The return of the shadow : the history of The lord of the rings / J.R.R. Tolkien ; [edited by] Christopher Tolkien.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973.

Contributor:

Tolkien, Christopher.

Series:

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973. History of Middle-earth ; 6-

The History of Middle-earth ; 6-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973. Lord of the rings--Criticism, Textual.

Tolkien, J. R. R.

Fantasy fiction, English--History and criticism.

Fantasy fiction, English.

Middle Earth (Imaginary place).

Physical Description:

volumes : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1988-

Summary:

With the sixth volume of The History of Middle-earth the story reaches The Lord of the Rings. Christopher Tolkien describes, with full citation of his father's earliest notes, outline plans, and narrative drafts, the intricate evolution of The Fellowship of the Ring and the gradual emergence of the conceptions that transformed what J.R.R. Tolkien long believed would be a far shorter book, "a sequel to The Hobbit."

In The Return of the Shadow (an abandoned title for the first volume), the enlargement of Bilbo's magic ring into the supremely potent and dangerous Ruling Ring desired by the Dark Lord is traced; and the precise moment is seen when, in an astonishing and unexpected leap in the earliest narrative, a Black Rider first rides into the Shire, his significance still unknown. The character of the hobbit called Trotter (afterward Strider or Aragorn) is developed while his identity remains an insoluble puzzle, and the suspicion only very slowly becomes certainty that he must, after all, be a Man. The hobbits, Frodo's companions, undergo intricate permutations of name and personality, and other major figures appear in strange modes: a sinister Treebeard, in league with the Enemy; a ferocious and malevolent Farmer Maggot.

The story in this book ends at the point where J.R.R. Tolkien halted for a long time, as the Company of the Ring, still lacking Legolas and Gimli, stands before the tomb of Balin in the Mines of Moria. The Return of the Shadow is illustrated with reproductions of the first maps and notable pages from the earliest manuscripts.

Contents:

The First Phase

I A Long-Expected Party 11

II From Hobbiton to the Woody End 45

III Of Gollum and the Ring 73

IV To Maggot's Farm and Buckland 88

V The Old Forest and the Withywindle 110

VI Tom Bombadil 117

VII The Barrow-Wight 125

VIII Arrival at Bree 132

IX Trotter and the Journey to Weathertop 148

X The Attack on Weathertop 177

XI From Weathertop to the Ford 190

XII At Rivendell 206

XIII 'Queries and Alterations' 220

The Second Phase

XIV Return to Hobbiton 233

XV Ancient History 250

XVI Delays are Dangerous 273

XVII A Short Cut to Mushrooms 286

XVIII Again from Buckland to the Withywindle 298

The Third Phase

XIX The Third Phase (1): The Journey to Bree 309

XX The Third Phase (2): At the Sign of the Prancing Pony 331

XXI The Third Phase (3): To Weathertop and Rivendell 352

XXII New Uncertainties and New Projections 369

The Story Continued

XXIII In the House of Elrond 391

XXIV The Ring Goes South 415

XXV The Mines of Moria 442

The original opening page of The Lord of the Rings 12

The original description of the writing on the Ring 257

The Ring-verse, and the emergence of the Ruling Ring in the narrative 259

Plan of Bree 335

The emergence of Treebeard 383

The earliest map of the lands south of the Map of Wilderland in The Hobbit 439

The inscription of the West Gate of Moria 450.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0395498635

OCLC:

18326434