FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION This tale grew in the telling, until it became a history of the Great War of the Ring and included many glimpses of the yet more ancient history that preceded it. It was begun soon after The Hobbit was written and before its publication in 1937; but I did not go on with this sequel, for I wished first to complete and set in order the mythology and legends of the Elder Days, which had then been taking shape for some years. I desired to do this for my own satisfaction, and I had little hope that other people would be interested in this work, especially since it was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of ‘history’ for Elvish tongues. When those whose advice and opinion I sought corrected Uittle hope to no hope, I went back to the sequel, encouraged by requests from readers for more information concerning hobbits and their adventures. But the story was drawn irresistibly towards the older world, and became an account, as it were, of its end and passing away before its beginning and middle had been told. The process had begun in the writing of The Hobbit, in which there were already some references to the older matter: Elrond, Gondolin, the High-elves, and the orcs, as well as glimpses that had arisen unbidden of things higher or deeper or darker than its surface: Durin, Moria, Gandalf, the Necromancer, the Ring. The discovery of the significance of these glimpses and of their relation to the ancient histories revealed the Third Age and its culmination in the War of the Ring. Those who had asked for more information about hobbits eventually got it, but they had to wait a long time; for the composition of The Lord of the Rings went on at intervals during the years 1936 to 1949, a period in which I had many duties that I did not neglect, and many other interests as a learner and teacher that often absorbed me. The delay was, of course, also increased by the outbreak of war in 1939, by the end of which year the tale had not yet reached the end of Book One. In spite of the darkness of the next five years I found that the story could not now be wholly abandoned, and I plodded on, mostly by night, till I stood by Balin’s tomb in Moria. There I halted for a long while. It was almost a year later when I went on and so came to Lothlorien and the Great River late in 1941.
第二版序言 這個故事在講述中不斷發展，直到它成為了魔戒聖戰的歷史，並包含了許多對其之前更古老歷史的片段。它是在《哈比人》寫成後不久、1937年出版前開始的；但我沒有繼續這個續集，因為我首先希望完成並整理「上古時代」的神話與傳說，這些在當時已經醞釀了數年。我渴望這樣做是為了自己的滿足，而且我幾乎不抱希望其他人會對這部作品感興趣，特別是它主要源於語言學的啟發，並旨在為精靈語提供必要的「歷史」背景。當那些我徵求意見的人將「微薄的希望」修正為「毫無希望」時，我回頭繼續寫續集，因為讀者們要求更多關於哈比人及其冒險的資訊，這給了我鼓勵。但故事卻不可抗拒地被拉向了更古老的世界，結果，它在講述其開端和中間部分之前，就成了其終結和消逝的記述。這個過程在撰寫《哈比人》時就已開始，其中已經有一些對更古老事物的提及：愛隆、剛多林、高等精靈和半獸人，以及一些不請自來的、比其表面更崇高、更深邃或更黑暗的事物的片段：都靈、摩瑞亞、甘道夫、死靈法師、魔戒。這些片段的意義及其與古代歷史的關係被發現後，揭示了第三紀元及其在魔戒聖戰中的高潮。那些曾要求更多關於哈比人資訊的人最終得到了它，但他們不得不等待很長時間；因為《魔戒》的創作在1936年至1949年間斷斷續續地進行，這段時間我有很多職責沒有疏忽，也有許多作為學習者和教師的其他興趣常常讓我全神貫注。當然，1939年戰爭的爆發也加劇了延遲，到那年年底，故事甚至還沒有寫到第一卷的結尾。儘管接下來的五年一片黑暗，我發現故事現在已無法完全放棄，於是我夜以繼日地艱難前行，直到我站在摩瑞亞的巴林之墓旁。我在那裡停頓了很長時間。又過了將近一年，我才繼續前進，於1941年末抵達羅斯洛立安和大河。
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION xix In the next year I wrote the first drafts of the matter that now stands as Book Three, and the beginnings of chapters I and III of Book Five; and there as the beacons flared in Anorien and Théoden came to Harrowdale I stopped. Foresight had failed and there was no time for thought. It was during 1944 that, leaving the loose ends and perplexities of a war which it was my task to conduct, or at least to report, I forced myself to tackle the journey of Frodo to Mordor. These chapters, eventually to become Book Four, were written and sent out as a serial to my son, Christopher, then in South Africa with the RAF. Nonetheless it took another five years before the tale was brought to its present end; in that time I changed my house, my chair, and my college, and the days though less dark were no less laborious. Then when the ‘end’ had at last been reached the whole story had to be revised, and indeed largely re-written backwards. And it had to be typed, and re-typed: by me; the cost of professional typing by the ten-fingered was beyond my means. The Lord of the Rings has been read by many people since it finally appeared in print; and I should like to say something here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I have received or have read concerning the motives and meaning of the tale. The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them. As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving, and for many the guide was inevitably often at fault. Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer. But even from the points of view of many who have enjoyed my story there is much that fails to please. It is perhaps not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same points; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages or chapters that are to some a blemish are all by others specially approved. The most critical reader of all, myself, now finds many defects, minor and major, but being fortunately under no obligation either to review the book or to write it again, he will pass over these in silence, except one that has been noted by others: the book is too short. As for any inner meaning or ‘message’, it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical. As the story grew it put down roots (into the past) and threw out unexpected branches: but its main theme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as the link between it and The Hobbit.
