: He does speak of them as if they still exist, and that would seem to imply a first-hand knowledge of them.

: : As to translating, I offer the following based on Tolkien
: : recieving the books from hobbits.
: : It is possible that some translations had already been done by
: : later hobbits prior to Tolkien recieving the books. Over the
: : passage of time, hobbits probably continued to speak and write
: : in the language most common to their location, perhaps some
: : later hobbit had translated parts of the books into Old
: : English, Welsh or another language that Tolkien already knew.
: : Bilbo's translations of elvish would, of course, have been in
: : the Red Book. This would make Tolkien's task of translating
: : much easier than starting from scratch.

: Actually, I think if we are to suppose the hobbits gave the Red Book to Tolkien, then why not assume that they taught him the languages as well? He had a great gift (and love for) language and he learned many of them to one degree or another.

Has anyone ever seen a hobbit? I don't think I have. I've seen dwarves although not the ones Tolkiens talking aobut.