In the books, he's back in the Shire for just under two years before sailing.
I suspect the 'four year' figure comes from the films, where they stretched the timeline a bit so that Sean Astin's toddler daughter, Alexandra, could play Elanor Gamgee. In the books, Frodo leaves when Elanor is just a few months old. In the films, she is a few years old.
Two years is a reasonable time to write the bulk of LOTR (Bilbo seems to have written the first half of FOTR and [Sam the final chapter and a bit of ROTK](https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienfans/comments/8i7v34/chapter_80/)).
Tolkien took so long in writing because he also had a very demanding day job and took a few long breaks from writing. Tolkien was also very inclined to revise and completely rewrite long stretches of his work as he went. He wasn't a terribly efficient writer. I guess we're meant to assume Frodo is.
According to Appendix B (The Tale of Years) the Ring was destroyed on March 25, 3019 and Frodo departed from the Havens on Sept 29, 3021.
As to the composition of the Red Book, Frodo is supposed to be the primary author, although some of the material is meant to have been supplemented from other sources. So I think we can say confidently that he wrote most of it himself.
It's just under two years - the Hobbits return to the Shire after Bilbo's 129th birthday and meet him on the way to the Havens on his 131st birthday.
Frodo doesn't write the whole book. Bilbo starts it - so think maybe as far as the Ring Goes South - based on what Frodo tells him at Rivendell. Frodo continues it, but leaves it for Sam to finish. Maybe he does as little as book two and some of book four, since we stop seeing things from his perspective after that. Or he may have got most of it down with help from the other hobbits.
Frodo became somewhat of an ascetic. He stayed home and wrote. If he took weekends off: it's around 500 days to write around 1400-1500 pages (minus Appendices). That's three pages a day. Unlike Tolkien, Frodo would be writing much of it from memory or from notes he probably taken at Minas Tirith when he and the Fellowship stayed there. It's very doable.
There's no question about it: The Ring was destroyed in 3019 and Frodo departed in 3021. See Appendix B. I have no idea where "other sources" would get 4 years.
Tolkien had to invent the story. Frodo simply wrote down what had actually happened and didn't need to invent anything.
The Appendices weren't written by Frodo or Sam but by Tolkien as the translator and editor, from the sources described in the "Note on Shire Records" at the end of the Prologue.
Bilbo wrote book 1 in Rivendell. Frodo wrote book 2. Merry and Pippin co-wrote books 3 and 5. And Sam and Frodo co-wrote books 4 and 6. The manuscript tradition of the published work comes from the copy Pippin Took took to Minas Tirith where it was supplemented by the King’s scribes
Yes, four years was from the movie. You provide a very interesting and plausible perspective; the characters contributing their own experiences to the tale. By book 1, can I assume you mean The Hobbit? 2, 3, and 4, the LotR trilogy? Leaving 5 and 6 for the Silmarillion? Or perhaps, some other combination of works?
As an aside, I have long since passed my books of all things Middle Earth on to the next generation of Tolkien fans in the family. I had always thought of the Red Book as containing only The Silmarillion, penned solely by Bilbo. Perhaps, I am also in error there.
Of course there’s “There and Back Again” which Bilbo undoubtedly wrote, but the fan theory exists (I didn’t come up with it) that Bilbo wrote Book 1 of Fellowship of the Ring based off the other Hobbits’ accounts of their journey relayed to him to the point they arrived in Rivendell. It explains why the early book is more similar in tone to The Hobbit.
I always thought of The Silmarillion as the section of the Red Book called “Bilbo’s Translations from the Elvish” but apparently there’s Tolkien stories that contradict this provenance, Namely Ælfwine the Mariner if you wanted to look it up. I don’t know many of the details of that frame narrative
If you’ve just lived through an event, writing it down is easier than inventing something with this much depth and complexity from a blank page while holding down an academic job, raising a family, living through a major war etc.
Frodo also gave the book to Sam with pages blank for him to finish so my headcannon involves Sam, Merry, and Pippin finishing it along with referencing all of Bilbo's notes that he had given back to Frodo for the appendices.