第二版序言 xix 接下來的一年，我寫下了現在《第三部》的初稿，以及《第五部》第一章和第三章的開頭；當安諾瑞恩的烽火燃起，希優頓來到哈羅谷時，我停筆了。預見能力失效，沒有時間思考。正是在1944年，我放下了一場戰爭的懸而未決和困惑——這場戰爭是我的職責所在，至少也要報告——我強迫自己著手處理佛羅多前往魔多的旅程。這些章節，最終成為《第四部》，以連載形式寫給我的兒子克里斯多福，他當時在南非服役於英國皇家空軍。儘管如此，故事又花了五年才寫到現在的結局；在那段時間裡，我搬了家，換了椅子，也換了學院，那些日子雖然不再那麼黑暗，卻也同樣辛勞。當「結局」終於完成時，整個故事必須進行修訂，而且大部分是倒著重寫的。而且它必須由我親自打字，再打字；因為請專業打字員（十指打字者）的費用超出了我的負擔能力。《魔戒》自最終出版以來已被許多人閱讀；我想在此就我所收到或讀到的許多關於這個故事的動機和意義的意見或猜測說些什麼。主要動機是一位說故事的人渴望嘗試寫一個真正長篇的故事，能夠吸引讀者的注意力，娛樂他們，使他們高興，有時甚至激動他們或深深感動他們。作為指導，我只有自己對於什麼是吸引人或感人的感受，而對許多人來說，這個指導不可避免地經常出錯。有些讀過這本書，或者至少評論過它的人，覺得它無聊、荒謬或可鄙；我沒有理由抱怨，因為我對他們的作品，或者他們顯然偏好的寫作類型，也有類似的看法。但即使從許多喜歡我故事的人的角度來看，也有許多地方不盡如人意。在一個長篇故事中，或許不可能在所有方面都取悅所有人，也不可能在所有方面都讓所有人不滿；因為我從收到的信件中發現，對某些人來說是瑕疵的段落或章節，卻都受到其他人的特別讚賞。所有讀者中最挑剔的，也就是我自己，現在發現了許多大大小小的缺陷，但幸運的是，我既沒有義務評論這本書，也沒有義務重新寫它，所以他將對這些缺陷保持沉默，除了別人提到的一點：這本書太短了。至於任何內在的意義或「訊息」，作者本人並沒有這個意圖。它既非寓言，也非時事評論。隨著故事的發展，它紮下了根（深入過去），並長出了意想不到的枝椏：但其主要主題從一開始就由不可避免地選擇魔戒作為它與《哈比人》之間的連結而確定。
XxX THE LORD OF THE RINGS The crucial chapter, “The Shadow of the Past’, is one of the oldest parts of the tale. It was written long before the foreshadow of 1939 had yet become a threat of inevitable disaster, and from that point the story would have developed along essentially the same lines, if that disaster had been averted. Its sources are things long before in mind, or in some cases already written, and little or nothing in it was modified by the war that began in 1939 or its sequels. The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dir would not have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth. In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves. Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author. An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous. It is also false, though naturally attractive, when the lives of an author and critic have overlapped, to suppose that the movements of thought or the events of times common to both were necessarily the most powerful influences. One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead. Or to take a less grievous matter: it has been supposed by some that “The Scouring of the Shire’ reflects the situation in England at the time when I was finishing my tale. It does not. It is an essential part of the plot, foreseen from the outset, though in the event modified by the character of Saruman as developed in the story without, need I say, any
《魔戒》中關鍵的章節「往昔之影」是故事中最古老的部分之一。它寫於1939年戰爭陰影尚未成為不可避免的災難威脅之前，如果那場災難得以避免，故事本來也會沿著大致相同的路線發展。它的來源是作者心中早已存在的想法，或在某些情況下已經寫成的內容，其中幾乎沒有任何部分因1939年開始的戰爭及其後續事件而改變。現實的戰爭無論在過程還是結局上，都不像傳說中的戰爭。如果它曾啟發或引導了傳說的發展，那麼魔戒肯定會被奪取並用來對抗索倫；他不會被消滅，而是被奴役，而巴拉督爾（Barad-dir）也不會被摧毀，而是被佔領。薩魯曼未能奪得魔戒，本會在當時的混亂和背叛中，在魔多找到他自己對魔戒知識研究中缺失的環節，不久他就會製造出自己的至尊魔戒，用來挑戰自封為中土世界統治者的存在。在那場衝突中，雙方都會憎恨和蔑視哈比人：他們即使作為奴隸也無法長久生存。其他安排可以根據那些喜歡寓言或時事影射的人的品味或觀點來設計。但我由衷地厭惡所有形式的寓言，自從我變得足夠年長和警惕以察覺其存在以來，我一直如此。我更喜歡歷史，無論是真實的還是虛構的，它對讀者的思想和經驗具有多樣的適用性。我認為許多人混淆了「適用性」與「寓言」；但前者存在於讀者的自由之中，而後者則在於作者有目的的支配。作者當然不可能完全不受其經驗的影響，但故事萌芽利用經驗土壤的方式極其複雜，試圖定義這個過程充其量只是根據不充分和模糊的證據進行的猜測。當作者和評論家的生活有所重疊時，假設兩者共同的思想動向或時代事件必然是最強大的影響，這也是錯誤的，儘管自然而然地吸引人。一個人確實必須親身經歷戰爭的陰影，才能充分感受到它的壓迫；但隨著歲月流逝，現在人們似乎常常忘記，在青年時期被1914年戰爭所困，其經歷的恐怖程度不亞於捲入1939年及隨後幾年的戰爭。到1918年，我親近的朋友中除了我之外都已去世。或者舉一個不那麼令人悲痛的例子：有些人認為「夏爾的掃蕩」反映了我在完成故事時英格蘭的局勢。它沒有。它是情節的一個重要部分，從一開始就預見到了，儘管在事件中，它因故事中薩魯曼角色的發展而有所修改，我無需多言，沒有任何…
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION Xxi allegorical significance or contemporary political reference whatsoever. It has indeed some basis in experience, though slender (for the economic situation was entirely different), and much further back. The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily destroyed before I was ten, in days when motor-cars were rare objects (I had never seen one) and men were still building suburban railways. Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the last decrepitude of the once thriving corn-mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so important. I never liked the looks of the Young miller, but his father, the Old miller, had a black beard, and he was not named Sandyman. The Lord of the Rings is now issued in a new edition, and the opportunity has been taken of revising it. A number of errors and inconsistencies that still remained in the text have been corrected, and an attempt has been made to provide information on a few points which attentive readers have raised. I have considered all their comments and enquiries, and if some seem to have been passed over that may be because I have failed to keep my notes in order; but many enquiries could only be answered by additional appendices, or indeed by the production of an accessory volume containing much of the material that I did not include in the original edition, in particular more detailed linguistic information. In the meantime this edition offers this Foreword, an addition to the Prologue, some notes, and an index of the names of persons and places. This index is in intention complete in items but not in references, since for the present purpose it has been necessary to reduce its bulk. A complete index, making full use of the material prepared for me by Mrs. N. Smith, belongs rather to the accessory volume.
第二版序言 xxi 絕無任何寓言意義或當代政治影射。它確實有些經驗基礎，儘管微薄（因為當時的經濟狀況完全不同），而且時間要追溯到更久以前。我童年居住的鄉村在我十歲之前就已破敗不堪，那時汽車還是稀罕物（我從未見過），人們仍在修建郊區鐵路。最近我在報紙上看到一張照片，顯示了那座曾經繁榮的磨坊及其水池的最終衰敗景象，那磨坊和水池在很久以前對我來說是如此重要。我從不喜歡小磨坊主的外貌，但他的父親，老磨坊主，留著黑鬍子，而且他不叫桑迪曼。《魔戒》現已發行新版，並藉此機會進行了修訂。文中仍存在的一些錯誤和不一致之處已得到修正，並嘗試就細心讀者提出的一些問題提供資訊。我已考慮了他們所有的評論和詢問，如果有些似乎被忽略了，那可能是因為我未能將筆記整理妥當；但許多詢問只能透過增補附錄來回答，或者確實需要出版一本輔助卷，其中包含許多我未納入原版中的材料，特別是更詳細的語言學資訊。同時，本版提供了這篇序言、對序章的補充、一些註釋，以及人名和地名索引。這個索引在條目上是完整的，但在參考資料上則不然，因為為了目前的用途，有必要減少其篇幅。一個完整的索引，充分利用了N.史密斯夫人為我準備的材料，更適合收錄在輔助卷中。
PROLOGUE I Concerning Hobbits This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history. Further information will also be found in the selection from the Red Book of Westmarch that has already been published, under the title of The Hobbit. That story was derived from the earlier chapters of the Red Book, composed by Bilbo himself, the first Hobbit to become famous in the world at large, and called by him There and Back Again, since they told of his journey into the East and his return: an adventure which later involved all the Hobbits in the great events of that Age that are here related. Many, however, may wish to know more about this remarkable people from the outset, while some may not possess the earlier book. For such readers a few notes on the more important points are here collected from Hobbit-lore, and the first adventure is briefly recalled. Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt. They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with tools. Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of ‘the Big Folk’, as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find. They are quick of hearing and sharp-eyed, and though they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily, they are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements. They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by; and this art they have developed until to Men it may seem magical. But Hobbits have never, in fact, studied magic of any kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close friendship with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clumsier races. For they are a little people, smaller than Dwarves: less stout and stocky, that is, even when they are not actually much shorter. Their height is variable, ranging between two and four feet of our measure.
