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C00002 00002	ON THE TEACHING OF
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ON THE TEACHING OF
THIRD AGE HISTORY IN SHIRE SCHOOLS

	For many years the teaching of the history of
the third age in our schools has been based on the semi-legendary
manuscript "Lord of the Rings".  The historical inadequacy and
many biases have long been evident to scholars, but respect
for the memory of the "heroic Frodo" was used by the traditionalist
government to suppress overt non-conformity even in the
university.  Not even his ancient name could save Ringo Baggins
from the loss of his professorship for suggesting that perhaps
some of the grosser statements about Orcs were exaggerated
and that Hobbits should not refuse to play against croquet
teams that had Orc players.

	Indeed, objective treatment of third age history would
still be far off were it not for the startling discoveries
arising from the dredging of Westport harbor and their 
interpretation by the revisionist scholars.  It is not to our
credit as Hobbits to have to admit that Orc historians played
an essential role in interpreting to us the plain facts of
our own history.

	The main lines of the evidence may be summarized as
follows:

% While Orcs differ from Hobbits and Elves and Men in as
many ways as the races that won the Great War differ among
themselves, too many Hobbits have visited the Orc territories
in spite of government opposition, to allow the old anti-Orc
prejudices to be believable.  Since the Orcs are not as
depicted in the "Lord of the Rings", it is only natural to
ask how they came to be so depicted.  To whose advantage
was it and is it?

% It has become increasingly clear that the Shire no longer
needs or wants the "protection" of the House of Aragorn.
The post of Lord Protector of the Shire is an anachronism
and Aragorn XIX should find something else to do with
his uncles and other super-annuated politicians.  We should
no longer allow him even nominal veto power over the
election of the Shire President, and we should conduct our
own foreign relations taking our own needs into account
independent of Aragorn dynastic considerations.


The Orcs buy Hobbit beer.

The discovery that Westland across the sea is a continent
and not heaven.

A Hobbit body among others found with a cord around its
neck and a missing finger in a ship sunk just outside
the old Westport harbor.  Not all the bodies were found, and
the rumor that certain people had reappeared in the South
were supported by certain family records.

The note in Aragorn I's handwriting suggesting that the
final solution to the Orc problem might involve sending
them to Westernesse.  Considering Aragorn's hatred of Orcs
suggests an unpleasant fate for those who supposedly left
for the Western Isles.

The evidence that the wizard Flagilang is older than he
admits and may be the notorious Gandalf.

The parts of the ring epic for which we have only Gandalf's
word are particularly suspect.  Frodo's limited experience,
parochial views, and subservience to Gandalf evidently distorted
his account of his experience, but Gandalf obviously invented
his part from whole cloth.  Likewise, later experience with the
elves has shown the Hobbit nation that they are not averse to
having others pull their chestnuts from the fire.

Modern scientific investigations of ring power have shown that
much that is reported in the "Lord of the Rings" manuscript is
simply impossible and more is misinterpreted.

The Hobbit nation has grown up since the third age and we have
to bring our school teachings into accordance with modern
science and with the manifest destiny of the Hobbits to
bring peace and order to Middle Earth.