The Return of the Shadow (The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part One).

TOLKIEN, J.R.R.

ISBN 10: 0261102036 / ISBN 13: 9780261102033

Published by London: HarperCollins, 1993

About this Item

FIRST EDITION, SECOND IMPRESSION. Hardcover with dust jacket; octavo (23 x 15 x 4.5 cm.); pp. xii, 497. English text. Bound in publisher's original covers and supplied with the original dust jacket. Condition: VERY GOOD. An excellent tight and clean copy. Some trivial edge wear to dust jacket. Without previous ownership markings.

Seller Inventory # MFR0927

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Return of the Shadow (The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part One).
• Publisher: London: HarperCollins
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0261102036
• ISBN 13: 9780261102033
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • J. R. R. Tolkien
  • Fantasy
  • Fiction

About this title

Synopsis

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 modes: a sinister Treebeard, in league with the Enemy, a ferocious and malevolent Farmer Maggot.

The story in this book ends at the point where J.R.R. Tolkien halted 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.

About the Author

CHRISTOPHER TOLKIEN is the third son of J.R.R. Tolkien. Appointed by Tolkien to be his literary executor, he has devoted himself to the editing and publication of unpublished writings, notably The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The History of Middle-earth.

J.R.R. TOLKIEN (1892–1973) is the creator of Middle-earth and author of such classic and extraordinary works of fiction as The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. His books have been translated into more than fifty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.