false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166672277m/15351.jpg 15351 5 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. <BR><BR>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. 2963703 1988 The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 6) total:344|5:106|4:117|3:100|2:20|1:1| 344 1339 675 12 4 0 false false Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 06:50:56 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 20:50:55 -0700 2009 The Lord of the Rings. The son's textual examination, editorial notes, observations, and speculations about the elder's compositional process are quite interesting. This is sort of a variorum treatme...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 22 06:39:52 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 15:09:41 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 22 06:39:52 -0700 2008 the Lord of the Rings. I made it through 6 and 7.

I liked seeing how Tolkien's mind worked, at least at first. As an Engli...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Feb 16 11:06:28 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 16 11:06:28 -0800 2008 The History of the Lord of the Rings. I loved this, but I'll tell you right now that this is beyond nerdy, and if you aren't deeply interested in Tolkien and his creative process, it will be beyond boring to you. That said, it's an amazing trove of information on the developmen...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 12:40:36 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 17:24:31 -0700 2009
Even for a Tolkien fanatic like me, the book does get a little dense in places (Middle-Earth geography, dates, some of the footnotes) but those sections are very easy to skip over if y...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Dec 28 00:53:52 -0800 2007 Wed Jul 16 17:08:14 -0700 2008 the lord of the rings "...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jul 16 16:34:32 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 11:20:37 -0700 2009 The Return of the Shadow, follows Tolkien's writing of The Lord of the Rings from the late '30's through the '40's: Hobbiton through Moria. I really en...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 28 19:51:12 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 19:52:53 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 18:40:28 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 20:32:53 -0700 2009
This book goes th...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 25 22:00:07 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 25 22:00:07 -0800 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Oct 04 19:27:35 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 04 19:37:41 -0700 2008 The Lord of the Rings, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 6) by J.R.R. Tolkien (2000)]]> 4 0 false false Thu May 17 11:14:23 -0700 2007 Thu May 17 11:17:49 -0700 2007 The Lord of the Rings. ]]> 5 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jun 14 17:35:02 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 12 21:39:24 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Fri Dec 04 13:54:24 -0800 2009 Fri Dec 04 13:54:24 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Dec 01 13:29:14 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 01 13:29:14 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 30 05:52:15 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 30 05:52:15 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Nov 27 05:51:43 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 27 05:51:43 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Thu Nov 26 11:22:26 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 26 11:22:26 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Tue Nov 24 12:15:04 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 24 12:15:04 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 23 16:55:07 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 23 16:55:07 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Mon Nov 23 01:00:50 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 23 01:00:50 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=15351