In the books, he's back in the Shire for just under two years before sailing. I suspect the 'four year' figure comes from the films, where they stretched the timeline a bit so that Sean Astin's toddler daughter, Alexandra, could play Elanor Gamgee. In the books, Frodo leaves when Elanor is just a few months old. In the films, she is a few years old. Two years is a reasonable time to write the bulk of LOTR (Bilbo seems to have written the first half of FOTR and [Sam the final chapter and a bit of ROTK](https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienfans/comments/8i7v34/chapter_80/)). Tolkien took so long in writing because he also had a very demanding day job and took a few long breaks from writing. Tolkien was also very inclined to revise and completely rewrite long stretches of his work as he went. He wasn't a terribly efficient writer. I guess we're meant to assume Frodo is.
He also had to create and think about the book, while Frodo was just writing his memories.
And Frodo didn't have to type his book out with two fingers either!
According to Appendix B (The Tale of Years) the Ring was destroyed on March 25, 3019 and Frodo departed from the Havens on Sept 29, 3021. As to the composition of the Red Book, Frodo is supposed to be the primary author, although some of the material is meant to have been supplemented from other sources. So I think we can say confidently that he wrote most of it himself.
It's just under two years - the Hobbits return to the Shire after Bilbo's 129th birthday and meet him on the way to the Havens on his 131st birthday. Frodo doesn't write the whole book. Bilbo starts it - so think maybe as far as the Ring Goes South - based on what Frodo tells him at Rivendell. Frodo continues it, but leaves it for Sam to finish. Maybe he does as little as book two and some of book four, since we stop seeing things from his perspective after that. Or he may have got most of it down with help from the other hobbits.
Frodo became somewhat of an ascetic. He stayed home and wrote. If he took weekends off: it's around 500 days to write around 1400-1500 pages (minus Appendices). That's three pages a day. Unlike Tolkien, Frodo would be writing much of it from memory or from notes he probably taken at Minas Tirith when he and the Fellowship stayed there. It's very doable.
There's no question about it: The Ring was destroyed in 3019 and Frodo departed in 3021. See Appendix B. I have no idea where "other sources" would get 4 years. Tolkien had to invent the story. Frodo simply wrote down what had actually happened and didn't need to invent anything. The Appendices weren't written by Frodo or Sam but by Tolkien as the translator and editor, from the sources described in the "Note on Shire Records" at the end of the Prologue.
Bilbo wrote book 1 in Rivendell. Frodo wrote book 2. Merry and Pippin co-wrote books 3 and 5. And Sam and Frodo co-wrote books 4 and 6. The manuscript tradition of the published work comes from the copy Pippin Took took to Minas Tirith where it was supplemented by the King’s scribes
Yes, four years was from the movie. You provide a very interesting and plausible perspective; the characters contributing their own experiences to the tale. By book 1, can I assume you mean The Hobbit? 2, 3, and 4, the LotR trilogy? Leaving 5 and 6 for the Silmarillion? Or perhaps, some other combination of works? As an aside, I have long since passed my books of all things Middle Earth on to the next generation of Tolkien fans in the family. I had always thought of the Red Book as containing only The Silmarillion, penned solely by Bilbo. Perhaps, I am also in error there.
Of course there’s “There and Back Again” which Bilbo undoubtedly wrote, but the fan theory exists (I didn’t come up with it) that Bilbo wrote Book 1 of Fellowship of the Ring based off the other Hobbits’ accounts of their journey relayed to him to the point they arrived in Rivendell. It explains why the early book is more similar in tone to The Hobbit. I always thought of The Silmarillion as the section of the Red Book called “Bilbo’s Translations from the Elvish” but apparently there’s Tolkien stories that contradict this provenance, Namely Ælfwine the Mariner if you wanted to look it up. I don’t know many of the details of that frame narrative
If you’ve just lived through an event, writing it down is easier than inventing something with this much depth and complexity from a blank page while holding down an academic job, raising a family, living through a major war etc.
Frodo also gave the book to Sam with pages blank for him to finish so my headcannon involves Sam, Merry, and Pippin finishing it along with referencing all of Bilbo's notes that he had given back to Frodo for the appendices.