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The History of Middle-Earth #6
The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One
In this sixth volume of The History of Middle-earth the story reaches The Lord of the Rings. In The Return of the Shadow (an abandoned title for the first volume) Christopher Tolkien describes, with full citation of the 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 for long believed would be a far shorter book, 'a sequel to The Hobbit'. The enlargement of Bilbo's 'magic ring' into the supremely potent and dangerous Ruling Ring of the Dark Lord is traced and the precise moment is seen when, in an astonishing and unforeseen leap in the earliest narrative, a Black Rider first rode into the Shire, his significance still unknown. The character of the hobbit called Trotter (afterwards Strider or Aragorn) is developed while his indentity remains an absolute 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 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 in the story for a long time, as the Company of the Ring, still lacking Legolas and Gimli, stood 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.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published August 25, 1988
269 people are currently reading
12391 people want to read
About the author
J.R.R. Tolkien
779 books76.7k followersJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.
Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.
Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.
Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.
Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium’ that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children’s stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.
Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.
Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.
Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.
Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium’ that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children’s stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.
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October 28, 2016
Let me admit first off that _The Return of the Shadow_ (book 6 in the History of Middle-earth series) is exactly what I didn’t want to read when I first heard that Christopher Tolkien was putting out a series of books of his father’s unpublished writings. As far as I was concerned we already had what Tolkien was willing and able to publish in The Hobbit and LoTR (and even something he hadn’t yet been able to publish in his lifetime in the form of The Silmarillion) so the appeal for me of seeing early drafts and material that the author himself had either superseded or conceivably felt was unpublishable didn’t seem like an appealing prospect. Why examine the dross when we already had the gold on display? Well, my foray into the other volumes of the series which detailed his monumental work in building the world, languages, and stories of what would become the First Age of Middle-earth in the Silmarillion material really opened my eyes to what a treasure trove there was and only added to my appreciation of what had previously been published. I saw that this was not simply a collection of discarded notes, imperfect drafts, and unpublishable material, but an expanded glimpse at the world Tolkien was creating. The sheer variety in both content and form meant that I was able to see much fuller versions of some stories that were only hinted at or told in precis in the published Silmarillion, and even the tales I was familiar with were often told in much more expanded, or even more impressive and enjoyable ways in some of these earlier documents.
So much for the Silmarillion material. Approaching the next ‘phase’ in the History of Middle-earth wherein Christopher tackles the early drafts of The Lord of the Rings seemed much more akin to what I had expected from the other volumes: early drafts and rejected material that would not deepen my appreciation of the published work except inasmuch as I would see how far superior it was to any early, and ultimately rejected, work. What little I knew of it seemed likely to hold up to that assumption: Aragorn originally conceived as a Hobbit with the unlikely (or at least unheroic) name of ‘Trotter’ who wore wooden shoes?! A version of the tale that was seen as little more than an unexpected (and even deemed by the author unnecessary) sequel to _The Hobbit_ that was primarily desired by the publisher to cash in on the success of the earlier children’s book? Why read a possibly twee early version of the epic fantasy that ended up creating (or at least validating) an entire genre of literature in its finally published form? It seemed like nothing so much as an exercise in disappointment.
The tipping point for me proved to be listening to Corey Olsen’s (aka the Tolkien Professor) podcasts for the HoME series. While listening to the episodes covering the Silmarillion material I began to see how unique a place LoTR held in Tolkien’s work. It is often assumed that the LoTR was the centre of the professor’s literary work, that _The Hobbit_ was always an early prequel to it, and that _The Silmarillion_ was a collection of early and/or unfinished material thrown together after the success of LoTR in the hopes of cashing in on that success. What emerges from reading the HoME series, however, is a very different picture. First of all it is obvious that the Silmarillion material was at the core of Tolkien’s mythology and represented perhaps the most important and meaningful literary work he did. It wasn’t simply the after-hours hobby of a bored professor of philology, but actually managed to marry his personal and professional interests in a unique way. The linguistic elements of the Silmarillion material are truly integral to the development of the stories and characters that came to embody his mythology and it would not be an overstatement to say that many of Tolkien’s own personal theories on linguistic and historical development of real world languages became hidden elements of his developing sub-created world. _The Hobbit_, by contrast, was initially conceived as having nothing to do with the Silmarillion mythology. True, there was some cross-fertilization mostly in regards to names used (Elrond, Gondolin, etc.), but Olsen (and the HoME material itself) make a strong case for the idea that this was merely Tolkien following a consistent pattern of re-using material in new contexts. He was ultimately making use of names and story elements that he quite frankly thought would never see the light of day otherwise and there existed between the two works a very real ‘firewall’ (as Olsen calls it) in regards to the worlds they inhabited. I would even go so far as to say that I think Tolkien started developing a fair bit of antipathy for _The Hobbit_: a children’s book he wrote on something of a whim that captured the imaginations of his publishers, and the reading public in general, but that led not to his desired goal of being able to publish the Silmarillion material that was so near and dear to his heart (his publishers went out of their way to, kindly and gently, nix that possibility), but instead led to a clamor for a sequel. ‘More about hobbits’ was the demand when Tolkien was hoping to publish something about the much higher and stranger matter of the Elves, their battle against the ultimate evil of Melkor, and their final decline. The LoTR thus started out very much as a direct sequel to _The Hobbit_, unrelated in all but some superficialities to his older and deeper material. It quickly gained something of a life of its own, however, growing into something that truly married the Hobbit material to the older mythology of the Silmarillion and resulted in the creation of something altogether new (not to mention something that transformed subsequent editions of _The Hobbit_ until it truly became what it is seen as today: the prequel to the LoTR more or less fully joined in a continuum to the Silmarillion material).
I was somewhat crestfallen upon reading the first few pages of _The Return of the Shadow_. My expectations were apparently being met as the story certainly started out in a less than impressive manner, especially when compared against the finished product. It was definitely much more twee and the main character being named ‘Bingo’ didn’t help. You can almost see Tolkien flailing around to find a story and some way to hang it onto a group of hobbits. There is perhaps a little too much of what Tolkien called ‘hobbit humour’ and an almost excessive concentration on hobbit family genealogies (something that still survived into the appendices of LoTR) and other minutiae. As a side note: at this point the somewhat strange figure of Tom Bombadil perhaps makes a bit more sense given the nature of the story as one geared towards children. The story did start to markedly improve as time went on, however, and it gained in depth and seriousness as was perhaps to be expected given the fact that Tolkien latched onto the obvious plot element from _The Hobbit_ upon which to tie a sequel: Bilbo’s magic ring. The meaning and significance of the ring began to grow and it was soon much more than merely a convenient tool for disappearing from inconvenient situations once it was tied in to the other remaining mystery from its parent volume: the shadowy figure of the Necromancer. These two elements coinciding led Tolkien to bring in some of the material from his later Silmarillion work (namely the existence of Thu/Sauron as a remnant of Melkor’s evil) and to expand on this with the creation of his role as the ‘Lord of the Ring’ in his bid for dominance over Middle-earth. In essence this transformed the story into something that adopted Tolkien’s Silmarillion material in a much more fundamental way. This was no longer simply a mere sharing of names, the connections started to grow deeper and the firewall was starting to crumble.
Things certainly improved (in my opinion at least) at an accelerated rate. Even the introduction of Trotter proved to be less twee than I thought it would be. A wooden-shoe-wearing hobbit-ranger certainly seems odd on the face of it, but while definitely an inferior character when compared to Aragorn, the story that Tolkien started to develop for Trotter, with the hints of both a connection to Gandalf and Bilbo and a dark and dangerous past, were actually somewhat intriguing. It is also surprising to note, as Christopher does, how close to the finished text (at least in terms of general story elements and overall plot) many sections of even the earliest drafts are once things apparently started gelling for Tolkien and the idea that this was ‘merely’ a children’s book sequel were more or less quashed. There were still many changes (especially in regards to the number of hobbits involved in the story, their names and relationships, and the ultimate make-up of the fellowship of the ring itself, not to mention the introduction of the character and storyline of Aragorn) and much of the text would still be further refined, but one can definitely see something very much recognizable as ‘the Lord of the Rings’ even in these early drafts.
I won’t go into any further detail, but while this may not have been my favourite volume in the HoME series it definitely was worth reading and proved to be much more intriguing than I at first expected. I’ll definitely keep on reading and would once again recommend it to any of Tolkien’s die-hard fans out there.
So much for the Silmarillion material. Approaching the next ‘phase’ in the History of Middle-earth wherein Christopher tackles the early drafts of The Lord of the Rings seemed much more akin to what I had expected from the other volumes: early drafts and rejected material that would not deepen my appreciation of the published work except inasmuch as I would see how far superior it was to any early, and ultimately rejected, work. What little I knew of it seemed likely to hold up to that assumption: Aragorn originally conceived as a Hobbit with the unlikely (or at least unheroic) name of ‘Trotter’ who wore wooden shoes?! A version of the tale that was seen as little more than an unexpected (and even deemed by the author unnecessary) sequel to _The Hobbit_ that was primarily desired by the publisher to cash in on the success of the earlier children’s book? Why read a possibly twee early version of the epic fantasy that ended up creating (or at least validating) an entire genre of literature in its finally published form? It seemed like nothing so much as an exercise in disappointment.