序章一 關於哈比人 本書主要講述哈比人，讀者可從中了解他們的許多性格特點和一些歷史。更多資訊亦可見於已出版的《哈比人》一書，該書選自西境紅皮書。那個故事源自紅皮書的早期章節，由比爾博本人撰寫，他是第一個在廣闊世界中聞名的哈比人，並將其命名為《去而復返》，因為它講述了他前往東方並返回的旅程：這是一場冒險，後來將所有哈比人捲入了此處所述的那個時代的重大事件中。然而，許多人可能希望從一開始就了解更多關於這個非凡民族的資訊，而有些人可能沒有那本較早的書。為此，我們從哈比人傳說中收集了一些關於重要事項的筆記，並簡要回顧了第一次冒險。哈比人是一個不引人注目但非常古老的民族，過去比現在更為眾多；因為他們熱愛和平、寧靜和肥沃的耕地：一個秩序井然、農耕良好的鄉村是他們最喜歡的棲息地。他們不理解也不喜歡比風箱、水車或手織機更複雜的機器，儘管他們擅長使用工具。即使在古代，他們通常也對「大人物」（他們對我們的稱呼）感到害羞，而現在他們則沮喪地避開我們，變得難以尋覓。他們聽覺敏銳，目光銳利，儘管他們傾向於肥胖且不必要地不急不躁，但他們的動作卻依然靈活敏捷。從一開始，他們就擁有一種迅速而無聲地消失的技藝，當他們不想遇到的大人物笨拙地經過時；他們發展了這項技藝，直到對人類來說，這可能看起來像是魔法。但哈比人實際上從未研究過任何形式的魔法，他們的難以捉摸僅僅歸因於一種專業技能，這種技能是遺傳和實踐以及與大地的親密關係所賦予的，使得更大、更笨拙的種族無法模仿。因為他們是一個小民族，比矮人還要小：也就是說，即使他們實際上沒有矮人那麼矮，他們也較不粗壯結實。他們的身高不一，介於我們測量的兩到四英尺之間。
2 THE LORD OF THE RINGS They seldom now reach three feet; but they have dwindled, they say, and in ancient days they were taller. According to the Red Book, Bandobras Took (Bullroarer), son of Isumbras the Third, was four foot five and able to ride a horse. He was surpassed in all Hobbit records only by two famous characters of old; but that curious matter is dealt with in this book. As for the Hobbits of the Shire, with whom these tales are concerned, in the days of their peace and prosperity they were a merry folk. They dressed in bright colours, being notably fond of yellow and green; but they seldom wore shoes, since their feet had tough leathery soles and were clad in a thick curling hair, much like the hair of their heads, which was commonly brown. Thus, the only craft little practised among them was shoe-making; but they had long and skilful fingers and could make many other useful and comely things. Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked, with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking. And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them). They were hospitable and delighted in parties, and in presents, which they gave away freely and eagerly accepted. It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered. The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the Elder Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still preserve any records of that vanished time, and their traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own history, in which Men appear seldom and Hobbits are not mentioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk became even aware of them. And the world being after all full of strange creatures beyond count, these little people seemed of very little importance. But in the days of Bilbo, and of Frodo his heir, they suddenly became, by no wish of their own, both important and renowned, and troubled the counsels of the Wise and the Great. Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has been changed; but the regions in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same as those in which they still linger: the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea. Of their original home the Hobbits in Bilbo’s time preserved no knowledge. A love of learning (other than genealogical lore) was far from general
《魔戒》2 他們現在身高很少能達到三英尺；但據說他們已經縮小了，在遠古時代他們更高。根據《紅皮書》記載，班多布拉斯·圖克（「吼牛」），伊森布拉斯三世之子，身高四英尺五英寸，能夠騎馬。在所有哈比人的記錄中，只有兩位古代的著名人物超越了他；但這個奇特的問題將在這本書中討論。至於夏爾的哈比人，這些故事與他們有關，在他們和平繁榮的日子裡，他們是快樂的民族。他們穿著鮮豔的衣服，特別喜歡黃色和綠色；但他們很少穿鞋，因為他們的腳底有堅韌的皮革般的腳掌，並覆蓋著濃密的捲曲毛髮，很像他們頭上的頭髮，通常是棕色的。因此，他們之間很少從事的唯一手藝是製鞋；但他們有修長靈巧的手指，可以製作許多其他有用而美觀的東西。他們的臉通常是和善而非美麗的，寬闊，眼睛明亮，臉頰紅潤，嘴巴容易發笑，也喜歡吃喝。他們確實常常開懷大笑，大吃大喝，隨時都喜歡簡單的玩笑，而且一天吃六餐（如果能吃到）。他們熱情好客，喜歡派對和禮物，他們慷慨地贈送，也樂意接受。事實上，很明顯，儘管後來有所疏遠，哈比人是我們的親戚：比精靈，甚至比矮人更接近我們。過去他們以自己的方式說人類的語言，喜歡和不喜歡的東西也與人類大同小異。但我們之間的確切關係已無從考證。哈比人的起源遠在如今已失落遺忘的「上古時代」。只有精靈仍然保存著那個消逝時代的任何記錄，他們的傳統幾乎完全與他們自己的歷史有關，其中人類鮮少出現，哈比人則根本沒有被提及。然而，很明顯，哈比人實際上在其他民族甚至意識到他們之前，就已經在「中土世界」安靜地生活了許多年。而世界畢竟充滿了無數奇特的生物，這些小人物似乎微不足道。但在比爾博和他的繼承人佛羅多的時代，他們突然間，並非出於自己的意願，變得既重要又聞名，並擾亂了智者和偉人的謀劃。那些日子，即中土世界的第三紀元，如今已久遠，所有土地的形狀都已改變；但哈比人當時居住的地區無疑與他們現在仍然逗留的地方相同：舊世界的西北部，大海以東。在比爾博的時代，哈比人對他們最初的家園一無所知。對於學習的熱愛（除了家譜學問之外）遠非普遍。
PROLOGUE 3 among them, but there remained still a few in the older families who studied their own books, and even gathered reports of old times and distant lands from Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Their own records began only after the settlement of the Shire, and their most ancient legends hardly looked further back than their Wandering Days. It is clear, nonetheless, from these legends, and from the evidence of their peculiar words and customs, that like many other folk Hobbits had in the distant past moved westward. Their earliest tales seem to glimpse a time when they dwelt in the upper vales of Anduin, between the eaves of Greenwood the Great and the Misty Mountains. Why they later undertook the hard and perilous crossing of the mountains into Eriador is no longer certain. Their own accounts speak of the multiplying of Men in the land, and of a shadow that fell on the forest, so that it became darkened and its new name was Mirkwood. Before the crossing of the mountains the Hobbits had already become divided into three somewhat different breeds: Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless; their hands and feet were neat and nimble; and they preferred highlands and hillsides. The Stoors were broader, heavier in build; their feet and hands were larger; and they