The Lord of the Rings Sequel that Never Was

Tolkien gave up on the sequel after he caught himself writing the line, "Somehow, Sauron has returned."

Tolkien starting to write the edgy sequel that basically makes the original pointless: "Nah this is cringe"

Fear not: New Line Cinema will make a nine-hour trilogy out of that thirteen page manuscript eventually.

The reading of the first chapter that Jess gives us made me think of the adage, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it". The children who want to play 'orc' are unaware of the true horribleness of the War of the Ring because one who lives in a time of peace and plenty cannot know such horrors. Instead they see the orcs as powerful and free; they are not constrained to follow the rules; they can do what they want. The children don't destroy the fruit because they want people to starve or they want vengeance against the owner of the orchard. They simply want to act without constraint. Such behavior is all too common in the real world. I have witnessed this sort of destruction all throughout my life.

The story of this sequel concept and why it was never finished is legitimately fascinating, but can we appreciate for a moment the hilarity of Tolkien basically predicting Game of Thrones and going “eh, fuck that noise”

"To trees, all men are orcs" is still a pretty good thing to keep in mind. You know, generally speaking.

I think Tolkien gives his answer in Letter 256. "I could have written a "thriller"....but it would have been just that. Not worth doing." Tolkien clearly loved the craft and art of story telling and wanted to tell the types of stories he loved to hear. If he had wanted to tell a "thriller" I'm sure it would have been a masterpiece of that form, but by his own words his heart wouldn't have been in it so it wouldn't have been worth doing. Still I would love to read a thriller by such a master story teller.

Ever since I read this as a younger teen, I was CONVINCED this was going to be a cult trying to bring Morgoth back through the Door of Night from the Void, and I still am to this day. Kinda wish he had written it! It seemed like a setup for a grim beginning to a tale that would end more hopefully, which in our grim times would've been a welcome text to turn to for Tolkien's idea of a path out of the worst threat of darkness to hard won victory.

"Kids are playing Orcs without realizing the atrocities the Orcs committed" hits a little close to home...

The example of the unripe apples is a memory Saint Augustine recalls in The Confessions, when he was a youth, about the misguided delight to commit mischief (sin) in a group; how despite Augustine having delicious pears at home, still he and his friends enjoyed stealing still unripe pears that didn't belong to them from another person's orchard.

I think it says so much about Tolkien when you see what he attempted to write in earnest and what he abandoned quickly. When a fan asked him if there was more Black Speech language material he said that he did not attempt to make more because it was dark and sinister and made him uneasy. Its very evident that he was a man who believed he should inject more good than bad into the world. He also had such a strong emotional connection to his writing that it seems like hes channeling some strange energy that affects him deeply.

