Another LOTR sentence

hello all,

hopefully someone would like to help translate the following sentence for me: (I'm sorry but I have no japanese input here yet.. :auch: )

ippou, kono atari no monotachi ha dou oshiete ita ka to iimasu to, minna ha, birubo to iu no ha mae kara zutto okashikatta keredo, toutou hontou ni ki ga furete, yukuefumei ni natta, kitto, doko no ike ka kawa ni demo hamarikomi, toshi ni fuan ha nai to ha ie, hisan na shi (death) wo togeta ni erai nai nado to hanashiau no desita.

I am having most trouble with the 'dou oshiete ita ka to iimasu to', I guess, which may be the reason I don't really get the full idea. I'm not sure how to translate 'erai nai nado' either..

thanks so much for any help!!
mark.

「一方、このあたりの者たちはどう教えていたかと言いますと、
みんなはビルボ(?) というのは前からずっとおかしかったけれど、
とうとう本当に気が触れて、行方不明になった、きっとどこの池か川にでも
はまりこみ、歳(都市?)に不安はないとはいえ、悲惨な死をとげたにえらいないなどと話しあうのでした」

「えらいない」 looks like a typo. Did you mean 「ちがいない」?
「どう教えていたかと言いますと」 is strange too.

"Meanwhile, the people in this neighborhood were talking that
Birubo was already eccentric from the beginning, but this time he was
really driven out of himself and got lost. Maybe he was trapped
by a river or pond or something, although he has no worry about his age,
he must have died miserably."

thanks!!

I feel silly, but I misread chigainai as erainai indeed , and I mistakenly typed 'oshiete' instead of 'kangaete'.. so I guess the first part means something like:

'meanwhile, if the people in this neighbourhood were talking what they were thinking, everyone thought bilbo was eccentric from the start.. etc'

I am trying to read lord of the rings btw, hence the birubo

thanks for your help!! I think I understand the full sentence now..


mark.

Actually, the ○○と言うと formation means something like:

Literally - 'if you say ○○'
Smoothly - 'on the subject of ○○'

So, the sentence would be something like:
'On the subject of what people in this area where thinking...'

*I know this isn't a very smooth translation, but if you're trying to figure out what the Japanese is doing, this should give you an idea.