Author's Note: This is a work of "fanfiction", a reflection of admiration for the original authors. This author owns no rights to this material, save perhaps the imagination used to take existing yarns and weave them into a new pattern, and a few original characters.

Introductory Notes:

Chronicler's Note:

The following is a grim account indeed, detailing as it does a terrible time in the history of the Shire. Although the difficulties undergone by the Halflings do not begin to approach the sufferings of the prisoners of Dol Guldur or Barad Dur, still, the cruelties of renegade Men are well known to the citizens of Gondor.

The purpose of this account is not to describe in detail the sufferings of a gentle, inoffensive folk, but rather, to celebrate the triumph of the spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity.

In this time of relative peace, the King has commanded this copy to be made for his annals, from the Thain’s Book, lest we forget the entire price paid by the Ring-bearer and his people.

Faithfully transcribed and submitted for the record,

L. 

Historian's Note:

Looking back through the lenses of hindsight and history, we can only echo the warning of the chronicler who transcribed this from the Thain's Book for the official record of the King of Gondor and Arnor, etc. This account is mild, compared to those from our own time, e.g. a survivor of the Holocaust, or an American POW during the Vietnam War, or other troubling accounts from more modern days.

We must never forget the horrors that renegade Men can perpetrate on those in their power, and be ever vigilant to protect the ones who have no protector.