Who, in The Lord of the Rings, was the most effective liar?

[Bêthberry]

Ah, I see that a name is omitted from this list. Surely the most effective liar in Lord of the Rings is the author himself, given the vigor of his imagination and the power of his conception to lead people to want to believe in Middle-earth, if not engage in actual belief itself that this is a story of our world's early ages.

And if the power of the tale itself is not evidence enough, consider his own statements. Look at his claim in the Prologue that hobbits "are an unobstrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today--now there's the very kind of falsehood the author engages in blatently stated--and the present tense continues in the subseqent paragraphs, leading to such statements as imply the existence of Dwarves (the race, not simply small humans) and indeed the author even makes the very claim that "Hobbits are relatives of ours". And one more example of the kind of lies our author makes which forms the very basis of the effectiveness of his fantastic art:

Originally Posted by The author himself

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.

And then there's that self-made confession in the Foreward to the Second Edition: "I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability. . .".

It cannot be said our author affirmeth nothing when he affirms that these are tales of the early years of our world. And who of us when reading are not convinced of these words, not merely suspending our disbelief but actually persuaded of the world? Indeed, the Author even went to some effort in a long essay to elucidate the nature of his persuasive art: developing desirability. There can be no fuller confession of the nature of the effectivenses of his authorial method than this.