Sauron Defeated
| Sauron Defeated | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Editor | Christopher Tolkien |
| Publisher | HarperCollins (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US) |
| Released | 6 January 1992 (UK) 27 October 1992 (US) |
| Format | Hardcover; paperback |
| Pages | 482 |
| ISBN | 0261102400 |
| Preceded by | The War of the Ring (1990) |
| Followed by | Morgoth's Ring (1993) |
Sauron Defeated, published in 1992, is the ninth volume of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume book series, The History of Middle-earth, in which he analyzes the unpublished manuscripts of J.R.R. Tolkien.
A shortened version of it, under the title The End of the Third Age, forms the fourth volume of The History of The Lord of the Rings, which documents the writing process of The Lord of the Rings.
This volume finishes the story and features the rejected Epilogue, in which Sam answers his children's questions. It also includes The Notion Club Papers (a time-travel story related to Númenor), a draft of the Drowning of Anadûnê, and the only extant account of Tolkien's fictional language Adûnaic.
The title The End of the Third Age was the original title for Book 6 of TLotR, later discarded by Tolkien.
Contents[edit | edit source]
- Foreword
- Part One: The End of the Third Age
- I. "The Story of Frodo and Sam in Mordor"
- II. "The Tower of Kirith Ungol"
- III. "The Land of Shadow"
- IV. "Mount Doom"
- V. "The Field of Kormallen"
- VI. "The Steward and the King"
- VII. "Many Partings"
- VIII. "Homeward Bound"
- IX. "The Scouring of the Shire"
- X. "The Grey Havens"
- XI. "The Epilogue"
- Appendix: Drawings of Orthanc and Dunharrow
- Part Two: The Notion Club Papers
- Introduction
- Foreword and List of Members
- The Notion Club Papers Part One
- The Notion Club Papers Part Two
- Major Divergences in Earlier Versions of Part Two
- (i) The earlier versions of Night 66
- (ii) The original version of Lowdham's 'Fragments'
- (iii) The earlier versions of Lowdham's 'Fragments' in Adunaic
- (iv) Earlier versions of Edwin Lowdham's Old English text
- (v) The page preserved from Edwin Lowdham's manuscript written in Númenórean script
- Part Three: The Drowning of Anadûnê
- (i) The third version of The Fall of Númenor
- (ii) The original text of The Drowning of Anadûnê
- (iii) The second text of The Drowning of Anadûnê
- (iv) The final form of The Drowning of Anadûnê
- (v) The theory of the work
- (vi) Lowdham's Report on the Adûnaic Language
- Index
Inscriptions[edit | edit source]
There is an inscription in the Tengwar characters in the first pages of every History of Middle-earth volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book. The inscription in Book IX reads:
- "In this book is traced first the story of the destruction of the One Ring and the Downfall of Sauron at the End of the Third Age. Then follows an account of the intrusion of the Cataclysm of the West into the deliberations of certain scholars of Oxford and the Fall of Sauron named Zigûr in the Drowning of Anadûne."
From the publisher[edit | edit source]
The final part of The History of The Lord of the Rings, an enthralling account of the writing of the Book of the Century which contains many additional scenes and includes the unpublished Epilogue in its entirety.
In the first section of Sauron Defeated Christopher Tolkien completes his fascinating study of The Lord of the Rings. Beginning with Sam’s rescue of Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and giving a very different account of the Scouring of the Shire, this section ends with versions of the hitherto unpublished Epilogue, in which, years after the departure of Bilbo and Frodo from the Grey Havens, Sam attempts to answer his children’s questions.
The second section is an edition of The Notion Club Papers. These mysterious papers, discovered in the early years of the twenty-first century, report the discussions of an Oxford club in the years 1986-7, in which after a number of topics, the centre of interest turns to the legend of Atlantis, the strange communications received by other members of the club from the past, and the violent irruption of the legend into the North-west of Europe.
Publication history and gallery[edit | edit source]
- UK Editions
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- HarperCollins hardcover (1992), pp. 482. ISBN 0261102400
- HarperCollins paperback (1993), ISBN 0261103059 (cover art by Roger Garland)
- 1993 edition 2nd impression (1993) paperback (cover art by John Howe)
- HarperCollins paperback (2002), ISBN 0261103059
- HarperCollins hardcover (2010), ISBN 0007365330
External links[edit | edit source]
- A content guide for this volume at Tolkienbooks.net
| The History of Middle-earth series | |
| i.The Book of Lost Tales: Part One · ii.The Book of Lost Tales: Part Two · iii.The Lays of Beleriand · iv.The Shaping of Middle-earth · v.The Lost Road and Other Writings · vi.The Return of the Shadow · vii.The Treason of Isengard · viii.The War of the Ring · ix.Sauron Defeated · x.Morgoth's Ring · xi.The War of the Jewels · xii.The Peoples of Middle-earth · (Index) | |
