The New Shadow?

[Shieldmaiden]

Did you know that Tolkien had considered writing a sequel to Lord of the Rings, called The New Shadow? I sure didn't. According to this website...http://members.rogers.com/samiabbas/tolkien%20bio.htm...he abandoned the idea because:
The New Shadow was meant to be the sequel to The Lord of the Rings, but Tolkien decided to abandon it after a few pages. Tolkien expressed that he surely could have written a thriller about it, but since we are dealing with Men - Men! - whose nature of quick satiety with the good had already much to tell in the downfall of Númenor, history was bound to repeat. And Tolkien thought it was not worth doing.

Just thought that was interesting...

[Gwaihir]

I didn't know that. It would have been interesting if he had completed that work. The New Shadow would have revealed to us how exactly things would have gone in the Fourth Age.

However, I am a little bit glad that he didn't make it, because the Fourth Age is the age of Men. Without the Elves, their lore, and without the other wonderful people and creatures of Middle-Earth, I think the story wouldn't have been as great as LotR.

[Shieldmaiden]

That's a good point, but I would have liked to see how Men would have handled things on their own. It would have been cool to see them come into their own, developing their own lore and culture and all that jazz...But you're right...sequels are rarely better than their predecessors...:grin:

[Periantari Andruil]

very cool find, Shieldmaiden! i would love to read more about MIddle-Earth even though it'll be predominantly about Men... i do wish that hobbitses will be part of it too though (in some little way) hehe =)

[Cuiel Rilwen]

How surprising indeed! Alltho I'm glad he didn't...he obviouly spent his time well writing about the history and background of LotR...would have been a shame if that would have gon amiss! I mean he was only one man...and no superman!

[Eledhwen]

Great topic Shieldmaiden! :thumbs:

You can read the first (and I believe only) chapter he wrote in Volume 12 of HoME, The Peoples of Middle Earth. It's almost at the end of the book. It's set during the reign of Eldarion and has quite the cliff-hanger ending.

Here's a snippet from Christopher's notes:

There would be no tales worth telling in the days of the King's Peace, my father said; and he disparaged the story he had begun: 'I could have written a "thriller" about the plot and its discovery and overthrow - but it would have been just that. Not worth doing.' It would nonetheless have been a very remarkable 'thriller' and one may well view its early abandonment with regret.


He goes on to quote his father again thinking that another reason (the deeper reason) that he didn't work on the story had to do with the finality of Sauron's defeat:

'Sauron was a problem that men had to deal with finally: the first of the many concentrations of Evil into definite power-points that they would have to combat, as it was also the last of those in "mythological" personalized (but non-human) form.'

... the last vestige of the Elder Days ...

[Shieldmaiden]

Cool stuff, Eledhwen! I'll have to check it out...Hm. Now I have to find a 'valid' reason to go to the bookstore (as if buying one of Tolkien's books wasn't reason enough). :)