The tipping point for me proved to be listening to Corey Olsen’s (aka the Tolkien Professor) podcasts for the HoME series. While listening to the episodes covering the Silmarillion material I began to see how unique a place LoTR held in Tolkien’s work. It is often assumed that the LoTR was the centre of the professor’s literary work, that _The Hobbit_ was always an early prequel to it, and that _The Silmarillion_ was a collection of early and/or unfinished material thrown together after the success of LoTR in the hopes of cashing in on that success. What emerges from reading the HoME series, however, is a very different picture. First of all it is obvious that the Silmarillion material was at the core of Tolkien’s mythology and represented perhaps the most important and meaningful literary work he did. It wasn’t simply the after-hours hobby of a bored professor of philology, but actually managed to marry his personal and professional interests in a unique way. The linguistic elements of the Silmarillion material are truly integral to the development of the stories and characters that came to embody his mythology and it would not be an overstatement to say that many of Tolkien’s own personal theories on linguistic and historical development of real world languages became hidden elements of his developing sub-created world. _The Hobbit_, by contrast, was initially conceived as having nothing to do with the Silmarillion mythology. True, there was some cross-fertilization mostly in regards to names used (Elrond, Gondolin, etc.), but Olsen (and the HoME material itself) make a strong case for the idea that this was merely Tolkien following a consistent pattern of re-using material in new contexts. He was ultimately making use of names and story elements that he quite frankly thought would never see the light of day otherwise and there existed between the two works a very real ‘firewall’ (as Olsen calls it) in regards to the worlds they inhabited. I would even go so far as to say that I think Tolkien started developing a fair bit of antipathy for _The Hobbit_: a children’s book he wrote on something of a whim that captured the imaginations of his publishers, and the reading public in general, but that led not to his desired goal of being able to publish the Silmarillion material that was so near and dear to his heart (his publishers went out of their way to, kindly and gently, nix that possibility), but instead led to a clamor for a sequel. ‘More about hobbits’ was the demand when Tolkien was hoping to publish something about the much higher and stranger matter of the Elves, their battle against the ultimate evil of Melkor, and their final decline. The LoTR thus started out very much as a direct sequel to _The Hobbit_, unrelated in all but some superficialities to his older and deeper material. It quickly gained something of a life of its own, however, growing into something that truly married the Hobbit material to the older mythology of the Silmarillion and resulted in the creation of something altogether new (not to mention something that transformed subsequent editions of _The Hobbit_ until it truly became what it is seen as today: the prequel to the LoTR more or less fully joined in a continuum to the Silmarillion material).
I was somewhat crestfallen upon reading the first few pages of _The Return of the Shadow_. My expectations were apparently being met as the story certainly started out in a less than impressive manner, especially when compared against the finished product. It was definitely much more twee and the main character being named ‘Bingo’ didn’t help. You can almost see Tolkien flailing around to find a story and some way to hang it onto a group of hobbits. There is perhaps a little too much of what Tolkien called ‘hobbit humour’ and an almost excessive concentration on hobbit family genealogies (something that still survived into the appendices of LoTR) and other minutiae. As a side note: at this point the somewhat strange figure of Tom Bombadil perhaps makes a bit more sense given the nature of the story as one geared towards children. The story did start to markedly improve as time went on, however, and it gained in depth and seriousness as was perhaps to be expected given the fact that Tolkien latched onto the obvious plot element from _The Hobbit_ upon which to tie a sequel: Bilbo’s magic ring. The meaning and significance of the ring began to grow and it was soon much more than merely a convenient tool for disappearing from inconvenient situations once it was tied in to the other remaining mystery from its parent volume: the shadowy figure of the Necromancer. These two elements coinciding led Tolkien to bring in some of the material from his later Silmarillion work (namely the existence of Thu/Sauron as a remnant of Melkor’s evil) and to expand on this with the creation of his role as the ‘Lord of the Ring’ in his bid for dominance over Middle-earth. In essence this transformed the story into something that adopted Tolkien’s Silmarillion material in a much more fundamental way. This was no longer simply a mere sharing of names, the connections started to grow deeper and the firewall was starting to crumble.
Things certainly improved (in my opinion at least) at an accelerated rate. Even the introduction of Trotter proved to be less twee than I thought it would be. A wooden-shoe-wearing hobbit-ranger certainly seems odd on the face of it, but while definitely an inferior character when compared to Aragorn, the story that Tolkien started to develop for Trotter, with the hints of both a connection to Gandalf and Bilbo and a dark and dangerous past, were actually somewhat intriguing. It is also surprising to note, as Christopher does, how close to the finished text (at least in terms of general story elements and overall plot) many sections of even the earliest drafts are once things apparently started gelling for Tolkien and the idea that this was ‘merely’ a children’s book sequel were more or less quashed. There were still many changes (especially in regards to the number of hobbits involved in the story, their names and relationships, and the ultimate make-up of the fellowship of the ring itself, not to mention the introduction of the character and storyline of Aragorn) and much of the text would still be further refined, but one can definitely see something very much recognizable as ‘the Lord of the Rings’ even in these early drafts.
I won’t go into any further detail, but while this may not have been my favourite volume in the HoME series it definitely was worth reading and proved to be much more intriguing than I at first expected. I’ll definitely keep on reading and would once again recommend it to any of Tolkien’s die-hard fans out there.
Read
June 30, 2012I don't think I can give this a star rating. I don't know if I've ever read anything that's simultaneously more boring and more fascinating than this set of books. [Here I'll review the whole History of the Lord of the Rings together: [book:The Return of the Shadow], The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and The End of the Third Age.]
Christopher Tolkien, son of a famous father, has edited the rough drafts of The Lord of the Rings and presents (in every possible detail) the history of the composition. Fragments of the drafts, heavily footnoted, are interspersed with Christopher's analysis of how the story took shape in J.R.R's imagination. The work is astonishingly thorough: you can see little details (the phase of the moon in a given passage being changed to correspond to a new chronology of events) and major upheavals pressing themselves upon the author. [A couple of examples: Frodo was originally named Bingo; there was no Sam Gamgee until quite far into the drafting of [book:The Fellowship of the Ring|34]; Treebeard, the ent, is originally a monster and he, not Saruman, is the one who imprisons Gandalf; Aragorn, the king who returns in The Return of the King, was originally a hobbit in wooden shoes, called not Strider but Trotter until the trilogy was almost entirely complete.]
The effect is unlike anything I've ever read -- like watching over a shoulder as the author crosses out a paragraph, muttering to himself. Moment by moment, though, it can be amazingly dull to read.
From p. 262 of The War of the Ring:
But mixed with this we get flashes of insight. From p. 147 of The War of the Ring:
Surely this series could be found readable only by people who are to some degree obsessed with The Lord of the Rings and who have a fairly strong interest in scholarly things. Thus I can't really recommend it. It is nevertheless a unique and remarkable work.
Christopher Tolkien, son of a famous father, has edited the rough drafts of The Lord of the Rings and presents (in every possible detail) the history of the composition. Fragments of the drafts, heavily footnoted, are interspersed with Christopher's analysis of how the story took shape in J.R.R's imagination. The work is astonishingly thorough: you can see little details (the phase of the moon in a given passage being changed to correspond to a new chronology of events) and major upheavals pressing themselves upon the author. [A couple of examples: Frodo was originally named Bingo; there was no Sam Gamgee until quite far into the drafting of [book:The Fellowship of the Ring|34]; Treebeard, the ent, is originally a monster and he, not Saruman, is the one who imprisons Gandalf; Aragorn, the king who returns in The Return of the King, was originally a hobbit in wooden shoes, called not Strider but Trotter until the trilogy was almost entirely complete.]
The effect is unlike anything I've ever read -- like watching over a shoulder as the author crosses out a paragraph, muttering to himself. Moment by moment, though, it can be amazingly dull to read.
From p. 262 of The War of the Ring:
The next two outlines (`V' and `VI') were developed from III, and are very closely related: they were certainly written at the same time. From the rejected sentence in VI `He has a secret' it is seen that my father had IV in front of him, for in that text appears `He has a secret letter from Faramir'. [punctuation sic] The rejected reference in V to `Dunharrow under the Halifirien' relates this outline to the note on Dunharrow in II (see p. 257). There is thus good reason to think that V and VI derive from 1944 rather than 1946....
But mixed with this we get flashes of insight. From p. 147 of The War of the Ring:
My father wrote in his letter of 6 May 1944, "A new character has come on the scene (I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him, though I like him, but there he came walking into the woods of Ithilien): Faramir, the brother of Boromir ..."
Surely this series could be found readable only by people who are to some degree obsessed with The Lord of the Rings and who have a fairly strong interest in scholarly things. Thus I can't really recommend it. It is nevertheless a unique and remarkable work.
October 12, 2022
Istorija Srednje Zemlje je jedan veliki update za sve hard core fanove Tolkinovog sveta.
Mnoge carobne stvari se ipak nisu nasle u konacnim verzijama njegovih knjiga i najvise zbog toga vam savetujem da procitate Istoriju Gospodara Prstenova.
Koliko je samo privlacno citati Tolkina, bez obzira da li je to prva ili neka cetvrta ili peta verzija teksta. Ideje se menjaju, razvijaju, odbaciju i nove dolaze u fokus, sve je to podlozno promeni ali kvalitet ostaje. Zanimljivo je i pratiti tok njegovih misli, kako zamislja buduce dogadjaje ili cime nije zadovoljan. Nekada samo pise, bez neke odredjene ideje kuda ce ga to pisanje odvesti pustajuci pricu da sama odredi buduce dogadjaje. Sa druge strane zadivljujuce je koliko je suguran u postojanje i mesto u tekstu koje ce zauzeti i najsitniji detalji. Razvoj Gospodara Prstenova je toliko prirodan dok je finalna verzija neumitno sve prisutna, poput izlaska Sunca na istoku.
Mnoge carobne stvari se ipak nisu nasle u konacnim verzijama njegovih knjiga i najvise zbog toga vam savetujem da procitate Istoriju Gospodara Prstenova.
