Hobbits' knowledge of the Old Forest
Inziladun, I liked your comment here:
It's merest conjecture, but I don't believe any Hobbits had been lost, or even attacked in the Forest before, else Frodo and Co. might have avoided it, or at least discussed the matter more deeply.
We have Merry, who is not only a Bucklander but also the son and heir of the Master of Buckland, therefore a person with the best local knowledge. He is clear that the Old Forest is a strange place, which he and other hobbits have so far only gone into for short periods and in the daytime. He also mentions (without saying when exactly) that there was an attack by some of the trees there on Buckland, which hobbits stopped by burning some of them in a bonfire, the glade where this happened still being visible.
However, he can't give any real information about what happens in the middle of the Old Forest, for the reason that there appears to be no record of any hobbits having gone into the middle of it, whether they came back or not. Due to this lack of information, it was agreed that they would chance quickly going through that forest, in the daytime, as the best way to avoid the Black Riders. As you said, if more information was available, perhaps another decision would have resulted, or there would have at least been a longer debate.
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