J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Return of the Shadow
The History of
The Lord of the Rings
PART ONE
Christopher Tolkien
HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SEI 9GF
This edition 2015
1
First published in Great Britain by Unwin Hyman 1988
Copyright © The Tolkien Estate Limited and C.R. Tolkien 1988
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Source ISBN: 9780261102248
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2019 ISBN: 9780007348237
Version: 2019-12-09
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To
RAYNER UNWIN
I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil 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 had 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 Horselords 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 of 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.
J. R. R. Tolkien, in a letter to
W. H. Auden, 7 June 1955
CONTENTS
II FROM HOBBITON TO THE WOODY END
IV TO MAGGOT’S FARM AND BUCKLAND
V THE OLD FOREST AND THE WITHYWINDLE
IX TROTTER AND THE JOURNEY TO WEATHERTOP
XI FROM WEATHERTOP TO THE FORD
XIII ‘QUERIES AND ALTERATIONS’