Author’s Notes

            I don’t know who decided to remove so many of our stories, much less why.  I’ve found my second collection of stories not focused on Frodo Baggins has also been removed, so will need to re-find it and the short stories it held.  Hopefully it will be nearly complete on the hard drive of my older laptop, and can be reconstituted from that collection.  Why some people cannot leave well enough alone is beyond me.  I’m supposed to be able to retrieve these stories when I return home after a much-needed vacation, and hopefully it won’t take too long to get reposted.

            I’ve done a variety of stories in my writing life, and thought to do a mystery story with Frodo as the detective, using the skills taught and honed by Bilbo and Aragorn augmented by his own keen powers of observation, to find the truth to the disappearance of the children of a Hobbit taken by Lotho’s Big Men and imprisoned within the Lockholes.  Living in a state still much given to the lumber industry, I used the idea of a small lumber camp as a place where a desperate family might hide out during the Time of Troubles. 

            It’s a tale that stops short of being a murder mystery, looking at what Saruman might have intended to do to the Shire once he took control of this small land.  In the book Sam sees his father wheeling a barrow of his things out of Bagshot Row to the new houses raised by the Big Men, and hints of fires and destruction throughout the Shire.  In the movie, Frodo sees Sam, Rosie, and other Hobbits chained and led off to slavery as The Green Dragon burns to the ground.  This inspired the idea of the various craftsmen of the Shire being forced to work in dull factories instead of within their own homes or workshops as was proper to the Hobbits of the Shire, their own tools taken from them as well as their individuality and personal artistry.

            I was proud to find this family found an injured Man and took him in, helping him heal and find a place with them, finding redemption and the respect of Frodo Baggins. 

            And I liked to review the tale of the “haints” as experienced by those sent to burn the Cottons’ farm and despoil the forest, as from far away Sam and Frodo briefly became aware of damage intended by Lotho that they were able to stop using the power of the reluctant Ring..  Yes, the purity of the two Hobbits in Mordor was able to overcome the Ring’s tendency toward destruction and desecration.

            As I was writing this, I saw somewhere that the forest was designated as the Binbale rather than the Binbole Forest,.  May have been in one of Day’s books.  Pardon me if you find it jarring.

            Hope you’ve enjoyed this relatively short read.

B.L.S.  July, 2025