preferred flat lands and riversides. The Fallohides were fairer of skin and also of hair, and they were taller and slimmer than the others; they were lovers of trees and of woodlands. The Harfoots had much to do with Dwarves in ancient times, and long lived in the foothills of the mountains. They moved westward early, and roamed over Eriador as far as Weathertop while the others were still in Wilderland. They were the most normal and representative variety of Hobbit, and far the most numerous. They were the most inclined to settle in one place, and longest preserved their ancestral habit of living in tunnels and holes. The Stoors lingered long by the banks of the Great River Anduin, and were less shy of Men. They came west after the Harfoots and followed the course of the Loudwater southwards; and there many of them long dwelt between Tharbad and the borders of Dunland before they moved north again. The Fallohides, the least numerous, were a northerly branch. They were more friendly with Elves than the other Hobbits were, and had more skill in language and song than in handicrafts; and of old they preferred hunting to tilling. They crossed the mountains north of Rivendell and came down the River Hoarwell. In Eriador they soon mingled with the other kinds that had preceded them, but being somewhat bolder and more adventurous, they were often found as leaders or chieftains among clans of Harfoots or Stoors. Even in Bilbo’s time the strong Fallohidish strain could still be noted among
序章三 在他們之中，但仍有一些古老家族的人研讀自己的書籍，甚至從精靈、矮人與人類那裡收集古老時代和遙遠土地的報告。他們自己的記錄始於夏爾定居之後，而他們最古老的傳說也幾乎不追溯到他們的流浪歲月之前。然而，從這些傳說以及他們獨特的語言和習俗的證據來看，很明顯地，哈比人像許多其他民族一樣，在遙遠的過去曾向西遷徙。他們最早的故事似乎瞥見了他們曾居住在安都因河上游河谷的時代，位於大綠林邊緣與迷霧山脈之間。他們後來為何要艱難而危險地越過山脈進入伊利亞德，如今已不得而知。他們自己的記載提到人類在這片土地上繁衍增多，以及一道陰影籠罩了森林，使其變得黑暗，並有了新的名字——幽暗密林。在越過山脈之前，哈比人已經分成了三種略有不同的族群：哈伏特人、史圖爾人與法洛海德人。哈伏特人膚色較深，體型較小，個子較矮，他們沒有鬍鬚也不穿鞋；他們的手腳靈巧整潔；他們偏愛高地和山坡。史圖爾人體型較寬，身材較壯；他們的手腳較大；他們偏愛平原和河岸。法洛海德人膚色和髮色都較淺，他們比其他人更高更苗條；他們熱愛樹木和林地。哈伏特人在古代與矮人有許多往來，並長期居住在山麓地帶。他們很早就向西遷徙，並在伊利亞德漫遊，遠至風雲頂，而其他族群當時仍在荒野之地。他們是哈比人中最普通也最具代表性的一種，而且數量遠遠最多。他們最傾向於定居一處，並最長久地保留了他們祖先居住在隧道和洞穴裡的習慣。史圖爾人長期逗留在安都因大河的河岸邊，並且對人類較不害羞。他們在哈伏特人之後向西而來，沿著響水河向南行進；他們中的許多人長期居住在薩巴德和登蘭邊界之間，然後才再次向北遷徙。法洛海德人數量最少，是北方的一個分支。他們比其他哈比人更友善精靈，在語言和歌唱方面的技能勝過手工藝；而且自古以來，他們偏愛狩獵而非耕種。他們越過瑞文戴爾以北的山脈，沿著灰水河而下。在伊利亞德，他們很快就與先前的其他族群融合，但由於他們較為大膽和富有冒險精神，他們常被發現成為哈伏特人或史圖爾人部落中的領袖或酋長。即使在比爾博的時代，強烈的法洛海德血統仍然可以在
4 THE LORD OF THE RINGS the greater families, such as the Tooks and the Masters of Buckland. In the westlands of Eriador, between the Misty Mountains and the Mountains of Lune, the Hobbits found both Men and Elves. Indeed, a remnant still dwelt there of the Dunedain, the kings of Men that came over the Sea out of Westernesse; but they were dwindling fast and the lands of their North Kingdom were falling far and wide into waste. There was room and to spare for incomers, and ere long the Hobbits began to settle in ordered communities. Most of their earlier settlements had long disappeared and been forgotten in Bilbo’s time; but one of the first to become important still endured, though reduced in size; this was at Bree and in the Chetwood that lay round about, some forty miles east of the Shire. It was in these early days, doubtless, that the Hobbits learned their letters and began to write after the manner of the Duinedain, who had in their turn long before learned the art from the Elves. And in those days also they forgot whatever languages they had used before, and spoke ever after the Common Speech, the Westron as it was named, that was current through all the lands of the kings from Arnor to Gondor, and about all the coasts of the Sea from Belfalas to Lune. Yet they kept a few words of their own, as well as their own names of months and days, and a great store of personal names out of the past. About this time legend among the Hobbits first becomes history with a reckoning of years. For it was in the one thousand six hundred and first year of the Third Age that the Fallohide brothers, Marcho and Blanco, set out from Bree; and having obtained permission from the high king at Fornost,* they crossed the brown river Baranduin with a great following of Hobbits. They passed over the Bridge of Stonebows, that had been built in the days of the power of the North Kingdom, and they took all the land beyond to dwell in, between the river and the Far Downs. All that was demanded of them was that they should keep the Great Bridge in repair, and all other bridges and roads, speed the king’s messengers, and acknowledge his lordship. Thus began the Shire-reckoning, for the year of the crossing of the Brandywine (as the Hobbits turned the name) became Year One of the Shire, and all later dates were reckoned from it.t At once the western Hobbits fell in love with their new land, and they remained there, and soon passed once more out of the history of Men and of Elves. While there was still a king they were in name his subjects, * As the records of Gondor relate this was Argeleb II, the twentieth of the Northern line, which came to an end with Arvedui three hundred years later. + Thus, the years of the Third Age in the reckoning of the Elves and the Dunedain may be found by adding 1600 to the dates of Shire-reckoning.