For some while after Saelon had gone Borlas stood still, covering his eyes and resting his brow against the cool bark of a tree beside the path. As he stood he searched back in his mind to discover how this strange and alarming conversation had begun. What he would do after nightfall he did not yet consider. He had not been in good spirits since the spring, though well enough in body for his age, which burdened him less than his loneliness.(14) Since his son, Berelach,(15) had gone away again in April - he was in the Ships, and now lived mostly near Pelargir where his duty was - Saelon had been most attentive, whenever he was at home. He went much about the lands of late. Borlas was not sure of his business, though he understood that, among other interests, he dealt in timber. He brought news from all over the kingdom to his old friend. Or to his friend's old father; for Berelach had been his constant companion at one time, though they seemed seldom to meet nowadays. 'Yes, that was it,' Borlas said to himself. 'I spoke to Saelon of Pelargir, quoting Berelach. There has been some small disquiet down at the Ethir: a few shipmen have disappeared, and also a small vessel of the Fleet. Nothing much, according to Berelach. '"Peace makes things slack," he said, I remember, in the voice of an under-officer. "Well, they went off on some ploy of their own, I suppose - friends in one of the western havens, perhaps - without leave and without a pilot, and they were drowned. It serves them right. We get too few real sailors these days. Fish are more profitable. But at least all know that the west coasts are not safe for the unskilled." 'That was all. But I spoke of it to Saelon, and asked if he had heard anything of it away south. "Yes," he said, "I did. Few were satisfied with the official view. The men were not unskilled; they were sons of fishermen. And there have been no storms off the coasts for a long time.> As he heard Saelon say this, suddenly Borlas had remembered the other rumours, the rumours that Othrondir (16) had spoken of. It was he who had used the word 'canker'. And then half to himself Borlas had spoken aloud about the Dark Tree. He uncovered his eyes and fondled the shapely trunk of the tree that he had leaned on, looking up at its shadowy leaves against the clear fading sky. A star glinted through the branches. Softly he spoke again, as if to the tree. 'Well, what is to be done now? Clearly Saelon is in it. But is it clear? There was the sound of mockery in his words, and scorn of the ordered life of Men. He would not answer a straight question. The black clothes! And yet - why invite me to go with him? Not to convert old Borlas! Useless. Useless to try: no one would hope to win over a man who remembered the Evil of old, however far off. Useless if one succeeded: old Borlas is of no use any longer as a tool for any hand. Saelon might be trying to play the spy, seeking to find out what lies behind the whispers. Black might be a disguise, or an aid to stealth by night. But again, what could I do to help on any secret or dangerous errand? I should be better out of the way.' With that a cold thought touched Borlas's heart. Put out of the way - was that it? He was to be lured to some place where he could disappear, like the Shipmen? The invitation to go with Saelon had been given only after he had been startled into revealing that he knew of the whispers - had even heard the name. And he had declared his hostility. This thought decided Borlas, and he knew that he was resolved now to stand robed in black at the gate in the first dark of night. He was challenged, and he would accept. He smote his palm against the tree. 'I am not a dotard yet, Neldor,' he said; 'but death is not so far off that I shall lose many good years, if I lose the throw.' He straightened his back and lifted his head, and walked away up the path, slowly but steadily. The thought crossed his mind even as he stepped over the threshold: 'Perhaps I have been preserved so long for this purpose: that one should still live, hale in mind, who remembers what went before the Great Peace. Scent has a long memory. I think I could still smell the old Evil, and know it for what it is.' The door under the porch was open; but the house behind was darkling. There seemed none of the accustomed sounds of evening, only a soft silence, a dead silence. 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. Here, both in A and B, The New Shadow ends, and 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. ..." One thing is certain....that's a HELL of a cliffhanger :) hehehe.....now Tolkien writing a horror type story or thrillers definitely would be something fascinating ;).

The New Shadow is one of Tolkien’s biggest flex’s as a writer in my opinion. This complex and dark tale of conspiracy, mystery, and corruption, that he knows could’ve made a great read, that he then just chooses to set aside cause it’s not a tale he’s interested in telling. It’s like the perfect counter to GRRM’s questions of Aragorn’s tax policy

Tolkien id not embrace a fully duallist approach: Evil is powerful but it is not equal to Good. As Eru makes clear to Melkor all the latter's mischief will in the end be woven into the theme and made to serve the purposes of Good.

I unironically wanna see this book get fully written

The bit about the youths despoiling his orchard remiinds me a of an English short story we read in high school called "the Destructors" in which a gang of boys growing up in the post-blitz London set about methodically destroyed the home of a wealthy businessman that miraculously survived the bombing just out sheer resentment.

A quote from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: “All Bette's stories have happy endings. That's because she knows where to stop.” Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes

A century later, everyone forgot the atrocities that have happened then and their complacency keeps them from seeing that it is about to happen again. Sounds vaguely familiar

As Tolkien put it, there are two evils: there is the Big Evil, the cosmic threat which looms over us but was ultimately defeated and crushed by Jesus Christ; then there are the Little Evils, the darkness that sapience allows, and must be combatted everyday by good men lest it grow like a ravenous plague of weeds and rot. By the blood of Jesus there is life after death, but this world will be inherited by those that come after us, so let us do our part to make the experiences in that journey to God as good as can be.

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