The Return of the Shadow

The 6th volume from The History of Middle-earth series is The Return of the Shadow. It marks the first of the next four books which focus on J.R.R. Tolkien's writing of The Lord of the Rings. A beautiful piece of literature but not what Tolkien or his publishers would have ever imagined as the sequel to The Hobbit. Starting with Return these next four books will mark the ups and downs, starts and stops, and surprising findings Tolkien discovered along the way. In some ways Tolkien is very much like the main protagonist, Frodo Baggins, carrying a heavy burden in what many days must have seemed like an impossible task. And like Frodo Tolkien saw his task to completion.

Tolkien in one of his numerous letters has this to say: "...I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombidal 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 Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords 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 the Stewards of Gondor. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as mystified as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear on September 22." (p. 216-217, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien).

The History commentaries put together by Christopher Tolkien obviously focuses on his fathers creation of Middle-earth. A key aspect is trying, as much as possible, to arrange these writings as they were written chronologically. From the earliest Lost Tales written around 1915-1916 through the last writings in the early 1970's. However, there is one rather large omission: the history of the the writing of the hobbit. I cannot recall a reason given as to why Christopher Tolkien did not address this. Perhaps because, when originally written, it was peripherally related to the Middle-earth mythology. However, with the blessing and help of Christopher Tolkien the hobbit history received it's own two volume series by John Rateliff. At some point I'd like to cover that as well.

[Correction] if I had read a bit farther in the introduction of Return of the Shadow my questioned would have been answered--or maybe I did recall but didn't give myself credit. Chrisopher Tolkien expressed his rationale for not covering The Hobbit: it was indeed because it was not, originally, meant to be anything other than a stand alone children's story. As his father wrote in one of his letters (I stumbled on this last night too): Mr. Bilbo Baggins was dragged into my mythology against my will (slightly paraphrased).