4 魔戒 較大的家族，例如圖克家族和巴克蘭的領主。在伊利亞德的西境，迷霧山脈和隆恩山脈之間，哈比人發現了人類和精靈。事實上，那裡仍住著一些登丹人，他們是從西方之地渡海而來的人類國王；但他們正迅速衰落，其北方王國的土地也大片大片地淪為荒蕪。對於新來者來說，地方綽綽有餘，不久之後，哈比人便開始在有秩序的社群中定居。他們早期的大部分定居點在比爾博時代早已消失並被遺忘；但最早變得重要的一個仍然存在，儘管規模縮小了；這就是布理和周圍的契特森林，位於夏爾以東約四十英里處。毫無疑問，正是在這些早期日子裡，哈比人學會了文字，並開始效仿登丹人（他們又在很久以前從精靈那裡學會了這門藝術）的方式書寫。在那些日子裡，他們也忘記了之前使用的所有語言，從此以後都說通用語，也就是被稱為「西方語」的語言，這種語言在從亞爾諾到剛鐸的國王所有領地，以及從貝爾法拉斯到隆恩的所有海岸地區都通行。然而，他們保留了一些自己的詞彙，以及他們自己的月份和日期名稱，還有大量來自過去的個人名字。大約在這個時候，哈比人中的傳說首次透過紀年變成了歷史。因為正是在第三紀元一千六百零一年，法羅海德兄弟馬爾喬和布蘭科從布理出發；在獲得佛諾斯特高王的許可後，他們帶著大批哈比人渡過了褐色的巴蘭度因河。他們越過了石弓橋，那是在北方王國強盛時期建造的，他們佔據了河與遠丘之間的所有土地居住。對他們唯一的要求是，他們應維護大橋以及所有其他橋樑和道路，加快國王使者的行程，並承認他的領主權。夏爾紀年就此開始，因為渡過白蘭地河（哈比人如此稱呼這條河）的那一年成為夏爾元年，所有後來的日期都以此為基準計算。西方哈比人立刻愛上了他們的新土地，他們留在那裡，很快又一次從人類和精靈的歷史中淡出。只要還有國王，他們名義上就是他的臣民。
PROLOGUE 5 but they were, in fact, ruled by their own chieftains and meddled not at all with events in the world outside. To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men record it. But in that war the North Kingdom ended; and then the Hobbits took the land for their own, and they chose from their own chiefs a Thain to hold the authority of the king that was gone. There for a thousand years they were little troubled by wars, and they prospered and multiplied after the Dark Plague (S.R. 37) until the disaster of the Long Winter and the famine that followed it. Many thousands then perished, but the Days of Dearth (1158-60) were at the time of this tale long past and the Hobbits had again become accustomed to plenty. The land was rich and kindly, and though it had long been deserted when they entered it, it had before been well tilled, and there the king had once had many farms, cornlands, vineyards, and woods. Forty leagues it stretched from the Far Downs to the Brandywine Bridge, and fifty from the northern moors to the marshes in the south. The Hobbits named it the Shire, as the region of the authority of their Thain, and a district of well-ordered business; and there in that pleasant corner of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it. At no time had Hobbits of any kind been warlike, and they had never fought among themselves. In olden days they had, of course, been often obliged to fight to maintain themselves in a hard world; but in Bilbo’s time that was very ancient history. The last battle, before this story opens, and indeed the only one that had ever been fought within the borders of the Shire, was beyond living memory: the Battle of Greenfields, S.R. 1147, in which Bandobras Took routed an invasion of Orcs. Even the weathers had grown milder, and the wolves that had once come ravening out of the North in bitter white winters were now only a grandfather’s tale. So, though there was still some store of weapons in the Shire, these were used mostly as trophies, hanging above hearths or on walls, or gathered into the museum at Michel Delving. The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort.
序章 5 但事實上，他們由自己的部落首領統治，完全不干涉外界事務。在佛諾斯特與安格瑪巫王的最後一戰中，他們曾派遣弓箭手援助國王，至少他們是這麼說的，儘管人類的傳說中並無記載。但在那場戰爭中，北方王國滅亡了；於是哈比人佔據了那片土地，並從自己的首領中選出一位大首領，來繼承已逝國王的權威。在那裡，他們千年來鮮少受到戰亂困擾，在黑暗瘟疫（夏爾紀元37年）之後，他們繁榮昌盛，人口倍增，直到長冬的災難和隨之而來的饑荒。當時有數千人喪生，但饑荒之日（1158-60年）在故事發生的時候早已過去，哈比人也再次習慣了富足。那片土地肥沃宜人，雖然他們進入時已荒蕪許久，但之前曾被耕耘良好，國王也曾在那裡擁有許多農場、穀田、葡萄園和樹林。它從遠丘延伸到白蘭地橋，長達四十里格，從北方荒原到南方的沼澤，寬達五十里格。哈比人將其命名為夏爾，作為他們大首領權威的地區，一個井然有序的商業區；在那世界宜人的角落，他們從事著井然有序的生活事務，對外界黑暗勢力蠢動的世界越來越不理會，直到他們開始認為和平與富足是中土世界的常態，也是所有明智之人的權利。他們忘記或忽略了他們對守護者以及那些使夏爾長期和平成為可能之人的辛勞所知甚少。事實上，他們受到庇護，但他們已不再記得這一點。哈比人從來都不是好戰的，也從未自相殘殺。在古時，他們當然常常被迫戰鬥以在艱難的世界中生存；但在比爾博的時代，那已是遙遠的歷史。在故事開始之前，最後一場戰役，也是夏爾境內唯一一場戰役，已超越了活人的記憶：綠野之戰，夏爾紀元1147年，班多布拉斯·圖克擊潰了半獸人的入侵。連天氣也變得溫和了，那些曾經在嚴酷的白色冬季從北方飢餓地湧出的狼群，如今只剩下祖父輩的故事。因此，儘管夏爾仍有一些武器儲備，但這些大多被用作戰利品，掛在爐火上方或牆上，或收集在米歇爾戴爾文的博物館裡。它被稱為雜物館；因為哈比人沒有立即用途但又不願丟棄的任何東西，他們都稱之為雜物。他們的住所往往會因為這些雜物而變得相當擁擠，許多輾轉相傳的禮物也都是這類東西。
6 THE LORD OF THE RINGS Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough. They were, if it came to it, difficult to daunt or to kill; and they were, perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good things not least because they could, when put to it, do without them, and could survive rough handling by grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who did not know them well and looked no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces. Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well. All Hobbits had originally lived in holes in the ground, or so they believed, and in such dwellings they still felt most at home; but in the course of time they had been obliged to adopt other forms of abode. Actually in the Shire in Bilbo’s days it was, as a rule, only the richest and the poorest Hobbits that maintained the old custom. The poorest went on living in burrows of the most primitive kind, mere holes indeed, with only one window or none; while the wellto-do still constructed more luxurious versions of the simple diggings of old. But suitable sites for these large and ramifying tunnels (or smials as they called them) were not everywhere to be found; and in the flats and the low-lying districts the Hobbits, as they multiplied, began to build above