Koliko je samo privlacno citati Tolkina, bez obzira da li je to prva ili neka cetvrta ili peta verzija teksta. Ideje se menjaju, razvijaju, odbaciju i nove dolaze u fokus, sve je to podlozno promeni ali kvalitet ostaje. Zanimljivo je i pratiti tok njegovih misli, kako zamislja buduce dogadjaje ili cime nije zadovoljan. Nekada samo pise, bez neke odredjene ideje kuda ce ga to pisanje odvesti pustajuci pricu da sama odredi buduce dogadjaje. Sa druge strane zadivljujuce je koliko je suguran u postojanje i mesto u tekstu koje ce zauzeti i najsitniji detalji. Razvoj Gospodara Prstenova je toliko prirodan dok je finalna verzija neumitno sve prisutna, poput izlaska Sunca na istoku.
March 16, 2012
First of all you need to know what this book actually is. It's not explanation of Middle-earth history and it's not expanded universe either. This book deals with Tolkien's manuscripts and shows how LOTR was written.
This book (#6) covers part from beginning of LOTR to Mines of Moria, when Company discovers Balin's tomb, though there are glimpses of future events such as siege of Minas Tirith and destruction of the Ring.
Throughout the book you can see two processes working. One is evolution of characters, something that can be expected in any book. It shows how Hobbits changed names and character, what they said when and to whom etc. Other, IMO far more important, is how LOTR evolved from "The Hobbit" sequel to work we know today. We see how The Ring evolved from simple magic ring Bilbo found in "The Hobbit" to all-powerfull ring of LOTR. We also see how initial characters were slowly molded into characters that fit into broader Tolkien's world and how LOTR slowly began to take place in Tolkien's world, something Tolkien didn't plan in the beginning. This is shown mostly in evolution of elf characters, though Aragorn still doesn't exist (Strider was first called Trotter and was a hobbit).
Another interesting thing about these initial manuscripts is that some parts of them that were later rejected or changed were used in making of LOTR movies (e.g. farmer Maggot being angry and not helpful as in final LOTR version).
Overall, an interesting book if you are interested in thought process that went into writting of LOTR.
This book (#6) covers part from beginning of LOTR to Mines of Moria, when Company discovers Balin's tomb, though there are glimpses of future events such as siege of Minas Tirith and destruction of the Ring.
Throughout the book you can see two processes working. One is evolution of characters, something that can be expected in any book. It shows how Hobbits changed names and character, what they said when and to whom etc. Other, IMO far more important, is how LOTR evolved from "The Hobbit" sequel to work we know today. We see how The Ring evolved from simple magic ring Bilbo found in "The Hobbit" to all-powerfull ring of LOTR. We also see how initial characters were slowly molded into characters that fit into broader Tolkien's world and how LOTR slowly began to take place in Tolkien's world, something Tolkien didn't plan in the beginning. This is shown mostly in evolution of elf characters, though Aragorn still doesn't exist (Strider was first called Trotter and was a hobbit).
Another interesting thing about these initial manuscripts is that some parts of them that were later rejected or changed were used in making of LOTR movies (e.g. farmer Maggot being angry and not helpful as in final LOTR version).
Overall, an interesting book if you are interested in thought process that went into writting of LOTR.
July 2, 2021
Reading these are like watching an author at work, all the various starts and stops and restarts, and the doubts. I remembered things like Bingo Baggins (the precursor of Frodo Baggins) and of course, how could I forget Trotter, the hobbit ranger who later would morph into Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor? There are so many ways this story could have gone differently, from Bilbo being married to Treebeard being evil to the Rohirrim in league with Sauron. There were no Pippin or Merry or Sam, the ring was just a magical trinket, and Tom Bombadil was always a whackadoodle.
It seems so obvious to us now that of course the LOTR couldn't be any other way, but of course it wasn't so obvious to Tolkien when he started writing it. He didn't even know what it would be about, what the conflict would be or who the protagonist would be. And even after the first book of the first volume came to be nearly identical to the published FOTR (barring some minor details here and there), Tolkien then went back and tried to start all over again, returning to rejected starts and ideas. But even when chapters written will be largely rewritten, the main elements were always there, even when he didn't know quite what they meant. Truly, it's a joy to "watch" a genius at work creating a masterpiece.
It seems so obvious to us now that of course the LOTR couldn't be any other way, but of course it wasn't so obvious to Tolkien when he started writing it. He didn't even know what it would be about, what the conflict would be or who the protagonist would be. And even after the first book of the first volume came to be nearly identical to the published FOTR (barring some minor details here and there), Tolkien then went back and tried to start all over again, returning to rejected starts and ideas. But even when chapters written will be largely rewritten, the main elements were always there, even when he didn't know quite what they meant. Truly, it's a joy to "watch" a genius at work creating a masterpiece.
October 6, 2025
“Tom was here before the river or the trees. Tom remembers the first acorn and the first rain drop. He made paths before the big people, and saw the little people arriving. He was here before the kings, and the graves, and the barrow-weights. When the elves passed westward, tom was here already- before the seas were bent. He saw the sun rise in the west, and the moon following, before the new order of days was made. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless- before the dark lord came from outside.”
This one ranks really highly for me.
Mainly because we FINALLY get to meet Tom Bombadil!
Truly an underrated character.
Tom is a real weirdo. Gandalf even thinks so.
I loved that though.
I so wish we got more of him in this series.
Them omitting him from the LOTR movies should actually be a crime. Punishable by law.
I’m calling the police.
Also really interesting to read about the earliest versions of LOTR! And how they differed from the version that the world knows and loves.
This one ranks really highly for me.
Mainly because we FINALLY get to meet Tom Bombadil!
Truly an underrated character.
Tom is a real weirdo. Gandalf even thinks so.
I loved that though.
I so wish we got more of him in this series.
Them omitting him from the LOTR movies should actually be a crime. Punishable by law.
I’m calling the police.
Also really interesting to read about the earliest versions of LOTR! And how they differed from the version that the world knows and loves.
February 19, 2022
2.5 stars [Literary]
(W: 2.4, U: 2, T: 2.6)
Exact rating: 2.33
This, and other Histories of The Lord of the Rings, are merely records of composition and revision by J.R.R. Tolkien, unraveled and edited by his son Christopher Tolkien. It is a progression of these revisions, not an independent or mythical history of LotR. Its use is thus "Limited," reserved for the more devoted fan who wishes to see how the story came about, piece by piece, until it achieved its final form. The Return of the Shadow corresponds roughly to The Fellowship of the Ring.
(W: 2.4, U: 2, T: 2.6)
Exact rating: 2.33
This, and other Histories of The Lord of the Rings, are merely records of composition and revision by J.R.R. Tolkien, unraveled and edited by his son Christopher Tolkien. It is a progression of these revisions, not an independent or mythical history of LotR. Its use is thus "Limited," reserved for the more devoted fan who wishes to see how the story came about, piece by piece, until it achieved its final form. The Return of the Shadow corresponds roughly to The Fellowship of the Ring.
Read
August 8, 2022
χρόνος ανάγνωσης κριτικής: 42 δευτερόλεπτα
Αυτό είναι το εκτενέστερο βιβλίο της σειράς αλλά το πιο απολαυστικό μιας
και έχει να κάνει με την Τρίτη Εποχή και πιο συγκεκριμένα την ιστορία του
Άρχοντα των Δαχτυλιδιών, το αγαπημένο μου βιβλίο.
Αφηγείται τη διαδικασία δημιουργίας του, από τις πρώτες ιδέες μέχρι τα
τελευταία προσχέδια.
Ο Strider λέγεται Trotter και είναι χόμπιτ, ο Frodo ονομάζεται Bingo
και δεν υπάρχει πουθενά ο Sam.
Είναι κάπως περίεργο.
Είναι σαν να παρακολουθείς τη στιγμή της σύλληψης του
αγαπημένου σου προσώπου.
Με άλλα λόγια να βλέπει τους γονείς του να κάνουν
το τέρας με τις δύο πλάτες...
Αλλά το απόλαυσα διότι δεν έχει να κάνει με το Ντόριαθ, τον Φεάνορ
και τους αναθεματισμένους γιους του, ούτε διαβάζω για πολλοστή φορά
για τα Παιδιά του Χούριν.
Υπήρχαν και εδώ επαναλήψεις και οι γνωστές συχνές διακοπές της αφήγησης
από τον Κρίστοφερ για να κάνει σχολιασμό.
Αλλά επειδή το θέμα εδώ ήταν κάτι καινούριο και όχι τα γνωστά των
προηγούμενων τόμων μου ήταν ανεκτό.
Περιττό να πω ότι το βιβλίο αυτό σταμάτησε στον Τάφο του Μπάλιν
στα ορυχεία της Μόρια και ο επόμενος τόμος συνεχίζει από το ίδιο σημείο.
Τόμος που θα διαβάσω αυτό τον μήνα (Αύγουστο).
September 7, 2021
"I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the corner at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothorien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horselords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure, I had never heard of the House of Eorl nor of the Stewards of Gondor. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been reveled to me, and I was mystified as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear on September 22." -J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955
This quote sums up the book well. Tolkien wrote many drafts, especially in the beginning. He wrote of Bilbo's nephew Bingo who sets out with other hobbits. You can see his dedication and begin understanding why his works stand out and endure. He took this task with utmost seriousness, and gave it all he had with passion. The trilogy capped his life-long creation of middle earth as he pulled all the threads from when Eriol traveled through time over the seas to sit upon the rock and hear the tales of Tol Eressea (in his high school book pads) to the final moments of the closing of the third age, when the magic fades over the seas and the life we know as humanity and "reality" began.
