The Tale of Years

TThurston

Member
I know it's cheating to refer to the Tale of Years from the appendix, since it wasn't published until about a year after The Fellowship of the Ring. But it does shed some light on the questions of what Gandalf knew and what he did regarding Bilbo's ring. It's includes the following (shortened by me for brevity):

2845 Thrain is imprisoned and the last of the Seven Rings is taken from him.

2850 Gandalf enters Dol Guldur, discovers that it's master is Sauron, who is gathering all the rings and seeking for news of the One. (So, apparently Sauron is gathering rings, meaning he may not currently have them all, perhaps referring to the Dwarf rings.)

2851 Saruman begins to search the Gladden fields.

2890 Bilbo born.

2939 Saruman discovers that Sauron's servants are searching the Anduin near the Gladden Fields. He says nothing to the council.

2941 The events of The Hobbit, including Bilbo finding his ring.

2942 Bilbo returns to the Shire with the ring and Sauron returns in secret to Mordor.

2944 Gollum begins his search for the ring.

2953 Last meeting of the White Council. They debate the Rings. Saruman lies and says the One Ring has passed down the Anduin to the sea. He starts spying on Bree and Southfarthing in the Shire.

2968 Birth of Frodo.

3000 Saruman become a traitor to the Council. His spies report the Shire is closely guarded by Rangers.

3001 Bilbo's farewell feast. Gandalf suspects his ring is the One Ring. The guard on the Shire is doubled. Gandalf seeks for news of Gollum and calls on Aragorn for help. (So as soon as Gandalf feels strongly that Bilbo has the One Ring, he does all he can. He doubles the protection on the Shire and thus Frodo. He seeks proof regarding the ring not so much for himself, but for Saruman and for the Council. I suppose it is so they can decide together what to do.)

3004 Gandalf visits Frodo in the Shire and does so at intervals during the next four years. (This seems to not quite fit what Gandalf told Frodo in their talk in Chapter 2.)

3008 Gandalf pays his last visit to Frodo. (7 years after the feast?)

3009 Gandalf and Aragorn renew their hunt for Gollum during the next eight years.

3017 Gollum released from Mordor and is captured by Aragorn. Gandalf visits Minas Tirith and reads the Scroll of Isildur. (This last bit is what told him what to find inscribed on the ring. So he didn't know until then how to prove that Frodo's ring was the One Ring.)

3018 April 12. Gandalf reaches Hobbiton. (This is the point where we are in Chapter Two, when we're asking the questions about What Gandalf knew and When he knew it.)

Sorry for the long post. By the way, I like the title "The Tale of Years". It's an archaic use of the word "tale", an enumeration, rather than a story.
 
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