ground. Indeed, even in the hilly regions and the older villages, such as Hobbiton or Tuckborough, or in the chief township of the Shire, Michel Delving on the White Downs, there were now many houses of wood, brick, or stone. These were specially favoured by millers, smiths, ropers, and cartwrights, and others of that sort; for even when they had holes to live in, Hobbits had long been accustomed to build sheds and workshops. The habit of building farmhouses and barns was said to have begun among the inhabitants of the Marish down by the Brandywine. The Hobbits of that quarter, the Eastfarthing, were rather large and heavylegged, and they wore dwarf-boots in muddy weather. But they were well known to be Stoors in a large part of their blood, as indeed was shown by the down that many grew on their chins. No Harfoot or Fallohide had any trace of a beard. Indeed, the folk of the Marish, and of Buckland, east of the River, which they afterwards occupied, came for the most part later into the Shire up from south-away; and they still had many peculiar names and strange words not found elsewhere in the Shire. It is probable that the craft of building, as many other crafts beside, was derived from the Dunedain. But the Hobbits may have learned it direct from the Elves, the teachers of Men in their youth. For the
6 《魔戒》 儘管如此，安逸與和平並未讓這個民族失去其奇特的堅韌。如果情勢所逼，他們是難以被嚇倒或殺死的；他們或許如此不知疲倦地喜愛美好的事物，其中一個重要原因就是，當需要時，他們也能沒有這些東西，並且能夠承受悲傷、敵人或惡劣天氣的嚴酷考驗，這讓那些不甚了解他們、只看重他們的肚皮和飽食面容的人感到驚訝。雖然不輕易爭吵，也不為取樂而殺生，但他們在被逼入絕境時卻很頑強，必要時仍能拿起武器。他們善於射箭，因為他們眼力敏銳，射術精準。不僅是弓箭。如果任何哈比人彎腰撿起一塊石頭，最好趕快找地方躲起來，所有擅闖的野獸都深知這一點。所有哈比人最初都住在地洞裡，或者他們是這麼相信的，而且在這樣的住所裡他們仍然感覺最自在；但隨著時間的推移，他們不得不採用其他形式的居所。事實上，在比爾博時代的夏爾，通常只有最富有和最貧窮的哈比人才保留著這種古老的習俗。最貧窮的哈比人繼續住在最原始的洞穴裡，確實只是些只有一扇窗戶或沒有窗戶的洞；而富裕的哈比人則建造了更豪華版本的古老簡易地洞。但這些大型且分支繁多的隧道（或他們稱之為「斯米爾」）並非隨處可見；在平坦和低窪的地區，哈比人隨著人口增長，開始在地面上建造房屋。事實上，即使在丘陵地區和較古老的村莊，如哈比屯或圖克堡，或夏爾的主要城鎮，白丘上的米歇爾戴爾文，現在也有許多木製、磚製或石製的房屋。這些房屋特別受到磨坊主、鐵匠、繩匠和車匠等人的青睞；因為即使他們有地洞可住，哈比人也早已習慣建造棚屋和作坊。據說建造農舍和穀倉的習慣始於白蘭地河畔沼澤地的居民。那個地區，東區的哈比人，身材較高大，腿部粗壯，在泥濘的天氣裡他們會穿矮人靴。但眾所周知，他們血液中很大一部分是斯圖爾人，這確實從許多人下巴上長出的絨毛中可見一斑。哈富特人或法洛海德人臉上都沒有鬍鬚的痕跡。事實上，沼澤地和河東的巴克蘭（他們後來佔領的地方）的居民，大部分是後來從南方進入夏爾的；他們仍然有許多獨特的名稱和奇怪的詞語，在夏爾其他地方找不到。建築工藝，以及許多其他工藝，很可能源自登丹人。但哈比人也可能直接從精靈那裡學到，精靈是人類年輕時的老師。
PROLOGUE 7 Elves of the High Kindred had not yet forsaken Middle-earth, and they dwelt still at that time at the Grey Havens away to the west, and in other places within reach of the Shire. Three Elf-towers of immemorial age were still to be seen on the Tower Hills beyond the western marches. They shone far off in the moonlight. The tallest was furthest away, standing alone upon a green mound. The Hobbits of the Westfarthing said that one could see the Sea from the top of that tower; but no Hobbit had ever been known to climb it. Indeed, few Hobbits had ever seen or sailed upon the Sea, and fewer still had ever returned to report it. Most Hobbits regarded even rivers and small boats with deep misgivings, and not many of them could swim. And as the days of the Shire lengthened they spoke less and less with the Elves, and grew afraid of them, and distrustful of those that had dealings with them; and the Sea became a word of fear among them, and a token of death, and they turned their faces away from the hills in the west. The craft of building may have come from Elves or Men, but the Hobbits used it in their own fashion. They did not go in for towers. Their houses were usually long, low, and comfortable. The oldest kind were, indeed, no more than built imitations of smials, thatched with dry grass or straw, or roofed with turves, and having walls somewhat bulged. That stage, however, belonged to the early days of the Shire, and hobbit-building had long since been altered, improved by devices, learned from Dwarves, or discovered by themselves. A preference for round windows, and even round doors, was the chief remaining peculiarity of hobbit-architecture. The houses and the holes of Shire-hobbits were often large, and inhabited by large families. (Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were as bachelors very exceptional, as they were also in many other ways, such as their friendship with the Elves.) Sometimes, as in the case of the Tooks of Great Smials, or the Brandybucks of Brandy Hall, many generations of relatives lived in (comparative) peace together in one ancestral and many-tunnelled mansion. All Hobbits were, in any case, clannish and reckoned up their relationships with great care. They drew long and elaborate family-trees with innumerable branches. In dealing with Hobbits it is important to remember who is related to whom, and in what degree. It would be impossible in this book to set out a family-tree that included even the more important members of the more important families at the time which these tales tell of. The genealogical trees at the end of the Red Book of Westmarch are a small book in themselves, and all but Hobbits would find them exceedingly dull. Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate: they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.