This quote sums up the book well. Tolkien wrote many drafts, especially in the beginning. He wrote of Bilbo's nephew Bingo who sets out with other hobbits. You can see his dedication and begin understanding why his works stand out and endure. He took this task with utmost seriousness, and gave it all he had with passion. The trilogy capped his life-long creation of middle earth as he pulled all the threads from when Eriol traveled through time over the seas to sit upon the rock and hear the tales of Tol Eressea (in his high school book pads) to the final moments of the closing of the third age, when the magic fades over the seas and the life we know as humanity and "reality" began.
June 28, 2012
Reading "The History of Middle-earth" books make me think of the commentary and 'special features' on DVD movies. The difference is that the writer/director/producer is dead and so it is all hosted by his son Christopher Tolkien.
"The Return of the Shadow" is so much fun. It contains descriptions of the way Tolkien fumbled his way along as he wrote LTRs. We get to see characters drawn differently, some with different names [So very, very many differnt names]. We see Tolkien discover the story that is so beloved by millions to be probed and uncovered from his designed intention to write a children's book that would be a follow up to "The Hobbit".
Extending the comparison to movie 'special features' a bit further, Christopher Tolkien provides extended cuts and deleted scenes to all of his father's popular published work. To read multiple volumes of Christopher Tolkien's "History" has had a cumulative effect on this reader.
At first, I just wanted to see what was there and I was interested because I have read and reread JRR Tolkien's principle works so many times that I was finally ready to give the "History" a try. I came to appreciate the various versions of stories and poems on their own merit.
Finally, the on going commentary to show the evolution of JRR Tolkien's work has grown on me. Christopher Tolkien has a lot to offer in his description of the various papers he has available to tell his story. He also has personal experiences and memories of living in the household where the papers were written. Sometimes he helped his father with drawing maps or making fair copies of manuscripts or begging his father to keep characters that Tolkien planned to alter or eliminate. Christopher Tolkien stayed in touch with his father's progress even when C. was away fighting in WWII. My point is that Christopher Tolkien has been engaged with his father's work throughout his life in a way that has positioned him to share the story of the evolution of his father's work in a unique way that gives depth to the reader's understanding of all of Tolkien's work.
If you have been rereading "The Lord of the Rings" multiple times then you might want to give this a try for variety.
"The Return of the Shadow" is so much fun. It contains descriptions of the way Tolkien fumbled his way along as he wrote LTRs. We get to see characters drawn differently, some with different names [So very, very many differnt names]. We see Tolkien discover the story that is so beloved by millions to be probed and uncovered from his designed intention to write a children's book that would be a follow up to "The Hobbit".
Extending the comparison to movie 'special features' a bit further, Christopher Tolkien provides extended cuts and deleted scenes to all of his father's popular published work. To read multiple volumes of Christopher Tolkien's "History" has had a cumulative effect on this reader.
At first, I just wanted to see what was there and I was interested because I have read and reread JRR Tolkien's principle works so many times that I was finally ready to give the "History" a try. I came to appreciate the various versions of stories and poems on their own merit.
Finally, the on going commentary to show the evolution of JRR Tolkien's work has grown on me. Christopher Tolkien has a lot to offer in his description of the various papers he has available to tell his story. He also has personal experiences and memories of living in the household where the papers were written. Sometimes he helped his father with drawing maps or making fair copies of manuscripts or begging his father to keep characters that Tolkien planned to alter or eliminate. Christopher Tolkien stayed in touch with his father's progress even when C. was away fighting in WWII. My point is that Christopher Tolkien has been engaged with his father's work throughout his life in a way that has positioned him to share the story of the evolution of his father's work in a unique way that gives depth to the reader's understanding of all of Tolkien's work.
If you have been rereading "The Lord of the Rings" multiple times then you might want to give this a try for variety.
May 3, 2010
So for the longest time I thought these books were just more Middle Earth mythology and/or Christopher Tolkien pimping out his father's name to try to make money off people who will buy anything associated with good ole JRR. But not so! Okay, maybe the part about people who will buy anything associated with Tolkien. But actually this book is awesome. True, it goes into some minutia that not everyone is interested in, but what it's actually about is the writing of Lord of the Rings. For example, it includes the factoid that Aragorn was originally a hobbit named Trotter. And that Frodo was originally named Bingo and Merry was named Marmaduke. The mind boggles. Can you imagine reading about the adventures of Bingo, Marmaduke and Trotter? Because I can't. It sounds like Bored of the Rings (which is bad, by the way, in case you're thinking about reading it). In any case, this book is nice enough but, in my opinion, could use some editing down to a nice one volume summary of interesting points, instead of 4 tomes of laboriously rewritten drafts. Four tomes of laboriously rewritten drafts that I am nonetheless going to read every word of, however.
December 27, 2019
@TolkienKC completed a concurrent group read of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the Shadow with the help of the @tolkienprof seminar as a study aid.
August 28, 2024
"Tre è il numero giusto, ma quattro è di più".
Questo sesto volume della Storia della Terra di mezzo è un grosso calderone contenente tutto ciò che non è entrato ne "Il signore degli anelli": quindi, scopriremo la genesi di Gollum e sapremo chi sono il fattore Maggot, Tom Bombadill e gli spettri dei Tumuli. Ma, soprattutto, vedremo cosa è successo nella Contea dopo la precipitosa sparizione-partenza di Bilbo e Frodo (qui ancora chiamato Bingo).
In pratica, Il ritorno dell'ombra ci mostra le primissime versioni della Compagnia dell'anello poi scartate (con appunti, modifiche, riscritture e cancellazioni a non finire) dal testo canonico di Tolkien che tutti noi conosciamo. Attenzione però: non si tratta di materiale nuovo (anzi) e non spiega nulla di nuovo (anzi)... si tratta di testi (e mappe) che differiscono, anche in maniera radicale, dall'opera vera e propria. Un esempio su tutti: Aragorn, in questo tomo, non è un uomo ma un misterioso hobbit (chiamato a volte Passolesto a volte Passolungo).
[https://lastanzadiantonio.blogspot.co...]
Questo sesto volume della Storia della Terra di mezzo è un grosso calderone contenente tutto ciò che non è entrato ne "Il signore degli anelli": quindi, scopriremo la genesi di Gollum e sapremo chi sono il fattore Maggot, Tom Bombadill e gli spettri dei Tumuli. Ma, soprattutto, vedremo cosa è successo nella Contea dopo la precipitosa sparizione-partenza di Bilbo e Frodo (qui ancora chiamato Bingo).
In pratica, Il ritorno dell'ombra ci mostra le primissime versioni della Compagnia dell'anello poi scartate (con appunti, modifiche, riscritture e cancellazioni a non finire) dal testo canonico di Tolkien che tutti noi conosciamo. Attenzione però: non si tratta di materiale nuovo (anzi) e non spiega nulla di nuovo (anzi)... si tratta di testi (e mappe) che differiscono, anche in maniera radicale, dall'opera vera e propria. Un esempio su tutti: Aragorn, in questo tomo, non è un uomo ma un misterioso hobbit (chiamato a volte Passolesto a volte Passolungo).
[https://lastanzadiantonio.blogspot.co...]
May 31, 2019
I’m enjoying The History of Middle-earth in general, but this first volume about the creation of The Lord of the Rings is particularly outstanding. I loved reading of how the book was created, because in a way it’s a story in itself.
Tolkien wasn’t particularly keen on the writing a sequel to The Hobbit, but accepted to do it. He wrote the first chapter three times before he found any traction and in this first volume of the four dedicated to The Lord of the Rings we can read the first three drafts - the later one reaching Moria - that he wrote before braking out for a long time after WWII broke out.
I loved seeing all the evolutions, meeting characters that never made it to the final cut, particularly the hobbit ranger Trotter (who will ultimately evolve into Aragorn), Bingo Baggings who was the main character for the first couple of drafts, though I’ll admit I had a soft spot for taciturn, brooding Frodo Took.
I absolutely loved reading the notes that Tolkien wrote, and which went every time I bit further, as he envision the story and how it evolved. It’s like watching the story take shape under my very eyes. I loved the part of notes where Tolkien explored the nature of the One Ring, because it was like seeing his ideas move, chang and finally find a familiar form. I was excited to see Sam appear for the first time in the second draft. It’s such a different story from the one we know, but also so strangely familiar.
I loved it!
Tolkien wasn’t particularly keen on the writing a sequel to The Hobbit, but accepted to do it. He wrote the first chapter three times before he found any traction and in this first volume of the four dedicated to The Lord of the Rings we can read the first three drafts - the later one reaching Moria - that he wrote before braking out for a long time after WWII broke out.
I loved seeing all the evolutions, meeting characters that never made it to the final cut, particularly the hobbit ranger Trotter (who will ultimately evolve into Aragorn), Bingo Baggings who was the main character for the first couple of drafts, though I’ll admit I had a soft spot for taciturn, brooding Frodo Took.
I absolutely loved reading the notes that Tolkien wrote, and which went every time I bit further, as he envision the story and how it evolved. It’s like watching the story take shape under my very eyes. I loved the part of notes where Tolkien explored the nature of the One Ring, because it was like seeing his ideas move, chang and finally find a familiar form. I was excited to see Sam appear for the first time in the second draft. It’s such a different story from the one we know, but also so strangely familiar.
I loved it!
