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The History of The Lord of the Rings #4
The End of the Third Age
Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power; the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring – the ring that rules them all – which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as the Ring is entrusted to his care. He must leave his home and make a perilous journey across the realms of Middle-earth to the Crack of Doom, deep inside the territories of the Dark Lord. There he must destroy the Ring forever and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose. Discover the incredible epic journey of Frodo in a celebratory seven-volume boxed set of fantasy classic, The Lord of the Rings.
182 pages, Paperback
First published October 27, 1992
8 people are currently reading
3075 people want to read
About the author
J.R.R. Tolkien
768 books76.9k 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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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 21, 2020
Reason everyone should read this: it includes two versions of an unpublished Epilogue to LOTR that Tolkien wrote but was tragically talked out of including in the published book. It features Sam recounting things to his adorable Hobbit children, and answers lots of questions, and somehow makes the ending WAY LESS BITTERSWEET. <3
Seriously, just read this epilogue thing, even if you don't read the rest of this History of Middle-earth book.
(Also, this section is also collected in a book called Sauron Defeated, which includes an unfinished story Tolkien started which deals with timey-wimey things and it's fabulous too. It's called The Notion Club Papers and I love it.)
Seriously, just read this epilogue thing, even if you don't read the rest of this History of Middle-earth book.
(Also, this section is also collected in a book called Sauron Defeated, which includes an unfinished story Tolkien started which deals with timey-wimey things and it's fabulous too. It's called The Notion Club Papers and I love it.)
September 12, 2021
The final part of the Histories of LOTR covers book VI minus the appendices.
This is the shortest of all the HoME books. According to the foreword, parts of it were removed and placed into later histories so that this focused solely on the end of ROTK. No surprise the chapter that needed the most rewriting was Scouring of the Shire. It was quite surprising to see what Tolkien's original drafts of that chapter were, as they were radically different from what was published. Saruman wasn't even present, at first.
Also surprising was that Trotter didn't get renamed Strider until near the very end - and that Tolkien didn't retain Trotter as one of Aragorn's thousand names like he did most of the other names he tested out over the course of writing this book.
And of course, there's the epilogues. I do agree that it was smart to cut it from the published book, but I'm glad to have it here and to get to see Same living HEA with his wife and family. It's so wholesome and adorable. I do prefer the original draft to the second draft though. Sams's kids are the cutest.
This is the shortest of all the HoME books. According to the foreword, parts of it were removed and placed into later histories so that this focused solely on the end of ROTK. No surprise the chapter that needed the most rewriting was Scouring of the Shire. It was quite surprising to see what Tolkien's original drafts of that chapter were, as they were radically different from what was published. Saruman wasn't even present, at first.
Also surprising was that Trotter didn't get renamed Strider until near the very end - and that Tolkien didn't retain Trotter as one of Aragorn's thousand names like he did most of the other names he tested out over the course of writing this book.
And of course, there's the epilogues. I do agree that it was smart to cut it from the published book, but I'm glad to have it here and to get to see Same living HEA with his wife and family. It's so wholesome and adorable. I do prefer the original draft to the second draft though. Sams's kids are the cutest.
August 18, 2019
This is worth reading just for the '14 years later' extended epilogue of Sam and his children (which is significantly better than the '19 years later' extended epilogue of Harry Potter and his children).
October 27, 2019
The End of the Third Age...and the end of LOTR History I’m sorry to see it end, but very curious to see what’s next as I switch over to Sauron Defeated to see what Christopher Tolkien has in store next.
March 13, 2021
'[Celeborn] knew that Lady Arwen would stay, but that Galadriel would leave him. I think it was very sad for him. And for you, dear Sam-dad.' Her hand felt for his, and his brown hand clasped her slender fingers. 'For your treasure went too.'
I'm sobbing in the club rn.
I'm sobbing in the club rn.
July 21, 2025
What a special book! Reading the rough draft of the ending of LOTR made me cry. Reading the Epilogue for the first time was wonderful. But my favorite part was learning that Rohan gave Frodo and Sam new names: Endurance beyond Hope and Hope Unquenchable. *Sob*
October 23, 2018
This volume brings to a close the story, save only for the Appendices - which are certainly worth reading. The volume starts with Frodo and Sam having just crossed in Mordor and the quest is resolved fairly rapidly, occupying less than half the book. The remainder of the book concerns the last events of the Third Age and the earliest events of the Fourth Age, in which the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire" plays an important part. This chapter essentially brings the story full circle, in that it begins with hobbits and it ends with hobbits.
It had certainly been far too long since I last read Lord of the Rings, and I have enjoyed rereading it immensely.
It had certainly been far too long since I last read Lord of the Rings, and I have enjoyed rereading it immensely.
July 29, 2025
Overall this (in my opinion) is one of the best parts of the series. The parts of Sam and Frodo in Mordor are phenomenal story telling and the way each characters story is wrapped up is incredibly heartwarming. That's not to say this book is without fault as some of the latter parts (after Mordor) do feel a little bogged down with dates and recollections that might be better as short separate stories in the Appendices but it still has so many great parts and quotes in it.
