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It was about 1418 that I, among the rest of my neighbours,
heard in ordinary discourse that the One Ring had appeared
again in Middle Earth; for there had been great violence,
and particularly in Moria and the environs of Mordor.
Some say it was found in Gondor, others from the Lone
Mountain, among some treasures from a dragon's hoard
which were brought to the Shire by a travelling Hobbit;
others said it was brought from Isengard; others from
Mirkwood. It mattered not from whence it came; but all
agreed it was come into Middle Earth again.
We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those
days to spread rumours and reports of things, and to
improve them by the invention of Men and Halflings,
as I have lived to see practised since. But such things
as these were gathered from the songs of minstrels and
others who corresponded abroad, and from them was handed
about by word of mouth only; so things did not spread
over the whole countryside , as they do now. But it
seems that the Wizards and the Elves had a true account
of it, and several councils were held about ways to
destroy it; but all was kept very private. Hence it
was that this rumour died off again, and people began
to forget it as a thing we were very little concerned
in, and that we hoped was not true; till the latter
end of the year when two Black Riders, said to be Nazguls,
appeared in the Shire...