August 27, 2025
This is the sixth volume of The History of Middle-earth, and the first one that deals with early drafts of The Lord of the Rings. This covers Tolkien's very first attempts at making a sequel to The Hobbit. There are long passages of uninterrupted drafts and they are so fun to read. Many people may know already that Frodo's name in the early drafts was Bingo, and the character that became Strider was originally a Hobbit named Trotter because he had wooden shoes. But there are lots of other fun nuggets, and it's interesting to see what wording sticks through all the versions. This goes up to the fellowship arriving at Balin's tomb in Moria (at this draft, the company is Gandalf, a bunch of hobbits, and Boromir!). Christopher Tolkien did so much work to research, organize, and edit his father's writings. I think this was the most "fun" reading experience yet in my journey through The History of Middle-earth.
September 12, 2017
ENGLISH: The problem with this book is that it is very difficult to follow, for it tells about many different versions of the first 16 chapters of "The Fellowship of the King" that J.R.R.Tolkien wrote in 1938-40. Not only are there up to six different versions of the first chapters, but each version is corrected once and again with ink of different colors, and Christopher tells us all about it, muddling the issue:-)
Although I have always read "The Lord of the Rings" in English, I have read this book by Christopher in its Spanish translation, and found out that I don't like the names used by the translators in these two books, both for people and for places. For instance: what is the justification of translating "Woodhall" (a city of the hobbits) as "Casa del Bosque"? If Oxford would appear in a book, would any translator into Spanish convert it into "Vado el Buey"? Not even Google Translator does that :-)
Another example: "Treebeard" has been translated as "Bárbol". I think "Barbárbol" would have been much better, for it keeps the structure of the English name, which "Bárbol" does not.
===========
SPANISH: El problema con este libro es que es muy difícil de seguir, ya que se refiere a muchas versiones diferentes de los primeros 16 capítulos de "The Fellowship of the King", que J.R.R.Tolkien escribió en 1938-40. No sólo hay hasta seis versiones diferentes de los primeros capítulos, sino que cada versión se corrige una y otra vez con tinta de diferentes colores, y Christopher nos lo cuenta todo, haciendo su texto confuso :-)
Aunque siempre he leído "El Señor de los Anillos" en inglés, he leído este libro de Christopher en su traducción al español, y descubrí que no me gustan los nombres usados por los traductores de estos dos libros, tanto para las personas como para los lugares. Por ejemplo: ¿cómo se justifica traducir "Woodhall" (una ciudad de hobbits) como "Casa del Bosque"? Si Oxford apareciera en un libro, ¿qué traductor en español lo convertiría en "Vado el Buey"? Ni siquiera Google Translator lo hace :-)
Otro ejemplo: "Treebeard" ha sido traducido como "Bárbol". Creo que "Barbárbol" habría sido mucho mejor, ya que mantiene la estructura del nombre inglés, cosa que "Bárbol" no consigue.
Although I have always read "The Lord of the Rings" in English, I have read this book by Christopher in its Spanish translation, and found out that I don't like the names used by the translators in these two books, both for people and for places. For instance: what is the justification of translating "Woodhall" (a city of the hobbits) as "Casa del Bosque"? If Oxford would appear in a book, would any translator into Spanish convert it into "Vado el Buey"? Not even Google Translator does that :-)
Another example: "Treebeard" has been translated as "Bárbol". I think "Barbárbol" would have been much better, for it keeps the structure of the English name, which "Bárbol" does not.
===========
SPANISH: El problema con este libro es que es muy difícil de seguir, ya que se refiere a muchas versiones diferentes de los primeros 16 capítulos de "The Fellowship of the King", que J.R.R.Tolkien escribió en 1938-40. No sólo hay hasta seis versiones diferentes de los primeros capítulos, sino que cada versión se corrige una y otra vez con tinta de diferentes colores, y Christopher nos lo cuenta todo, haciendo su texto confuso :-)
Aunque siempre he leído "El Señor de los Anillos" en inglés, he leído este libro de Christopher en su traducción al español, y descubrí que no me gustan los nombres usados por los traductores de estos dos libros, tanto para las personas como para los lugares. Por ejemplo: ¿cómo se justifica traducir "Woodhall" (una ciudad de hobbits) como "Casa del Bosque"? Si Oxford apareciera en un libro, ¿qué traductor en español lo convertiría en "Vado el Buey"? Ni siquiera Google Translator lo hace :-)
Otro ejemplo: "Treebeard" ha sido traducido como "Bárbol". Creo que "Barbárbol" habría sido mucho mejor, ya que mantiene la estructura del nombre inglés, cosa que "Bárbol" no consigue.
April 15, 2017
Re-read this for the brilliant Signum University Mythgard Academy Return of the Shadow course with Professor Corey Olsen. Gained so many insights from this close re-read on Tolkien's development of his new Hobbit - including the persistent character of Odo, the fact that Aragorn was first supposed to be the name of a horse and Tolkien originally planned to have a Black Rider not a Balrog fight Gandalf in Moria. Most interesting, which was a brilliant part of the course, was charting how Tolkien slowly started bringing in his unique mythology into this new narrative to create historic depth and rootedness. Looking forward to exploration of the new volume The Treason of Isengard later this summer.
March 14, 2019
Yippee! Finally the story reached the Lord of the Rings. My favourite book from the History-series.
March 21, 2019
Thank you, Christopher Tolkien. This book consists of an edited collection of the first manuscripts for The Lord of the Rings, and it is probably the kind of book that is more useful than all the new interpretations of Tolkien out there. Tolkien was truly blessed in a son who cared about his father's work and had a first-rate historian's mind such that he could so ably curate and organize it for the public.
Of course this means that such a work is largely boring and not nearly as exciting as it sounds on paper, but there are some real gems that are of particular interest to me as a lover of Tolkien. If you want to write essays about this stuff, you had better read it and the following. However, if you just like Tolkien and want to know what's in here, read on.
So, first, one thing that I found intensely telling was that none of the edits that Tolkien makes are explicitly on the basis of symbolism or any other codes left for sharp critics. I think this is significant, because I predict that literary critics will soon turn their chops to making Lord of the Rings (like Shakespeare and many other works of fiction) into nothing more than a bunch of ideas cleverly disguised as symbols, as decoded from the story. I think this will happen because people have overprotected Tolkien from this by over-emphasizing his aversion to allegory, when in fact it's as clear as day that Tolkien included what we could call symbolism: for instance, Frodo and the company leave on their journey on December 25th and the ring is destroyed on March 25th, which fits Easter. But there's no sign of that here, and so the critics should not make their interpretations idea-centric.
Now that that's out of the way, here's what's important to know. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings in phases, getting stuck several times and going back and starting over. Some people have said he worked at the speed of a coral insect and was a perfectionist. It's a bit true, but it's also not surprising to me that so much of book 1 seems to be cut more from the cloth of The Hobbit. The proof of this is that, though Tolkien regularly started writing over again and again, it truly is remarkable how similar to the final product each draft is, despite the huge changes. Not all the inconsistencies are removed: for instance, six ponies mysteriously leave Crickhollow with Frodo and company, and this is a straight-up continuity error, because there was another hobbit that was supposed to be with them. Other more subtle things would include the sniffing of the black riders, which Pippin thinks is important. In older drafts, it was because black riders could smell their way to Frodo when he had the ring on. This also came from the stage in which Frodo more readily put on the ring. More importantly, this explains to me why the black riders flee when Gildor and the elves arrive. It makes sense, kinda, but it's jarring and just barely doesn't spoil the book because we as the readers are still getting used to the feel of the world. By the time Tolkien revised the final version, he knew who the black riders were; but at earlier stages he did not, and a lot of the feel of the earlier stages carries over.
Finally, here's an outline of the different stages:
Stage 1: Bilbo gives a party and disappears declaring that he's going off to get married. Frodo's personality is not at all decided upon, neither is his quest or his relationship to Bilbo. He goes by the name Bingo in this stage, and has a company of companions, none of whom has a particularly distinct personality. Gandalf does not play the role of investigator or mentor at this point. He's more off in the distance and gradually re-enters the story. Indeed, the most recognizable character at this point is Tom Bombadil, whose story comes in pretty quickly. The ring's malevolence, though it does evolve, is remarkably early. In this early stage, Strider is not a man, but a hobbit with wooden shoes called Trotter. Again, he shares a lot of the dialogue of the final character, but the whole effect is very different, since he's more on the hobbits' level.
Stage 2:
Tolkien goes back and has more of the backstory of the ring in place. Farmer Maggot briefly becomes very fierce: Tolkien toys with making him a man who would readily kill Frodo (Bingo) if he found him trespassing again, even after twenty years. Frodo even plays a trick on the wild hobbit by lifting a mug and shouting warnings while wearing the ring. Sam arrives practically fully formed at this stage, as does Merry, though his personality is less distinct. Another hobbit called Odo precedes Pippin in all but name.
Stage 3:
In this stage, Tolkien finally fixes on the name Frodo. Trotter is still here and even continues to be a hobbit as far as Moria, where he looks quite small next to Boromir. Tolkien decides to make him a hobbit child that got too into Bilbo and ran away from home only to get captured and tortured by Sauron, learning experience, but losing his feet! The character was supposed to be named Peregrin Took. The hobbit Odo abandons Frodo outside the Old Forest, as Fatty does, but is picked up by Gandalf who comes riding into Hobbiton on a white horse with a sword. Gandalf then takes Odo to Bree (where he arrives before Frodo!) and then to Rivendell. The original fellowship consists of Frodo, Sam, Folco, Merry, Trotter, and Boromir. Gandalf's fall in Moria is planned, as is his resurrection, right from the beginning. Treebeard is intended to be a wicked giant (though no passages are written about him). Gandalf does not delay at this point, Saruman or no Saruman.
