THERE AND BACK AGAIN, AGAIN
Frodo Fairbairns of Undertowers in the Westmarch was a Hobbit with a Secret Plan. He may not have looked like it. In fact compared to some of his relatives, especially his distant cousin, the dashing Paladin Took, he was, in the words of his own family, 'as plain as a fence post.' Somehow the fabled good looks of his foremother the legendary beauty Elanor the Fair had completely passed him by, although the Fairbairns, who were still very important as Wardens of the Westmarch, were regarded as one of the most handsome families in or out of the Shire. Very elderly Hobbits who claimed to know told young Frodo that he closely resembled old Samwise, who although he had been very important and rich as seven-time Mayor of the Shire, had not been much to look at.
Frodo seemed to have inherited something else from this curious ancestor, something not quite so obvious to blunt and bluff Hobbit society. He was a dreamer. He was not a head-in-the-clouds ninny-hammer; Frodo was apprenticed as a builder to his old Uncle Tobold, who would never have allowed any drifting as they repaired the roofs of sagging hobbit-holes or laid foundations for new houses in the still-growing bordertown of Undertowers. But Frodo loved to hear old tales and songs as they relaxed at the Golden Branch Inn when work was done, and he delved into the memories of ancient gaffers and gammers as they sat by the fireside, unheeded by busier folk. But what really fed his dreams and filled his mind, so that he seemed to himself to be moving through enchantment even as he knocked roof-beams together or laid bricks straight in a wall, and what led him to his Secret Plan, was that unknown to anyone he was reading, again and again, The Book.
The Red Book of Westmarch (as it was more fully known) was one of the most important cares and duties of the Fairbairns as Wardens of Westmarch. These days it was more honored as a relic than read as a book, and was kept carefully under a glass case to protect it from damp weather and devouring insects. Important copies and extracts of it had been made and some had gone as far as Tuckborough and Brandy Hall, and even (so legend had it) to the King's Library in the White City. These were little heeded save by lore-masters, however, and the longest, most important, and best-known portion (to Hobbits) was the part describing the Battle of Bywater, which was read, every year, along with the Long Roll of Hobbits who had taken part in the fighting.
Indeed, it was to get a glimpse of the original description of the fighting that had prompted Frodo, while still in his tweens, to sneak with lighted candle into the Library where the Book was kept, remove the glass cover, and search through its crackling pages. He imagined, in his innocence, that something so important as the Battle must come right away at the beginning of the Book, but he found to his dismay that it was all about the adventures of someone called Bilbo, whom he had never even heard of before. Being a careful lad and not wishing to miss anything, he continued reading, at first in boredom, then with growing interest, and at last with fascination.
By the time his candle had burned out (sometime around four o'clock in the morning) the late moon had risen, silvering the cavernous Library with its light and creating deep mysterious shadows in the corners and vaults of the room. Frodo had closed the Book like one in a trance and returned it to its place. He crept back to bed, his head filled with mountains and forests, goblins and wizards, and the pale enchanted gold of the dwarves. The heroics of Bywater were forgotten. The next night, and many nights after, found him in the Library with his midnight candle, reading the Book in great draughts, until he had turned the last page. Then he read it again. And again.
[The story envisioned from this part on: Frodo joins with his cousin Paladin and a journeyman Dwarf working for Uncle Tobold to travel to the Lonely Mountain, then to Gondor, then back to the Shire, to trace the travels of Bilbo and Frodo and see what has happened in those lands since. This is the Secret Plan.]
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