序章七 高等精靈尚未完全放棄中土世界，當時他們仍居住在西方的灰港岸，以及夏爾附近的其他地方。三座歷史悠久的精靈高塔，依舊矗立在西境邊緣的塔丘上。它們在月光下遙遙生輝。最高的那座離得最遠，孤獨地聳立在一座綠色土丘上。西區的哈比人說，從那座塔頂可以望見大海；但從來沒有哈比人爬上去過。事實上，很少有哈比人見過大海或航行其上，更少有人回來報告見聞。大多數哈比人對河流和小船都抱持著深深的疑慮，而且他們當中會游泳的人不多。隨著夏爾的歲月流逝，他們與精靈的交流越來越少，開始害怕他們，並對那些與精靈有往來的人產生不信任感；大海在他們之間成了恐懼的代名詞，死亡的象徵，他們將臉轉離了西方的山丘。建築的技藝或許源自精靈或人類，但哈比人以自己的方式運用它。他們不喜歡建造高塔。他們的房屋通常是長形、低矮且舒適的。最古老的房屋，實際上不過是模仿地洞（smials）建造的，屋頂用乾草或麥稈覆蓋，或鋪上草皮，牆壁則有些微凸。然而，那個階段屬於夏爾的早期，哈比人的建築方式早已改變，透過從矮人那裡學來或自行發現的巧妙方法而改進。偏愛圓形窗戶，甚至圓形門，是哈比人建築最主要的獨特之處。夏爾哈比人的房屋和地洞通常很大，住著大家庭。（比爾博和佛羅多·巴金斯作為單身漢非常特別，他們在許多其他方面也同樣如此，例如他們與精靈的友誼。）有時，就像大斯米爾的圖克家族或白蘭地廳的白蘭地鹿家族那樣，好幾代親戚共同居住在一座祖傳的、有許多隧道的豪宅中，（相對地）和平共處。無論如何，所有哈比人都很注重家族關係，他們會非常仔細地追溯自己的親屬關係。他們繪製出冗長而精細的家譜，上面有無數的分支。與哈比人打交道時，記住誰與誰有親戚關係，以及親疏程度如何，這一點很重要。在這本書中，不可能列出一個家譜，其中包含這些故事所講述的時代中，那些更重要家族裡更重要的成員。西境紅皮書末尾的家譜本身就是一本小冊子，除了哈比人之外，所有人都會覺得它們極其乏味。哈比人喜歡這類東西，只要它們是準確的：他們喜歡書中充滿他們已知的事物，並且條理分明、毫無矛盾地呈現。
8 THE LORD OF THE RINGS 2 Concerning Pipe-weed There is another astonishing thing about Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of a herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of Nicotiana. A great deal of mystery surrounds the origin of this peculiar custom, or ‘art’ as the Hobbits preferred to call it. All that could be discovered about it in antiquity was put together by Meriadoc Brandybuck (later Master of Buckland), and since he and the tobacco of the Southfarthing play a part in the history that follows, his remarks in the introduction to his Herblore of the Shire may be quoted. ‘This,’ he says, ‘is the one art that we can certainly claim to be our own invention. When Hobbits first began to smoke is not known, all the legends and family histories take it for granted; for ages folk in the Shire smoked various herbs, some fouler, some sweeter. But all accounts agree that Tobold Hornblower of Longbottom in the Southfarthing first grew the true pipe-weed in his gardens in the days of Isengrim the Second, about the year 1070 of Shire-reckoning. The best home-grown still comes from that district, especially the varieties now known as Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star. ‘How Old Toby came by the plant is not recorded, for to his dying day he would not tell. He knew much about herbs, but he was no traveller. It is said that in his youth he went often to Bree, though he certainly never went further from the Shire than that. It is thus quite possible that he learned of this plant in Bree, where now, at any rate, it grows well on the south slopes of the hill. The Bree-hobbits claim to have been the first actual smokers of the pipe-weed. They claim, of course, to have done everything before the people of the Shire, whom they refer to as “‘colonists’’; but in this case their claim is, I think, likely to be true. And certainly it was from Bree that the art of smoking the genuine weed spread in the recent centuries among Dwarves and such other folk, Rangers, Wizards, or wanderers, as still passed to and fro through that ancient road-meeting. The home and centre of the art is thus to be found in the old inn of Bree, The Prancing Pony, that has been kept by the family of Butterbur from time beyond record. ‘All the same, observations that I have made on my own many journeys south have convinced me that the weed itself is not native to our parts of the world, but came northward from the lower Anduin, whither it was, I suspect, originally brought over Sea by the Men of Westernesse. It grows abundantly in Gondor, and there is richer and larger than in the North, where it is never found wild, and flourishes
8 魔戒 2 論菸草 關於古老哈比人還有另一件令人驚訝的事情必須提及，一個驚人的習慣：他們透過黏土或木製的菸斗，吸食或吸入一種草本植物燃燒的葉子所產生的煙霧，他們稱之為菸草或葉子，這很可能是一種菸草屬植物。關於這種奇特習俗，或者哈比人喜歡稱之為「藝術」的起源，籠罩著一層巨大的謎團。所有在古代能被發現的相關資訊，都由梅里亞達克·白蘭地鹿（後來成為雄鹿地領主）整理匯集。由於他和南區的菸草在接下來的歷史中扮演著重要角色，因此他在其著作《夏爾草藥誌》序言中的評論值得引述。「這，」他說，「是我們唯一可以肯定地聲稱是我們自己發明的藝術。哈比人何時開始吸菸已不可考，所有的傳說和家族史都將其視為理所當然；數個世紀以來，夏爾的居民吸食各種草藥，有些味道較差，有些則較甜美。但所有記載都一致認為，南區長谷的托博爾德·號角手在伊森格林二世時代，大約夏爾紀元1070年，首次在他的花園裡種植了真正的菸草。最好的自產菸草至今仍來自該地區，特別是現在被稱為長谷葉、老托比和南方之星的品種。」「老托比是如何得到這種植物的，並無記載，因為直到他臨終之日，他都不願透露。他對草藥了解甚多，但他並非旅行者。據說他年輕時常去布理，儘管他肯定從未離開夏爾比那裡更遠。因此，他很可能是在布理了解到這種植物的，如今，無論如何，它在山丘的南坡生長得很好。布理的哈比人聲稱他們是菸草的第一批實際吸食者。當然，他們聲稱在夏爾人之前做過所有事情，他們稱夏爾人為『殖民者』；但在這種情況下，我認為他們的說法很可能是真的。而且，菸草這種真正的『草』的吸食藝術，確實是從布理在近幾個世紀以來傳播開來，傳給了矮人以及其他諸如遊俠、巫師或流浪者等往來於那古老道路交會處的人們。因此，這種藝術的發源地和中心，可以在布理的老旅館『躍馬客棧』中找到，這家客棧由巴特伯家族經營，其歷史已久遠得無法追溯。」「儘管如此，我自己在多次南行旅程中的觀察使我確信，這種植物本身並非我們世界本地所有，而是從安都因河下游向北傳播而來，我懷疑它最初是由西方人從海外帶來的。它在剛鐸生長茂盛，而且比北方更大更豐富，在北方從未發現野生的，並且繁榮生長。
PROLOGUE 9 only in warm sheltered places like Longbottom. The Men of Gondor call it sweet galenas, and esteem it only for the fragrance of its flowers. From that land it must have been carried up the Greenway during the long centuries between the coming of Elendil and our own days. But even the Dunedain of Gondor allow us this credit: Hobbits first put it into pipes. Not even the Wizards first thought of that before we did. Though one Wizard that I knew took up the art long ago, and became as skilful in it as in all other things that he put his mind to.’ 3 Of the Ordering of the Shire The Shire was divided into four quarters, the Farthings already referred to, North, South, East, and West; and these again each into a number of folklands, which still bore the names of some of the old leading families, although by the time of this history these names were no longer found only in their proper folklands. Nearly all Tooks still lived in the Tookland, but that was not true of many other families, such as the Bagginses or the Boffins. Outside the Farthings were the East and West Marches: the Buckland (p. 98); and the Westmarch added to the Shire in S.R. 1452. The Shire at this time had hardly any ‘government’. Families for the most