The Deltora Annals

The Deltora Annals are a collection of at least five pale blue books that contain a record of the history of Deltora. Many people wrote in the Annals, including the first king of Deltora, Adin, and Doran the Dragonlover, who used the Annals to record all of his adventures whenever he returned from his journeys. To preserve Deltora's history, a law was made that no pages could be ripped from the books so that the text would stay there. The palace librarian Josef disobeyed this law when he burned the old harvest records when he faked the destruction of the Annals and his death.

The first volume of The Deltora Annals contains folktales of the tribes of Deltora, including the Tenna Birdsong Tales. The tales from the Annals that most clearly depict Deltora's history were published in Josef's book, Secrets of Deltora.

History
The Deltora Annals were started shortly after Adin was crowned as the first king of Deltora as a way of collecting Deltora's history. Work on the Annals continued for centuries, but was abandoned in the time of Queen Elspeth, when her chief advisor convinced her to devote her writers and artists to describing and drawing the palace, room by room. Once work on the Annals was ceased, the writers and painters were not permitted to leave the palace, since their work was all within. This severed the royal family's last connection to the outside world.

The Deltora Book of Monsters
During the reign of King Alton, his chief advisor, Prandine, sent a message to the palace librarian, Josef, commanding him to burn the Annals. Prandine wanted to erase the stories of the past so that the people of Deltora would be unable to learn the lessons of their history. However, Josef refused to destroy the Annals, so he left a suicide note and threw pig bones and old harvest records into the fire before fleeing the palace. The trick worked, and Josef spend many years in hiding with the Annals and his adoptive son, Ranesh.

Cavern of The Fear
Several months after King Lief banished the Shadow Lord from Deltora, Josef decided it was time to bring the Annals out of hiding. However, since Lief would not see anybody except his chief advisor, Doom, he sent Ranesh to mingle with the people within the palace to determine the best way of getting in contact with the king. Ranesh eventually tracked down Jasmine, and he and Josef convinced her to bring them and the Annals into the palace. Jasmine and Lief would both read the story of The Girl with the Golden Hair from the Annals, which would lead them to the Pirran Caverns.

Dragon's Nest
On the night of the Full Moon Meeting, Josef showed Lief an image of Deltora's old gem territories from the Annals to try and convince him that Deltora's famine started with the decline of the dragons. Later, after the crystal was destroyed, Josef showed the final journal entry of Doran the Dragonlover, which mentioned the Four Sisters.

Josef also began to read through The Deltora Annals for stories to put inside his newest book, Tales of Deltora. Among these stories was the Tenna Birdsong Tale called The Four Sisters.

Shadowgate
When Josef began to suspect the presence of the grey tide, he combed through The Deltora Annals for any clues about it or the Four Sisters. He eventually deduced the location of the grey tide in Hira, but Paff prevented him from contacting Lief.

The Sister of the South
After taking over the position of palace librarian, Marilen recorded the wedding of Lief and Jasmine in The Deltora Annals.