Again, what's hopefully clear from the above is that the story seems to come almost fully formed. There is no location which Tolkien decided to cut, and the events basically happen just the way they happen in the final edition, with a surprisingly small amount of rewrites. This makes perfect sense. If Tolkien had used a word processor, I suspect he would have revised more extensively, but being tied down to the typewriter, I suspect that he wanted to use as much as he thought good. What is remarkable is how much the characters change. Tolkien really does succeed here though: his first glimpse of Frodo in the final version is a wistful and regretful Frodo missing Bilbo, which gives the character the personality we will see go over mountain and under hill over the next few books. Thank goodness Tolkien got rid of Trotter.
Some day I will have to read The Treason of Isenguard, but a quick scan reveals that those portions seem to have evolved more naturalistically so it might be a while before then. In the meantime, I don't recommend this book unless you want to have a deeper interpretation of Tolkien, and even then this might not help.
Of course this means that such a work is largely boring and not nearly as exciting as it sounds on paper, but there are some real gems that are of particular interest to me as a lover of Tolkien. If you want to write essays about this stuff, you had better read it and the following. However, if you just like Tolkien and want to know what's in here, read on.
So, first, one thing that I found intensely telling was that none of the edits that Tolkien makes are explicitly on the basis of symbolism or any other codes left for sharp critics. I think this is significant, because I predict that literary critics will soon turn their chops to making Lord of the Rings (like Shakespeare and many other works of fiction) into nothing more than a bunch of ideas cleverly disguised as symbols, as decoded from the story. I think this will happen because people have overprotected Tolkien from this by over-emphasizing his aversion to allegory, when in fact it's as clear as day that Tolkien included what we could call symbolism: for instance, Frodo and the company leave on their journey on December 25th and the ring is destroyed on March 25th, which fits Easter. But there's no sign of that here, and so the critics should not make their interpretations idea-centric.
Now that that's out of the way, here's what's important to know. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings in phases, getting stuck several times and going back and starting over. Some people have said he worked at the speed of a coral insect and was a perfectionist. It's a bit true, but it's also not surprising to me that so much of book 1 seems to be cut more from the cloth of The Hobbit. The proof of this is that, though Tolkien regularly started writing over again and again, it truly is remarkable how similar to the final product each draft is, despite the huge changes. Not all the inconsistencies are removed: for instance, six ponies mysteriously leave Crickhollow with Frodo and company, and this is a straight-up continuity error, because there was another hobbit that was supposed to be with them. Other more subtle things would include the sniffing of the black riders, which Pippin thinks is important. In older drafts, it was because black riders could smell their way to Frodo when he had the ring on. This also came from the stage in which Frodo more readily put on the ring. More importantly, this explains to me why the black riders flee when Gildor and the elves arrive. It makes sense, kinda, but it's jarring and just barely doesn't spoil the book because we as the readers are still getting used to the feel of the world. By the time Tolkien revised the final version, he knew who the black riders were; but at earlier stages he did not, and a lot of the feel of the earlier stages carries over.
Finally, here's an outline of the different stages:
Stage 1: Bilbo gives a party and disappears declaring that he's going off to get married. Frodo's personality is not at all decided upon, neither is his quest or his relationship to Bilbo. He goes by the name Bingo in this stage, and has a company of companions, none of whom has a particularly distinct personality. Gandalf does not play the role of investigator or mentor at this point. He's more off in the distance and gradually re-enters the story. Indeed, the most recognizable character at this point is Tom Bombadil, whose story comes in pretty quickly. The ring's malevolence, though it does evolve, is remarkably early. In this early stage, Strider is not a man, but a hobbit with wooden shoes called Trotter. Again, he shares a lot of the dialogue of the final character, but the whole effect is very different, since he's more on the hobbits' level.
Stage 2:
Tolkien goes back and has more of the backstory of the ring in place. Farmer Maggot briefly becomes very fierce: Tolkien toys with making him a man who would readily kill Frodo (Bingo) if he found him trespassing again, even after twenty years. Frodo even plays a trick on the wild hobbit by lifting a mug and shouting warnings while wearing the ring. Sam arrives practically fully formed at this stage, as does Merry, though his personality is less distinct. Another hobbit called Odo precedes Pippin in all but name.
Stage 3:
In this stage, Tolkien finally fixes on the name Frodo. Trotter is still here and even continues to be a hobbit as far as Moria, where he looks quite small next to Boromir. Tolkien decides to make him a hobbit child that got too into Bilbo and ran away from home only to get captured and tortured by Sauron, learning experience, but losing his feet! The character was supposed to be named Peregrin Took. The hobbit Odo abandons Frodo outside the Old Forest, as Fatty does, but is picked up by Gandalf who comes riding into Hobbiton on a white horse with a sword. Gandalf then takes Odo to Bree (where he arrives before Frodo!) and then to Rivendell. The original fellowship consists of Frodo, Sam, Folco, Merry, Trotter, and Boromir. Gandalf's fall in Moria is planned, as is his resurrection, right from the beginning. Treebeard is intended to be a wicked giant (though no passages are written about him). Gandalf does not delay at this point, Saruman or no Saruman.
Again, what's hopefully clear from the above is that the story seems to come almost fully formed. There is no location which Tolkien decided to cut, and the events basically happen just the way they happen in the final edition, with a surprisingly small amount of rewrites. This makes perfect sense. If Tolkien had used a word processor, I suspect he would have revised more extensively, but being tied down to the typewriter, I suspect that he wanted to use as much as he thought good. What is remarkable is how much the characters change. Tolkien really does succeed here though: his first glimpse of Frodo in the final version is a wistful and regretful Frodo missing Bilbo, which gives the character the personality we will see go over mountain and under hill over the next few books. Thank goodness Tolkien got rid of Trotter.
Some day I will have to read The Treason of Isenguard, but a quick scan reveals that those portions seem to have evolved more naturalistically so it might be a while before then. In the meantime, I don't recommend this book unless you want to have a deeper interpretation of Tolkien, and even then this might not help.
March 16, 2023
A Középfölde históriája-sorozat legolvasmányosabb darabja (eddig). Nem tudtam, hogy mire számítsak, pontosabban az előző kötetekből ismerős erősen töredékes, szerkesztői megjegyzésekkel és fejezet végi jegyzetekkel sűrűn megszakított korpusz befogadására készültem. Ehhez képest bár alaposan jegyzetelt, de hosszú oldalakon át megszakítás nélküli és nagyon "kész" érzésű szövegek adják a könyv javát, a bemutatott vázlatok pedig szintén roppant érdekesek. A kéziratok olvashatóságára (olvashatatlanságára), a számtalan javítására, kihúzásra, átírásra utaló megjegyzések Christopher Tolkientől ugyancsak hallatlan izgalmasak, talán minden korábbinál inkább az az ember érzése, hogy belelát Tolkien alkotói folyamatába (például hogy néha olyan gyorsan ír, hogy nem csak nehezen olvasható a kézírása, de ki se húzza az elvetett szavakat).
Meglepő, mennyire a véglegeshez hasonlító, de attól fontos kérdésekben eltérő, mégis kidolgozott szövegvariációkkal indul A Gyűrűk Ura cselekménye - eleinte Frodó helyett Bilbó fia, Bingó indul el egész más nevet viselő barátaival; Bríben egy Kótogi nevű, facipős hobbit kószával találkoznak, aki azonban tulajdonságaiban már nagyon emlékeztet Aragornra; a Gyűrű eleinte még nem Egy, csak egy a sokból (tényleg sokból!); a Fekete Lovasok apróbbak, és folyton változik a számuk; az meg legyen meglepetés, hogyan jelenik meg először "az óriás" Szilszakáll!
Külön említést érdemel a néhány képes illusztráció, a térképek mellett még sokkal érdekesebb kéziratlapokat látni Tolkien gyönyörű, kalligrafikus betűivel és tündeírásával.
Chirstopher Tolkien minden elismerést megérdemel, hogy ilyen hihetetlen precizitással összeszerkesztette ezt a kötetet (is), de hatalmas dicséret jár a fordítónak, a szerkesztőnek, a szaklektornak és a névjegyzék összeállítóinak is. Igazán figyelemreméltó, Tolkien-rajongóknak kötelező könyv. (Talán még jobb lett volna, ha frissebb az élményem az eredeti könyvről.) Az is igaz viszont, hogy A Gyűrűk Ura iránt csak mérsékelten vagy egyáltalán nem érdeklődőknek egyáltalán nem ajánlanám olvasásra.
Szerencsések vagyunk, hogy ez a könyv megjelenhetett Magyarországon, méghozzá ennyire gondos kivitelezésben. Alig várom a következő kötetet!
Meglepő, mennyire a véglegeshez hasonlító, de attól fontos kérdésekben eltérő, mégis kidolgozott szövegvariációkkal indul A Gyűrűk Ura cselekménye - eleinte Frodó helyett Bilbó fia, Bingó indul el egész más nevet viselő barátaival; Bríben egy Kótogi nevű, facipős hobbit kószával találkoznak, aki azonban tulajdonságaiban már nagyon emlékeztet Aragornra; a Gyűrű eleinte még nem Egy, csak egy a sokból (tényleg sokból!); a Fekete Lovasok apróbbak, és folyton változik a számuk; az meg legyen meglepetés, hogyan jelenik meg először "az óriás" Szilszakáll!
Külön említést érdemel a néhány képes illusztráció, a térképek mellett még sokkal érdekesebb kéziratlapokat látni Tolkien gyönyörű, kalligrafikus betűivel és tündeírásával.
