nd in his fifty-secondyear (S.R. 1342), and nothing very notable occurred in the Shire until Mr.<br>Baggins began the preparations for the celebration of his hundred-and-eleventhbirthday (S.R. 1401). At this point this History begins.<br><br> At the end of the Third Age the part played by the Hobbits in the greatevents that led to the inclusion of the Shire in the Reunited Kingdom awakenedamong them a more widespread interest in their own history; and many of theirtraditions, up to that time still mainly oral, were collected and Writtendown. The greater families were also concerned with events in the Kingdom atlarge, and many of their members studied its ancient histories and legends. Bythe end of the first century of the Fourth Age there were already to be foundin the Shire several libraries that contained many historical books andrecords.<br><br> The largest of these collections were probably at Undertowers, at GreatSmials, and at Brandy Hall. This account of the end of the Third Age is drawnmainly from the Red Book of Westmarch. That most important source for the <br><br> <br>history of the War of the Ring was so called because it was long preserved atUndertowers, the home of the Fairbairns, Wardens of the Westmarch. It was inorigin Bilbo's private diary, which he took with him to Rivendell. Frodobrought it back to the Shire, together with many loose leaves of notes, andduring S.R. 1420-1 he nearly filled its pages with his account of the War. Butannexed to it and preserved with it, probably m a single red case, were thethree large volumes, bound in red leather, that Bilbo gave to him as a partinggift. To these four volumes there was added in Westmarch a fifth containingcommentaries, genealogies, and various other matter concerning the hobbitmembers of the Fellowship.<br><br>The original Red Book has not been preserved, but many copies were made,<br>especially of the first volume, for the use of the descendants of the childrenof Master Samwise. The most important copy, however, has a different history.<br>It was kept at Great Smials, but it was written in Condor, probably at therequest of the great-grandson of Peregrin, and completed in S.R. 1592 (F.A.<br>172). Its southern scribe appended this note: Findegil, King's Writer,<br>finished this work in IV 172. It is an exact copy in all details of theThain's Book m Minas Tirith. That book was a copy, made at the request of KingElessar, of the Red Book of the Periannath, and was brought to him by theThain Peregrin when he retired to Gondor in IV 64.<br><br>The Thain's Book was thus the first copy made of the Red Book andcontained much that was later omitted or lost. In Minas Tirith it received <br>much annotation, and many corrections, especially of names, words, andquotations in the Elvish languages; and there was added to it an abbreviatedversion of those parts of _The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen_ which lie outsidethe account of the War. The full tale is stated to have been written byBarahir, grandson of the Steward Faramir, some time after the passing of theKing. But the chief importance of Findegil's copy is that it alone containsthe whole of Bilbo's 'Translations from the Elvish'. These three volumes were <br>found to be a work of great skill and learning in which, between 1403 and1418, he had used all the sources available to him in Rivendell, both livingand written. But since they were little used by Frodo, being almost entirelyconcerned with the Elder Days, no more is said of them here.<br><br>Since Meriadoc and Peregrin became the heads of their great families, andat the same time kept up their connexions with Rohan and Gondor, the librariesat Bucklebury and Tuckborough contained much that did not appear in the RedBook. In Brandy Hall there were many works dealing with Eriador and thehistory of Rohan. Some of these were composed or begun by Meriadoc himself,<br>though in the Shire he was chiefly remembered for his _Herblore of the Shire,_<br>and for his _Reckoning of Years_ m which he discussed the relation of thecalendars of the Shire and Bree to those of Rivendell, Gondor, and Rohan. Healso wrote a short treatise on _Old Words and Names in the Shire,_ havingspecial interest in discovering the kinship with the language of the Rohirrimof such 'shire-words' as _mathom_ and old elements in place names.<br><br>At Great Smials the books were of less interest to Shire-folk, thoughmore important for larger history. None of them was written by Peregrin, buthe and his successors collected many manuscripts written by scribes of Gondor:<br>mainly copies or summaries of histories or legends relating to Elendil and hisheirs. Only here in the Shire were to be found extensive materials for thehistory of Númenor and the arising of Sauron. It was probably at Great Smialsthat _The Tale of Years_ was put together, with the assistance of materialcollected by Meriadoc. Though the dates given are often conjectural,<br>especially for the Second Age, they deserve attention. It is probable thatMeriadoc obtained assistance and information from Rivendell, which he visitedmore than once. There, though Elrond had departed, his sons long remained,<br>together with some of the High-elven folk. It is said that Celeborn went todwell there after the departure of Galadriel; but there is no record of theday when at last he sought the Grey Havens, and with him went the last livingmemory of the Elder Days in Middle-earth. 貌似所有论文都需要在后面附上外文资料和翻译 <!--emo&:wacko:--><img src='http://www.cndkc.org/bbs_en/html/emoticons/wacko.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wacko.gif' /><!--endemo--> 这么快就有回复了<br>真的谢谢各位了<br>楼上的说的对<br>那些外文资料其实老师也是不看<br>一个形式而已<br>只是苦了我们这些学生<br>谢谢各位了<br>因为本人英语水平烂<br>所以这些如果就是国内那些中文版的英文原文的话<br>我就可以直接找那些中文作为翻译了<br>谢谢楼上的几位朋友！ 自卑中……看懂的很少……大家太专业了……佩服~ <!--emo&:huh:--><img src='http://www.cndkc.org/bbs_en/html/emoticons/huh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='huh.gif' /><!--endemo--><br>有中译版吗……我不行呵……*_*页:
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