Prologue 5

Note on the Shire Records

 * The Shire has a lot of written records kept by the different great Hobbit families.
 * In particular, the records that deal with the particular adventures in this book begin with the Red Book of Westmarch, a four-volume set bound in leather and written by Bilbo Baggins; Bilbo then gave these books to Frodo.
 * To these four volumes, other Hobbit members of the Fellowship have added commentaries and genealogies.
 * These volumes were copied for the descendants of Samwise Gamgee. The most important copy of the Red Book was done by a scribe in Gondor; it became known as the "Thain's Book."
 * It is an exact copy of the book Peregrin Took (Pippin) brought with him to Gondor when he retired during the Fourth Age.
 * This book contains "much that was later omitted or lost. In Minas Tirith [the capital city of Gondor] it received much annotation, and many corrections, especially of names, words, and quotations in the Elvish languages; and there was added to it an abbreviated version of those parts of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen which lie outside the account of the War" (prologue.4.4). Translation: it's pretty comprehensive.
 * Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took (remember them, they'll be back) each became heads of their great families.
 * Thus, they maintained huge libraries connecting the Hobbits to the lands of Rohan and Gondor.
 * Meriadoc has tried to keep records of the Elder Days, the first days of the Elves in Middle-earth.
 * But when Celeborn, the consort of Galadrial, passed to the Gray Havens, there with him "went the last living memory of the Elder Days in Middle-earth" (prologue.4.6).