Chirstopher Tolkien minden elismerést megérdemel, hogy ilyen hihetetlen precizitással összeszerkesztette ezt a kötetet (is), de hatalmas dicséret jár a fordítónak, a szerkesztőnek, a szaklektornak és a névjegyzék összeállítóinak is. Igazán figyelemreméltó, Tolkien-rajongóknak kötelező könyv. (Talán még jobb lett volna, ha frissebb az élményem az eredeti könyvről.) Az is igaz viszont, hogy A Gyűrűk Ura iránt csak mérsékelten vagy egyáltalán nem érdeklődőknek egyáltalán nem ajánlanám olvasásra.
Szerencsések vagyunk, hogy ez a könyv megjelenhetett Magyarországon, méghozzá ennyire gondos kivitelezésben. Alig várom a következő kötetet!
October 22, 2023
I was a bit nervous going into this book because I didn't want my perception of LOTR to be disturbed. But! This proved to be so fun! What a delight to see my favorite writer's early drafts and realize Tolkien, like the rest of us, had to write several drafts before he got to the actual Fellowship version. I cracked up at some points at how wildly different the first drafts were (Farmer Maggot), at how uncomfortably wrong Trotter is, and how long it took to get to Frodo. I enjoyed Christopher sharing how hard it was to read his father's writing and sort out which drafts came first. From the perspective of a writer, this was so encouraging and fascinating to read.
May 18, 2019
It’s amazing how a story you know so well can be so different and inthralling! I still want to know what happened to Odo during his disappearance! And Trotter, I love how that character is changing and merging before our eyes, but as always with Christopher Tolkien’s histories I find myself deeply touched by the care he took to share his father’s writing process with the world, it is both inspiring and insightful.
August 24, 2025
O nie Boromir się już pojawił
February 10, 2017
Exactly what it purports to be - an account of the development of the story that became The Lord of the Rings (going from the early, tentative attempts to create the desired sequel to The Hobbit to the discovery of Balin's tomb in Moria), with early drafts of chapters and fragmented notes. Is it the most fascinating thing ever published? No, but it's not for the general readership, it's for huge Tolkien nerds and scholars, and these people will find it worthwhile. It's fun to see how the story developed, what elements changed and what were present from the very beginning. The only stuff I found boring was the material on the evolution of maps and geography (that has always been a part of Tolkien's work I took less interest in), yet I realize it's an important part of what he was doing.
April 26, 2017
This book is not for everyone. You have to be a Next Level Tolkien Geek to tackle the 12-volume History of Middle Earth. But if you can enjoy seven pages of Christopher Tolkien trying to determine the exact angle of the Loudwater river as it bends toward Rivendell, this is the book for you. And for people who can get past the lore, this is actually a fascinating look at the creative process. It isn't often you get to read the earliest drafts and manuscripts of your favorite books. Going over scraps of Tolkien's notes, you can see exactly where the idea for a certain character or plot point first hit him, or where he finally understood the sheer scale of what he was writing.
November 6, 2015
Super interesante y muy recomendable para los frikis de la Tierra Media!!!
El Review viene más adelante...
El Review viene más adelante...
November 25, 2019
If someone is a would-be writer of a fantasy epic in the same way that J.R.R. Tolkien was, this book is the sort of volume that is likely to give one hope. It can be a bit intimidating for some readers to tackle Tolkien's writing in its finished form, and then to wonder at how much more he could have written had he been a more fluent writer in the same way that his friend C.S. Lewis was. Yet for precisely that reason this book can serve as encouragement to those who have as hard a time as Tolkien did in writing books. This book gives somewhat painstaking evidence of the way that Tolkien began and re-started his novel over and over again, changing the name of his characters multiple times and how they were related to each other and only gradually coming to realize the cosmic importance of the work to the Middle Earth that he had already started to write about in fragments and stories. Given how many times that Tolkien started over and over again and fussed over the relative chronology and character names and back stories, it is remarkable that he managed to write so much at all.
This book is more than 450 pages and is divided into several parts. The first half of the book or so consists of thirteen chapters that give the first pass that Tolkien had for the story, beginning with the party (1), moving along to the initial journey of the hobbits (2), to a discussion of the relationship between Gollum and the ring (3), to Buckland (4), the old forest (5) and meeting Tom Bombadil (6) as well as the barrow-wight (7) and the arrival at Bree (8). There are chapters about the journey to Weathertop (9) and the attack there (10) as well as the trip to the Ford (11), the journey to Rivendell (12), and some queries and alterations up to that point (13). After this comes a second phase where Hobbin is returned to (14), some ancient history is dealt with (15), delays are introduced (16), a shortcut to mushrooms is provided (17), and the journey from Buckland is covered again (18). The third phase then looks at the journey to Bree again (19), what happens at the Prancing Pony Inn (20), the journeys to Weathertop and Rivendell revisited (21), and more uncertainties and projections. The book then ends with a discussion about what happens in the house of Elrond (23), the movement of the ring south (24), and the first pass at the Mines of Moria (25) along with some illustrations.
Admittedly, this sort of book is not an easy one to read if one is looking for a continuous narrative. That said, few people are likely to read a book like this for that purpose, since those who read the book will almost certainly have read the Lord of the Rings one or a few times and are curious as to how it was that Tolkien came up with the story over time and thought and reworking his ideas. Again, the Lord of the Rings did not come fully armed from Tolkien's imagination. The story started out seeming straightforward for him and then it became more complicated and tied into a larger and larger series of myths involving the decline of the Elves and the conflict between cosmic good and evil and earlier eras of history. Of course, Tolkien had a lot in his head and so it makes sense that a ranger would eventually become a king with several different names depending on who he was talking to, or how many of the characters are known by various names depending on who is talking to or about them, and it is interesting to see Treebeard begin as a villain before moving to a more heroic role as a brave and powerful tree.
This book is more than 450 pages and is divided into several parts. The first half of the book or so consists of thirteen chapters that give the first pass that Tolkien had for the story, beginning with the party (1), moving along to the initial journey of the hobbits (2), to a discussion of the relationship between Gollum and the ring (3), to Buckland (4), the old forest (5) and meeting Tom Bombadil (6) as well as the barrow-wight (7) and the arrival at Bree (8). There are chapters about the journey to Weathertop (9) and the attack there (10) as well as the trip to the Ford (11), the journey to Rivendell (12), and some queries and alterations up to that point (13). After this comes a second phase where Hobbin is returned to (14), some ancient history is dealt with (15), delays are introduced (16), a shortcut to mushrooms is provided (17), and the journey from Buckland is covered again (18). The third phase then looks at the journey to Bree again (19), what happens at the Prancing Pony Inn (20), the journeys to Weathertop and Rivendell revisited (21), and more uncertainties and projections. The book then ends with a discussion about what happens in the house of Elrond (23), the movement of the ring south (24), and the first pass at the Mines of Moria (25) along with some illustrations.
Admittedly, this sort of book is not an easy one to read if one is looking for a continuous narrative. That said, few people are likely to read a book like this for that purpose, since those who read the book will almost certainly have read the Lord of the Rings one or a few times and are curious as to how it was that Tolkien came up with the story over time and thought and reworking his ideas. Again, the Lord of the Rings did not come fully armed from Tolkien's imagination. The story started out seeming straightforward for him and then it became more complicated and tied into a larger and larger series of myths involving the decline of the Elves and the conflict between cosmic good and evil and earlier eras of history. Of course, Tolkien had a lot in his head and so it makes sense that a ranger would eventually become a king with several different names depending on who he was talking to, or how many of the characters are known by various names depending on who is talking to or about them, and it is interesting to see Treebeard begin as a villain before moving to a more heroic role as a brave and powerful tree.
August 21, 2025
Jako wierna fanka Władcy Pierścieni na wieść o szóstym tomie Historii Śródziemia od razu poczułam znajomy dreszczyk ekscytacji. Bo wiecie, Powrót Cienia to przecież podróż w sam środek procesu twórczego Tolkiena – moment, kiedy rodziły się pierwsze wersje tego, co później stało się legendą. A ja, z przyjemnością graniczącą z maniakalną ciekawością, zanurkowałam w rękopisy, szkice i mapy, żeby podejrzeć, jak krok po kroku powstawała historia, która wciągnęła mnie w ten wspaniały świat.
Trotter.
Standardowo nie będę Wam streszczać pism i innych historii zawartych w szóstej odsłonie Historii Śródziemia J.R.R. Tolkiena, ale pozostawię tu tylko ich tytuły:
FAZA PIERWSZA
Wstęp
Długo oczekiwana biesiada
Od Hobbitowa do Leśnego Skraju
Gollum i pierścień
Do zagrody Maggota i Jeleniska
Stary Las i Wierzbica
Tom Bombadil
Mogilny Upiór
Przybycie do Bree
Trotter i podróż do Świszczowego Wierchu
Napaść na Świszczowym Wierchu
Od Świszczowego Wierchu do brodu
W Rivendell
Wątpliwości i zmiany
FAZA DRUGA
Powrót do Hobbitowa
Pradawne dzieje
Opóźnienia są niebezpieczni
Skrótem na pieczarki
Znowu z Jeleniska do Wierzbicy
FAZA TRZECIA
Faza trzecia (1):
Podróż do Bree
Faza trzecia (2):
Pod Rozbrykanym Kucykiem
Faza trzecia (3):
Do Świszczowego Wierchu i Rivendell
Nowe wątpliwości i nowe przewidywania
OPOWIEŚCI CIĄG DALSZY
W domu Elronda
Pierścień zmierza na południe
Kopalnie Morii
Ot, pierścionek!
Szósty tom Historii Śródziemia to obowiązkowa lektura dla każdego, kto chce zobaczyć, jak z niewinnej opowiastki o hobbicie wyrasta Władca Pierścieni.
