For Frodo the Halfling, it is said, at the bidding of Mithrandir took on himself the burden, and alone with his servant he passed through peril and darkness and came at last in Sauron's despite even to Mount Doom; and there into the Fire where it was wrought he cast the Great Ring of Power, and so at last it was unmade and its evil consumed.

"Hmph." Daisy sniffed, and put the book back in the pile.

"What's wrong?" Sammie looked up from his own reading, a collection of myths and adventures from the oral traditions of the Rohirrim. The pair had been fortunate enough to be the only ones at home when the mail cart came by bearing packages of every shape and size. Uncle Frodo had decided, obviously, to give books as presents on his upcoming birthday. Most hobbit children would find the prospect of such gifts sorely disappointing, but the Gardner brood considered it more than satisfactory.

"Just a stupid Elf book," Daisy said in a grouchy voice, clasping her hands around her knees and looking into the flickering fire that warmed the study. "Left out all the important bits."

"Well, they have got an awful lot of history to fit in," Sammie pointed out, guessing at the exclusion that had wounded his sister so. "They can't name everyone."

"Wouldn't be a problem, if they didn't all have such complicated names of their own." Daisy didn't intend on being placated until she'd had a right good grumble first. "And it doesn't say what happened next, either. If they got home. And Uncle Frodo still hasn't changed the ending in his stupid Red Book." She put on an imitation of Frodo's slightly plummier accent. "'Oh, lass, I don't feel like walking those paths again. Your Dad or Elanor will change it some day', and you just know Dad and El are never going to do anything of the sort. So if the Elves are going to be stupid and leave all the important things out, and Uncle's going to be stubborn as a Bracegirdle mule, then eventually nobody is going to remember the way everything turned out."

"Someone will know," Sammie said in an authorative voice. "Someone always remembers that kind of thing, Daise. One day, somebody will make a note of the things that need changing in the Book."

"But what if they don't?" Daisy's voice was almost pleading. "If they think Uncle sailed with those stupid abbreviatin' Elves, they'll never even know you got born."

"So?" Sammie shrugged. "I know it, don't I? Don't see how anyone else's opinion on the subject matters much."

~

Pretty Good Year | email Mary