LOTR SEQUEL?!

[Galenhir]

I posted a blog entry on mylotro about a book I found called The Beowulf Poet:

http://my.lotro.com/celticrocks/2010/04/10/the-beowulf-poet/

[Earensul]

I briefly replied to your post....
I don't know if "The New Shadow" is what the possible sequel is/was, and was abandoned, or if there are other writings, completed or unfinished, to be compiled by Christopher or another family member that might be what the bio was referring to, but The New Shadow is a compelling piece that leaves the reader hanging in limbo.

For any unfamiliar with it, Tolkien had many writings that never made it to publication until his son Christopher compiled a good deal of it...a part of that was put together into what was called "The History of Middle-earth", a 12-volume work:

V.1 The Book of Lost Tales, art One
V.2 The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two
V.3 The Lays of Beleriand
V.4 The Shaping of Middle-earth: The Quenta, The Ambarkanta, and The Annals
V.5 The Lost Road and Other Writings
V.6 The Return of the Shadow: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part One
V.7 The Treason of Isengard: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part Two
V.8 The War of the Ring: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part Three
V.9 Sauron Defeated: The End of the Third Age, including The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Four
V.10 Morgoth's Ring: The Later Silmarillion, Part One
V.11 The War of the Jewels: The Later Silmarillion, Part Two
V.12 The Peoples of Middle-earth

In Volume 12, Part Four, Unfinished Tales, Chapter 16, "The New Shadow" takes place in the 4th Age, some years after Aragorn has passed away and Anarion is King....the story ends abruptly with the passage...
"...he smelt the old evil and knew it for what it was."
There were some shady characters who were trying to bring back the old ways...described by a character within the story as there being a dark tree having being felled, but still having roots.

Anyway, I haven't been able to collect the whole series, but it would be a good read to have the whole of it to draw upon to have a better insight into what Tolkien created...
Can you all imagine what he could have created had he been able to have a computer instead of an old manual typewriter??

[Turambaril]

Galenswerd wrote:

I posted a blog entry on mylotro about a book I found called The Beowulf Poet: http://my.lotro.com/celticrocks/2010/04/10/the-beowulf-poet/

What a glorious find! and equally brilliant post about it Tolkien did indeed abandon The New Shadow feeling it wouldnt live up to what he had already done--if memory serves correctly, he addresses this in the Letters ed'd by Humphrey Carpenter. But with regard to Beowulf, if you dont have it already get the book: Beowulf and the Critics
http://www.sfsu.edu/~medieval/Volume5/Beowulf.html
It was planned to be a 2 volume set, the first is Tolkien's entire Beowulf Monsters and the Critics essay, which was not published until this volume. The lecture Tolkien gave and the previously published version was based on this material and sat bound in a box for YEARS until Drout was at the Bodlein library and "discovered" it
The 2nd volume was supposed to be Tolkien's translation of Beowulf but Christopher Tolkien stopped it from being published, for reasons cited to me by Drout. One main reason as Christopher Tolkien felt it became "too popular" when the ROTK film came out. Dont understand that logic at all, but thats just the crux of it.
But now Christopher Tolkien has been putting out in the last few years other stories, like Hurin and Sigurd by Tolkien --so perhaps we will see it in publication eventually. But from what I have heard from Drout is that it is the closest to the Anglo Saxon we will ever get.
Now if you want to hear Anglo Saxon come to life in a reading of Beowulf, you MUST get Beowulf Aloud read in its entirety by Tolkien and Anglo Saxon scholar Mike Drout:
http://beowulfaloud.michaeldrout.com/

You can hear samples of it here:
http://fred.wheatonma.edu/wordpressmu/mdrout/category/beowulf-aloud/
This brings it to life as it was spoken in its oral tradition many a year ago, my wife and I feel than any other recording falls short of what Drout has done here.

Cheers!
Anthony

[Meneladan]

IIRC, Tolkien abanoned The New Shadow because it was too depressing. As it more or less would have to be in light of Bede (or was it Nenius') Ages of the Earth(aka Middle-earth) that I believe Tolkien was using. In that schema, we are now in the Sixth Age. Remember too that Tolkien refers to fighting "the long defeat" Until the End, of course, when Morgoth will be bound forever, all will be remade, and the Children of Iluvatar will sit at His feet forever.