Powrót cienia zabiera nas do momentu, gdy Tolkien dopiero kombinuje, co z tym wszystkim zrobić – pierścień jest jeszcze zwykłą zabawką, Aragorn nosi imię Trotter i jest hobbitem (tak, dobrze czytacie hobbitem ), a Czarni Jeźdźcy dopiero raczkują w mroku.
Całość prowadzi Christopher Tolkien, który krok po kroku pokazuje kolejne wersje rozdziałów, poprawki, skreślenia i nagłe zwroty akcji.
Efekt? Można naprawdę podejrzeć, jak historia rośnie i zmienia się w coś zupełnie innego, niż na początku planowano.
Przyznam, że lubię takie grzebanie w notatkach – człowiek od razu widzi, że nawet arcydzieła zaczynają się od wersji, które nie mają prawa działać… a jednak działają. Plus duży ukłon w stronę Wydawnictwa Zysk i S-ka – tłumaczenie i wydanie robią wrażenie.
Podsumowując: jeśli chcecie nie tylko przeczytać Władcę Pierścieni, ale też zobaczyć, jak krok po kroku się rodził, to właśnie znaleźliście swój literacki wehikuł czasu.
Gorąco polecam!
https://unserious.pl/2025/08/powrot-c...
Trotter.
Standardowo nie będę Wam streszczać pism i innych historii zawartych w szóstej odsłonie Historii Śródziemia J.R.R. Tolkiena, ale pozostawię tu tylko ich tytuły:
FAZA PIERWSZA
Wstęp
Długo oczekiwana biesiada
Od Hobbitowa do Leśnego Skraju
Gollum i pierścień
Do zagrody Maggota i Jeleniska
Stary Las i Wierzbica
Tom Bombadil
Mogilny Upiór
Przybycie do Bree
Trotter i podróż do Świszczowego Wierchu
Napaść na Świszczowym Wierchu
Od Świszczowego Wierchu do brodu
W Rivendell
Wątpliwości i zmiany
FAZA DRUGA
Powrót do Hobbitowa
Pradawne dzieje
Opóźnienia są niebezpieczni
Skrótem na pieczarki
Znowu z Jeleniska do Wierzbicy
FAZA TRZECIA
Faza trzecia (1):
Podróż do Bree
Faza trzecia (2):
Pod Rozbrykanym Kucykiem
Faza trzecia (3):
Do Świszczowego Wierchu i Rivendell
Nowe wątpliwości i nowe przewidywania
OPOWIEŚCI CIĄG DALSZY
W domu Elronda
Pierścień zmierza na południe
Kopalnie Morii
Ot, pierścionek!
Szósty tom Historii Śródziemia to obowiązkowa lektura dla każdego, kto chce zobaczyć, jak z niewinnej opowiastki o hobbicie wyrasta Władca Pierścieni.
Powrót cienia zabiera nas do momentu, gdy Tolkien dopiero kombinuje, co z tym wszystkim zrobić – pierścień jest jeszcze zwykłą zabawką, Aragorn nosi imię Trotter i jest hobbitem (tak, dobrze czytacie hobbitem ), a Czarni Jeźdźcy dopiero raczkują w mroku.
Całość prowadzi Christopher Tolkien, który krok po kroku pokazuje kolejne wersje rozdziałów, poprawki, skreślenia i nagłe zwroty akcji.
Efekt? Można naprawdę podejrzeć, jak historia rośnie i zmienia się w coś zupełnie innego, niż na początku planowano.
Przyznam, że lubię takie grzebanie w notatkach – człowiek od razu widzi, że nawet arcydzieła zaczynają się od wersji, które nie mają prawa działać… a jednak działają. Plus duży ukłon w stronę Wydawnictwa Zysk i S-ka – tłumaczenie i wydanie robią wrażenie.
Podsumowując: jeśli chcecie nie tylko przeczytać Władcę Pierścieni, ale też zobaczyć, jak krok po kroku się rodził, to właśnie znaleźliście swój literacki wehikuł czasu.
Gorąco polecam!
https://unserious.pl/2025/08/powrot-c...
January 13, 2014
“Make return of ring a motive." (41)
The Return of the Shadow, the first volume of Christopher Tolkien's History of the Lord of the Rings series, tells the story of the early development of The Lord of the Rings, taking the narrative from the beginning up to the Mines of Moria. I love how the little penciled note above shows just how uncertain the beginning of The Lord of the Rings was. The story might have gone anywhere, no matter how inevitable it now seems. This is what makes The Fellowship of the Ring my favorite of the three books: the time available for whimsical wanderings, little adventures and events and details that don't really seem connected directly to the big story that emerges. Now I see that this meandering opening is partly a reflection of J.R.R. Tolkien's own gradual realization of where the story was going. It's wonderful.
In hindsight it's also fascinating to see Tolkien struggling with The Lord of the Rings as a sequel to The Hobbit. We're now used to thinking of The Lord of the Rings as the main story, for which The Hobbit is a pleasant introduction but a much different kind of story. Tolkien wrote:
For one thing, [The Hobbit] was never intended to have a sequel – 'Bilbo remained very happy to the end of his days and those were extraordinarily long': a sentence I find an almost insuperable obstacle to a satisfactory link. For another nearly all the 'motives' that I can use were packed into the original book, so that a sequel will appear either 'thinner' or merely repetitional.” (108)
After all that Tolkien had imagined in his mythology, it's hilarious to see him claiming to have used up all his good ideas in The Hobbit.
I'm glad that the main character of The Lord of the Rings did not end up being called Bingo Bolger-Baggins, and the the character who became Strider did not remain as in the original drafts: a Ranger Hobbit called Trotter (because of his wooden shoes—or perhaps even wooden feet!). There are many such little differences between the first drafts and the final publication. (I do wish, however, that Tolkien had used the title The Return of the Shadow rather than The Fellowship of the Ring; in fact, I prefer all of the alternate titles used in the History series.) But as Christopher points out, what's amazing is how much of the narrative reached almost final form after only one or two drafts—and even before major plot elements were imagined. The journey of the Fellowship from Rivendell is remarkably similar to the final book, even though it included five hobbits (not yet quite the four Fellowship hobbits as they would become), Gandalf, and Boromir (who does not have the full depth of characterization he would later achieve). I really like this glimpse into Tolkien's creative process; I'm grateful he rarely threw anything he wrote into the rubbish bin.
This is Volume VI in the History Of Middle-Earth series, and it surprised me in a number of ways. I've found the first five volumes extremely fascinating (I've read a few of them more than once), but they can also be rather tortuous and slow reads. Reading these books involves a lot of flipping back and forth between text and endnote, which can be cumbersome; it's not a linear reading experience. Also, the fine points that interest Christopher are not always what I'm most interested in. For example, Christopher can write pages and pages about the development of Middle-Earth's geography: little place-name changes, minor adjustments of where rivers flowed, and so forth. I'm interested up to a point, but Christopher often goes well beyond that point. In The Return of the Shadow, however, there seemed to be fewer endnotes, and longer sections of uninterrupted original text (and maybe I'm just so used to Christopher's style by now that I don't even notice if it is sometimes unwieldy). I also found that Christopher's annotations focused much more on the major points of the developing narrative. His commentary is helpful and very interesting.
The other surprise was that I'd expected that some knowledge of the first five volumes of the History would be a prerequisite for understanding what is going on in this book. I don't believe that's the case, though. Someone who wanted to learn about only The Lord of the Rings would be fine to start in with this book.
My reviews of the other volumes in The History of the Lord of the Rings series:
July 24, 2023
4-5 csillag között hezitáltam, de az öt talán túlzás lett volna, mert néha tényleg szinte rá kellett vennem magam, hogy olvassam. Masszívan fanoknak szól, de bevallom, amikor letettem, azonnal elkezdett hiányozni. Szuper visszaröppenni a Gyűrű Szövetsége világába, és rendkívül érdekes és izgalmas belelátni Tolkien fejébe, a regény keletkezéstörténetébe, a különböző vázlatokban kibontakozó ötletekbe (akár végül elvetett, akár végül kibontott-megvalósított ötletről van szó).
Ezzel együtt nem könnyű, amikor egy harmadik vázlatot olvasunk már ugyanarról a történetszálról, kiemelve az újabb és újabb változtatásokat - de ezzel együtt is szórakoztató tudott maradni számomra végig a könyv.
Bingó és társai, élükön Kótogi (azaz Frodó és Aragorn, ahogy megismertük őket végül) kalandjai hol még kiforratlanok, hol pedig meglepően sokfelé ágazóan alakultak a végleges formájukba.
A hobbitnevek garmadája szinte elképesztő, már-már hihetetlen volt olvasni, mennyi féle név merült fel - emiatt is le a kalappal a fordító előtt, illetve a Magyar Tolkien Társaság és a kiadó előtt. Nagyszabású sorozat izgalmas darabja - a legelhivatottabb rajongóknak.
Ezzel együtt nem könnyű, amikor egy harmadik vázlatot olvasunk már ugyanarról a történetszálról, kiemelve az újabb és újabb változtatásokat - de ezzel együtt is szórakoztató tudott maradni számomra végig a könyv.
Bingó és társai, élükön Kótogi (azaz Frodó és Aragorn, ahogy megismertük őket végül) kalandjai hol még kiforratlanok, hol pedig meglepően sokfelé ágazóan alakultak a végleges formájukba.
A hobbitnevek garmadája szinte elképesztő, már-már hihetetlen volt olvasni, mennyi féle név merült fel - emiatt is le a kalappal a fordító előtt, illetve a Magyar Tolkien Társaság és a kiadó előtt. Nagyszabású sorozat izgalmas darabja - a legelhivatottabb rajongóknak.
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