9/10
For a review of the whole series and the Lord of The Rings as a whole, I do believe the films do a wonderful job at "shaving the fat" so you get the quintessential story without the somewhat uneeded and sometimes exhausting or confusing information the books are bogged down with. If you want the story of Lord of The Rings, watch the films they are the definitive way (in my opinion) to enjoy the series. But if you want to delve deep into characters, beautiful (but sometimes overly flowery) writing, and learn a lot about the world Tolkien has crafted, then read the books. Overall the series i give a 7.5/10
9/10
For a review of the whole series and the Lord of The Rings as a whole, I do believe the films do a wonderful job at "shaving the fat" so you get the quintessential story without the somewhat uneeded and sometimes exhausting or confusing information the books are bogged down with. If you want the story of Lord of The Rings, watch the films they are the definitive way (in my opinion) to enjoy the series. But if you want to delve deep into characters, beautiful (but sometimes overly flowery) writing, and learn a lot about the world Tolkien has crafted, then read the books. Overall the series i give a 7.5/10
July 5, 2020
SPOILER: I have never actually read this as a standalone volume, but I appreciate that it exists as one, because in having reread the LotR-volumes of The History of Middle-earth, it is convenient that this book exists, especially as a concept.
The history of Book VI of The Lord of the Rings, it's impressive (after three volumes documenting how atypical this was) that Tolkien was able to set much down with little change between first draft and final draft. The sole exception is "The Scouring the Shire," which had long been anticipated and is fundamental to the book--its lack of appearance in the Peter Jackson movies being among their many crimes.
The epilogue is, as much as something unpublished can be, clearly "canonical" in a way the HoME texts about the LotR rarely are, and worth the price of admission alone--though I think Tolkien was counselled aright to drop it. The ending without it is perfect and diluted with it.
The history of Book VI of The Lord of the Rings, it's impressive (after three volumes documenting how atypical this was) that Tolkien was able to set much down with little change between first draft and final draft. The sole exception is "The Scouring the Shire," which had long been anticipated and is fundamental to the book--its lack of appearance in the Peter Jackson movies being among their many crimes.
The epilogue is, as much as something unpublished can be, clearly "canonical" in a way the HoME texts about the LotR rarely are, and worth the price of admission alone--though I think Tolkien was counselled aright to drop it. The ending without it is perfect and diluted with it.
October 26, 2018
This book brings to a close the presentation of JRR Tolkien’s manuscripts and maps and drawings with which he produced the Lord of the Rings. It includes a charming, but unpublished, Epilogue involving Samwise Gamgee and his children. Since it would have been even more anticlimactic than the Scouring of the Shire already was, it’s probably just as well that it wasn’t published. But the whole series is worth the read for the insights into Tolkien’s original ideas and plans for his epic story.
July 28, 2017
I really loved this book. It retold the ending of the Lord of the Rings series as well as added some bonus epilogues not in the original story. Once again Christopher Tolkien did a wonderful job of explaining how his father J.R.R. Tolkien came up with the story in the notes following each chapter.
September 2, 2019
An outstanding look into the development of the final chapters of J.R.R. Tolkien's Return of the King. There is also the bonus of two versions of an epilogue that the Professor wrote but was talked out of adding to the story (something he later regretted). Excellent read.
August 28, 2023
This is the best of the History of The Lord of the Rings series. It includes new information about what happens after the story we all love. It's still too academic for the average reader to be much interested in it but for those who love Tolkien's world I'd consider it a must read.
August 24, 2019
Good for what's there, but it leaves out The Notion Club papers, which are part of v. 9
February 15, 2023
Sam's story was the best!
March 8, 2023
Tolkien loved Sam as much as I do. That is all.
January 26, 2024
What a treat to read the unpublished epilogue! Well, better go read the Silmarillion again.
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February 5, 2016About a third or a fourth in size of the other three volumes in the History of the Lord of the Rings (probably due to the fact that the material of this book was originally the first third of Sauron Defeated, volume nine in the History of Middle-earth series), this book covers the story between Sam's rescue of Frodo at the tower of Cirith Ungol (originally Kirith Ungol) on the borders of Mordor, and takes the story through to its end, and beyond. Its most interesting chapter covers the writing of an unpublished Epilogue, in which Sam, at work writing in the Red Book of Westmarch, talks to his children about his adventures and what happened to the various characters after the story ended. There are also some fairly interestng deviations in the "Scouring of the Shire" chapter as well. As with the previous three books in this series, anyone interested in Tolkien as a writer will get a lot out of these accounts of his books' history. I certainly enjoyed it, and consider it an essential addition to the Tolkien shelf of my library.
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January 4, 2010SAURON DEFEATED; THE END OF THE THIRD AGE (THE HISTORY OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS PART FOUR): THE NOTION CLUB PAPERS {AND} THE DROWNING OF ANADUNE. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. IX by J.R.R. Tolkien (1992)
May 5, 2015
Satisfying conclusion to my epic nerdy journey through the writing of the Lord of the Rings. Looking at the never-published epilogue was especially interesting. I love Tolkien!!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews