The Return of the Shadow: The History of Middle-Earth 6: Book 6

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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). John 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.

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún · The Fall of Arthur · The Story of Kullervo · The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun Version II: Bilbo gives the party and he is 71 years old. Elves, Dwarves, and even Men from Dale arrive at Bag End with goods for the party. Gandalf appears with his fireworks. Bilbo uses his Ring to disappear but only after stepping down so that no one noticed his going. [7] The second volume continues to the meeting with Théoden king of Rohan, and includes the invention and evolution of Lothlórien and Galadriel; plans for Frodo and Sam's progress to Mordor; the invention and evolution of Treebeard, the Ents, and Fangorn; discussions of the original map of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age; and of the evolution of Cirth in an appendix. 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.Three of the titles of the volumes of The History of The Lord of the Rings were also used as book titles for the seven-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Treason of Isengard for Book 3, The War of the Ring for Book 5, and The End of the Third Age for Book 6. The Annotated Hobbit · The History of The Hobbit · The Nature of Middle-earth · The Fall of Númenor The Hobbit (1937) • The Lord of the Rings ( The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings [1954] • The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings [1954] • The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings [1955]) • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book [1962] • The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle [1967] First published in 1988, The Return of the Shadow begins the four-volume subset of the HoME series that is sometimes called The History of the Lord of the Rings, as it encompasses the development of that book. The title for The Return of the Shadow comes from an early potential title for Book 1 of the novel. As part of the HoME series, The Return of the Shadow looks at the earliest drafts and ideas of the story that eventually becomes The Lord of the Rings, tracing the journey of the ring from Hobbiton to Rivendell and down into Moria, ending at Balin’s tomb. 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 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. 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 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.... 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. 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. All of which involves guessing how Putin would respond. The rest of us are oblivious to the scenarios being played out in the White House — let alone in Putin’s head. Yet there is nothing right now more urgent to our fate.

The Road to Middle-earth · The Keys of Middle-earth · The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion · The Return of the Shadow is the first volume of the The History of The Lord of the Rings and the sixth volume of The History of Middle-earth. It is a history of the creation of The Lord of the Rings, a fascinating study of Tolkien's great masterpiece, from its inception to the end of the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring. In the War of the Ring is traced the story of the history at Helm's Deep and the drowning of Isengard by the Ents, then is told of the journey of Frodo with Samwise and Gollum to the Morannon, of the meeting with Faramir and the stairs of Cirith Ungol, of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and of the coming of Aragorn in the fleet of Umbar. Either way, the genie is out of the bottle. Putin has broken a post-Cuba taboo on threatening to go nuclear. That, in itself, puts us in new territory. Without most people being aware of it, the world is entering its most dangerous period since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The majority under the age of 50 have grown up thinking the nuclear spectre is a relic of the last century. In the past few weeks, the prospect of a nuclear exchange has become the most live threat to this century’s peace. Full Book Name: The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, #6)In prior Academy seminars, we have explored the first five volumes in the HoME series, The Book of Lost Tales, Part 1, The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-earth, and The Lost Road. At the end of this next session, we will be halfway through the entire series that describes the history of the writing of J. R. R. Tolkien’s stories about Middle-earth.