Bingo Baggins, Frodo Took and a Hobbit in Wooden Shoes

Please. Do not shoot the messenger. My intentions are not to diminish anyone's fondness of Middle-earth by dragging them kicking and screaming from a cozy dream-state into the stark light of pedantry nor should it be inferred that I am endeavoring to give JRR Tolkien feet of clay. Quite the contrary. My purpose is to offer a few snippets of information which might provoke insight and further enhance the readers' appreciation of Tolkien's monumental achievement - the creation of a most beautiful, most elegant and most believable body of myth.

Christopher Tolkien, the son and posthumous editor of JRR Tolkien, states quite plainly in the forward to the sixth volume of 'The History of Middle-earth',

"My father bestowed immense pains on the creation of the 'Lord of the Rings', and my intention has been that this record of his first years of work on it should reflect those pains."

The pains which are referred to are those of disquietude, uncertainty and a mistrust of his own ability to produce an acceptable sequel to 'The Hobbit'. Clearly the task of writing a follow-up daunted him, for in his letter dated December 16, 1937 to his publisher, Stanley Unwin, Tolkien wrote rather plaintively, "What more can hobbits do?".

Tolkien was, at this time, deeply involved with 'The Silmarillion' and apparently less than happily disposed to undertake the sequel at the expense of leaving off, even temporarily, with the older, mythological accounts of Middle-earth. Nevertheless, by the following February, he had written four versions of what would become the first chapter of 'The Lord of the Rings', 'The Long-expected Party' but had strong misgivings concerning the value of his efforts. In a letter dated February 1, 1938, to Charles Furth of Allen & Unwin, he confided "I have no confidence in it." Eleven days later he wrote,

"I have only the vaguest notions of how to proceed. Not ever intending any sequel, I fear I squandered all my favorite 'motifs' and characters on the original 'Hobbit'."

Notwithstanding his fear, he continued writing. By March of 1938, he had taken the new story as far as Buckland, roughly equivalent to the fifth chapter of 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. The basic storyline was coming together. It must be noted, however, that the 'hero' of this new tale was not young Frodo Baggins but rather a hobbit of 72 years named 'Bingo Bolger-Baggins' who was being accompanied by

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