: 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.

Another explaination is that Tolkien, himself, was a hobbit descendent of Sam, who decided to translate his family's ancient books and share the long forgotten story. Remember how he used to wear his "hobbit" clothes, from time to time. :)