part managed their own affairs. Growing food and eating it occupied most of their time. In other matters they were, as a rule, generous and not greedy, but contented and moderate, so that estates, farms, workshops, and small trades tended to remain unchanged for generations. There remained, of course, the ancient tradition concerning the high king at Fornost, or Norbury as they called it, away north of the Shire. But there had been no king for nearly a thousand years, and even the ruins of Kings’ Norbury were covered with grass. Yet the Hobbits still said of wild folk and wicked things (such as trolls) that they had not heard of the king. For they attributed to the king of old all their essential laws; and usually they kept the laws of free will, because they were The Rules (as they said), both ancient and just. It is true that the Took family had long been pre-eminent; for the office of Thain had passed to them (from the Oldbucks) some centuries before, and the chief Took had borne that title ever since. The Thain was the master of the Shire-moot, and captain of the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-in-arms; but as muster and moot were only held in times of emergency, which no longer occurred, the Thainship had ceased to be more than a nominal dignity. The Took family was still, indeed, accorded a special respect, for it remained
序言九 只有在像長源村那樣溫暖避風的地方才能生長。剛鐸的人們稱之為「甜加勒納斯」，只因其花朵的芬芳而珍視它。它必定是在伊蘭迪爾到來與我們現今時代之間的漫長幾個世紀裡，從那片土地沿著綠徑被帶上來的。但即使是剛鐸的登丹人也承認我們這項功勞：哈比人是第一個將它放進菸斗裡抽的人。甚至連巫師們也沒有比我們更早想到這一點。不過，我認識的一位巫師很久以前就學會了這門技藝，並且在這方面，就像他專心致志於其他所有事情一樣，變得同樣熟練。3 夏爾的秩序 夏爾被劃分為四個區，即之前提到的北區、南區、東區和西區；而這些區又各自細分為若干個「民地」，這些民地仍然沿用著一些古老主要家族的名稱，儘管到了這段歷史時期，這些名稱已不再僅限於其各自的民地。幾乎所有的圖克家族成員仍然居住在圖克地，但對於許多其他家族，例如巴金斯家族或波芬家族來說，情況並非如此。在四區之外是東部和西部邊界：雄鹿地（第98頁）；以及在夏爾紀元1452年併入夏爾的西境。此時的夏爾幾乎沒有「政府」。家族大多自行管理事務。種植食物和享用食物佔據了他們大部分時間。在其他方面，他們通常慷慨而不貪婪，知足而有節制，因此莊園、農場、作坊和小買賣往往世代不變。當然，仍然存在著關於在佛諾斯特（或他們稱之為諾伯里，位於夏爾以北）的至高王的古老傳統。但近千年來都沒有國王，甚至連國王諾伯里的廢墟也已雜草叢生。然而，哈比人仍然會對野蠻人和邪惡生物（例如食人妖）說，他們沒有聽說過國王。因為他們將所有重要的法律都歸功於古老的國王；他們通常是出於自願遵守法律，因為這些法律是（如他們所說的）「規矩」，既古老又公正。圖克家族確實長期以來一直享有顯赫地位；因為瑟恩的職位在幾個世紀前就已傳給他們（從老巴克家族），而圖克家族的首領從那時起就一直擔任這個頭銜。瑟恩是夏爾議會的主席，也是夏爾徵兵和哈比人武裝部隊的隊長；但由於徵兵和議會只在緊急情況下舉行，而這種情況已不再發生，瑟恩的職位已不再僅僅是一個名義上的榮譽。圖克家族確實仍然受到特別的尊重，因為它依然
Io THE LORD OF THE RINGS both numerous and exceedingly wealthy, and was liable to produce in every generation strong characters of peculiar habits and even adventurous temperament. The latter qualities, however, were now rather tolerated (in the rich) than generally approved. The custom endured, nonetheless, of referring to the head of the family as The Took, and of adding to his name, if required, a number: such as Isengrim the Second, for instance. The only real official in the Shire at this date was the Mayor of Michel Delving (or of the Shire), who was elected every seven years at the Free Fair on the White Downs at the Lithe, that is at Midsummer. As mayor almost his only duty was to preside at banquets, given on the Shire-holidays, which occurred at frequent intervals. But the offices of Postmaster and First Shirriff were attached to the mayoralty, so that he managed both the Messenger Service and the Watch. These were the only Shire-services, and the Messengers were the most numerous, and much the busier of the two. By no means all Hobbits were lettered, but those who were wrote constantly to all their friends (and a selection of their relations) who lived further off than an afternoon’s walk. The Shirriffs was the name that the Hobbits gave to their police, or the nearest equivalent that they possessed. They had, of course, no uniforms (such things being quite unknown), only a feather in their caps; and they were in practice rather haywards than policemen, more concerned with the strayings of beasts than of people. There were in all the Shire only twelve of them, three in each Farthing, for Inside Work. A rather larger body, varying at need, was employed to ‘beat the bounds’, and to see that Outsiders of any kind, great or small, did not make themselves a nuisance. At the time when this story begins the Bounders, as they were called, had been greatly increased. There were many reports and complaints of strange persons and creatures prowling about the borders, or over them: the first sign that all was not quite as it should be, and always had been except in tales and legends of long ago. Few heeded the sign, and not even Bilbo yet had any notion of what it portended. Sixty years had passed since he set out on his memorable journey, and he was old even for Hobbits, who reached a hundred as often as not; but much evidently still remained of the considerable wealth that he had brought back. How much or how little he revealed to no one, not even to Frodo his favourite ‘nephew’. And he still kept secret the ring that he had found.
「魔戒」中的圖克家族，人數眾多且極其富有，每一代都會產生性格奇特、甚至富有冒險精神的強者。然而，後者這些特質，如今在富人身上更多是被容忍，而非普遍受到認可。儘管如此，將家族首領稱為「圖克大人」（The Took），並在必要時在其名字後加上數字的習俗依然延續，例如「第二代伊森格林」。當時夏爾唯一的正式官員是米歇爾戴爾文（或稱夏爾）的市長，他每七年在白丘的自由市集（即仲夏節）上被選出。作為市長，他幾乎唯一的職責是在夏爾節日期間主持宴會，這些節日頻繁舉行。但郵政總長和首席夏爾警員（First Shirriff）的職位都附屬於市長職位，因此他同時管理著信使服務和守望隊。這些是夏爾僅有的服務機構，其中信使人數最多，也比守望隊繁忙得多。並非所有哈比人都能讀寫，但那些能讀寫的人會不斷地寫信給所有住在「步行一個下午」以外的朋友（以及部分親戚）。「夏爾警員」（Shirriffs）是哈比人對他們警察的稱呼，或是他們所擁有的最接近警察的職位。他們當然沒有制服（這種東西完全聞所未聞），只有帽子上的一根羽毛；實際上，他們更像是牧場管理員（haywards），更關心牲畜的走失而非人的問題。整個夏爾總共只有十二名夏爾警員，每個區（Farthing）三名，負責「內部事務」（Inside Work）。一支規模稍大、視需要而變動的隊伍則受僱於「巡視邊界」（beat the bounds），確保任何種類的「外來者」（Outsiders），無論大小，都不會造成麻煩。當這個故事開始時，這些被稱為「邊界巡邏員」（Bounders）的人數已大大增加。有許多關於陌生人或生物在邊界附近或越過邊界徘徊的報告和投訴：這是所有事情不再像過去那樣、除了在古老傳說中以外一直如此的第一個跡象。很少有人注意到這個跡象，甚至比爾博也還不知道它預示著什麼。自他踏上那次難忘的旅程以來，六十年過去了，即使對哈比人來說，他也算老了，哈比人通常都能活到一百歲；但他帶回來的巨額財富顯然還剩下很多。他向任何人，甚至是他最喜歡的「侄子」佛羅多，都沒有透露剩下多少。他仍然保守著他找到的那枚戒指的秘密。