Tolkien’s abandoned sequel to ‘The Lord of the Rings’

J.R.R. Tolkien began The Lord of the Rings as a sequel to his smash-hit fantasy novel The Hobbit. The new book soon took on a life of its own, becoming one of the few sequels to surpass its predecessor, showcasing Tolkien’s remarkable talent for inventing languages and fictional histories (what fantasy writers today would call “world-building”). The Lord of the Rings contained more obvious connections and references to what Tolkien considered his true magnum opus: an epic mythology stretching from before the creation of Middle-earth to after the fall of the island realm of Númenor that would be published posthumously as The Silmarillion

Few Middle-earth fans are aware that Tolkien also began work on another book, a sequel to The Lord of the Rings, provisionally titled “The New Shadow.” Tolkien seems to have toyed with the story on and off in his later years but never wrote more than a few pages. A composite of two of these drafts was published by Tolkien’s son, the late Christopher Tolkien, in The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth.

The tale begins in the reign of King Eldarion, the son of Aragorn. A century has passed since the Fall of Sauron and the events of the War of the Ring are now fading from living memory. One of the few in Gondor who remember the Third Age is an old man named Borlas, the younger son of Beregond (Captain of the Guard of Prince Faramir and a friend of the hobbit Peregrin Took).

Borlas sits in his garden by the shores of the River Anduin, within sight of the city of Minas Tirith. He is in conversation with a young man, a neighbor named Saelon. The two become engaged in a philosophical discussion on the nature of evil.

Saelon eventually explains that there is growing unrest and discontent among the people since the death of Aragorn, the Great King Elessar. He asks Borlas if he has heard of a mysterious figure called Herumor. Borlas has indeed heard the name and is startled and disturbed that Saelon also knows of it.

Borlas asks what the followers of Herumor plan to accomplish, but Saelon counters by asking how it was that Borlas came to know about Herumor. The back and forth continues until Saelon offers to reveal more, but on a condition: Borlas must meet him after nightfall, and he must come garbed in black.

Saelon departs and Borlas wonders about the young man’s motives. Is he in league with Herumor? Can he be trusted, or is Borlas being led into a deadly trap? Despite the danger, the old man resolves to discover the truth.

Borlas returns to his house, but it is dark and deathly silent:

“He entered, wondering a little. He called but there was no answer.  He halted in the narrow passage that ran through the house, and it seemed that he was wrapped in a blackness: not a glimmer of twilight of the world outside remained there. Suddenly he smelt it, or so it seemed, though it came as it were from within outwards to the sense: he smelt the old Evil and knew it for what it was.”

With those chilling final words, the reader is left to ponder many unanswered questions. As Christopher Tolkien subsequently noted, “It will never be known what Borlas found in his dark and silent house, nor what part Saelon was playing and what his intentions were.” (The Peoples of Middle-earth, p.418)

“The New Shadow” has a fascinating history. Tolkien wrote at least two slightly different versions of the story sometime in the 1950s. The author explained his intentions for “The New Shadow” and how the story would have developed in a letter from 1964:

“I did begin a story set about 100 years after the Downfall [of Sauron], but it proved both sinister and depressing. Since we are dealing with Men it is inevitable that we should be concerned with the most regrettable feature of their nature: their quick satiety with good. So that the people of Gondor in times of peace, justice, and prosperity would become discontented and restless – while the dynasts descended form Aragorn would become just kings and governors – like Denethor or worse. I found that even so early there was an outcrop of revolutionary plots, about a centre of secret Satanistic religion; while Gondorian boys were playing at being Orcs and going around doing damage. I could have written a ‘thriller’ about the plot and its discovery and overthrow – but it would be just that. Not worth doing.” (Letters no.256)

In another letter, dated in 1972, a little over a year before his death, Tolkien wrote:

“I have written nothing beyond the first few years of the Fourth Age. (Except the beginning of a tale supposed to refer to the end of the reign of Eldarion about 100 years after the death of Aragorn. Then I of course discovered that the King’s Peace would contain no tales worth recounting; and his wars would have little interest after the overthrow of Sauron; but almost certainly a restlessness would appear about then, owing to the (it seems) inevitable boredom of Men with the good: there would be secret societies practicing dark cults and ‘orc cults’ among adolescents.)” (Letters no.338)

Although Tolkien dismissed the story as a “thriller” that was “not worth doing,” I am fascinated by its unrealized potential. I find myself agreeing with Christopher’s assessment: “It would nonetheless have been a very remarkable ‘thriller’ and one may well view its early abandonment with regret.” (The Peoples of Middle-earth, p.418)

What kind of story would “The New Shadow” have been if Tolkien had completed it? We can only speculate. If the evil devised by the enigmatic Herumor was nothing more than a mere human plot, then such a small-scale story would have inevitably disappointed readers. “The New Shadow” would have seemed an unnecessary addendum to the epic story of the Ring. But what was the “old Evil” that Borlas sensed? It brings to mind Gandalf’s words in The Fellowship of the Ring: “Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.” (The Fellowship of the Ring, p.50) Could Tolkien possibly have planned the return of Sauron? (Sauron was, after all, not a mortal creature but a Maia – a lower order of angelic being in Tolkien’s legendarium. Other famous Maiar include Gandalf and the other Wizards, as well as the evil Balrogs). This, however, seems unlikely. Sauron’s return would have felt like a betrayal to readers of The Lord of the Rings, an upending of all the achievements and sacrifices of Frodo and the Fellowship.

Perhaps (and this is nothing more than conjecture on my part) Tolkien meant to bring about the return of an even greater evil to Middle-earth: Sauron’s master, the Dark Lord Morgoth. Morgoth (also known as Melkor) was a Vala, a powerful angelic spirit who, desiring power over Arda (the created universe) fell from grace and introduced evil into Middle-earth. The Silmarillion recounts how after ages of conflict, the other Valar defeated Morgoth and banished him into the Void beyond Arda.

There is one piece of intriguing evidence in The Lord of the Rings itself that hints at the possible future return of Morgoth. In The Return of the King, Gandalf says: “Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” (The Return of the King, p.861)

And yet, despite repeatedly returning to it, Tolkien eventually abandoned “The New Shadow.” He may have thought that the vast and intricate story of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings had reached its natural and proper conclusion with the Downfall of Sauron. Also, it seems clear from his letters on the subject that Tolkien was not interested in pursuing such a “sinister and depressing” tale.

Borlas compares the presence of evil in the hearts of Men to a dark and twisted tree, saying, “Deep indeed run the roots of Evil and the black sap is strong in them. That tree will never be slain. Let men hew it as often as they may, it will thrust up shoots again as soon as they turn aside.” Trees loom large in Tolkien’s legendarium, from the Two Trees of Valinor that once brought light to the world before the creation of the Sun and Moon, to the White Tree of Gondor that represents the family line of the Kings of the West. Of course, the metaphor of evil as a Dark Tree should resonate with Christians. It brings to mind the imagery of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the second and third chapters of Genesis. At the prompting of the Serpent, Adam and Eve eat of the fruit of this tree against God’s command and thus, sin and death enter the world. Of course, as a Catholic, Tolkien believed in the doctrine of Original Sin, so it is not surprising that the theme of human weakness and “satiety with good” should appear in his sub-created world of Middle-earth.

In my opinion, “The New Shadow” is essential reading for die-hard Tolkienians. It also reminds us to always be on guard against becoming complacent. The struggle against evil, sin, and corruption will continue until the coming of the Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or, as they say in Middle-earth, “until the world is renewed.”