The Annals of the West, Epilogue and Author’s Notes, written for Celeritas by Dreamflower

[dreamflower]

Title: The Annals of the West, Epilogue and Author’s Notes
Author: Dreamflower
Recipient: Celeritas AKA labourslamp
Summary: ”In Brandy Hall there were many works dealing with Eriador and the history of Rohan. Some of these were composed or begun by Meriadoc himself…It was probably at Great Smials that The Tale of Years was put together, with the assistance of material collected by Meriadoc.” (Prologue: Notes on the Shire Records) The Annals finally come to an end, and Merry ponders what he might do next…
Rating: G.
Word Count: total story count—13,570; Epilogue and Author’s Notes--567

The Annals of the West, Epilogue

Merry sat back with a sigh. It had taken four years to finish, and at the end, he had more questions than he had when he began. But the Annals were complete.

There had been another visit to Rivendell, thankfully shorter than the first. And there had been numerous letters to Gondor and to Rohan and even to Erebor. The Annals of the First Age were not here. He had left those with Erestor on his last visit there, so that the Elf could go over them for any errors Merry might have made, as those were based almost entirely on Erestor’s notes. He would retrieve them, he thought, on another visit. Celandine was already at work on copying the volumes of the Second and Third Ages. The copies would go to Bag End and the Great Smials when they were finished.

This was a mighty work, and he felt it would make Frodo proud. But life was moving on. Wyn had surprised him two years ago when she married Hending Greenhill, Fastred’s cousin. Last year Fam had wed Sam’s daughter Goldilocks, and this year Merry’s sweet baby Nephredil would marry Merry Gamgee in the late spring. Even more satisfying was the knowledge that Perry had finally settled into courting Primrose Took, and there might well be more than one wedding this year.

He had been very busy over the last four years, between his family and his writing and his duties as Master. But now the writing was finished. Perhaps he’d take more time for his herb garden, or take some quiet days fishing on the River. After all, a hobbit couldn’t spend all his days scribbling away.

But he took up the letter he’d recently received from Rohan. It seemed that some of the more rustic Rohirrim used the word “smygels” to describe a burrow. Now that word, he thought, is not too far off from “smial”…

AUTHOR’S END NOTES:

This story is a lot longer than I anticipated it being! And it took a great deal more research than I thought it would.

I owe a debt of thanks to danae_b for the work she did on her “Annotated Tale of Years”. Although my links to it no longer work, I am very thankful that I happened to have downloaded it a few years ago. I thought the file was lost, but fortunately found it on a back-up disc. I hope I can persuade her to allow it to be posted publicly once more.
ETA: I just discovered that Dana's Annotated ToY may still be found here on her website. This is a marvelous resource!

Other sources I used for this story:

The Thain’s Book: entry on the Dúnedain of the North
Travel Routes and Times in Middle-earth
Eowyn Challenge.net: The Hobbit: Bag End to Rivendell (I used the times and distances from The Hobbit rather than from LotR, as in this story, Merry and Estella stick to the road, and do not take Strider’s famous short-cut.)
The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary by Paul Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner

And most importantly, the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, most especially Appendices A and B, and to the Prologue: Note on the Shire Records

I hope no one thinks that four years is too short a time to complete a massive work of this sort. After all, canonically Frodo completed the entire Red Book in only two years.

There is a good deal of territory left uncovered in this story, but there was only so much I could do with a deadline looming over me! Perhaps I will one day fill in a few of the gaps.

Celeritas, I hope you enjoyed your Yule story!

Comments

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

What an excellent story - thank you.

[dreamflower]

Thank you, dear, for reading and commenting!