Single Quotes?

[Rosa Underhill]

Per Tigerlily:

Any thoughts or opinions on this far-fetched theory?

You're theory is actually right on the money. I've read a few other works that do something similar, but none are quite as good at it as Mr. Tolkien was.

What Tolkien was trying to do was make the reader believe that he had actually translated some of the key stories from the Red Book of Westermarch. It was another bit that made Middle-earth seem more real. (I loved his notes on translation!)

That being said, did Tolkien ever say where he'd gotten the Red Book from? Was it a family heirloom or did he just find it in an old library, (like James Gurney found "The Journal of Arthur and Will Denison", which he published as "Dinotopia")? (Note: I know these two really came up with the stories on their own, but it's fun to imagine!)