SAURON DEFEATED
First published in 1992, by HarperCollins. Volume 9 of The History of Middle-earth series. Volume 4 of The History of The Lord of the Rings series.

Christopher Tolkien's painstaking scholarship continues to impress."

~ Kirkus Review

In the first part of "Sauron Defeated," Christopher Tolkien completes his account of the writing of "The Lord of the Rings," beginning with Sam's rescue of Frodo from the Tower of Kirith Ungol, and giving a very different account of the Scouring of the Shire. This part ends with versions of the previously unpublished "Epilogue," an alternate ending to the masterpiece in which Sam attempts to answer his children's questions years after the departure of Bilbo and Frodo from the Grey Havens.

The second part introduces "The Notion Club Papers," now published for the first time. Written by Tolkien in the interval between "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" (1945-1946), these mysterious Papers, discovered in the early years of the twenty-first century, report the discussions of a literary club in Oxford in the years 1986-1987. Those familiar with the Inklings will see a parallel with the group whose members included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. After a discussion of the possibilities of travel in space and time through the medium of 'true dream,' the story turns to the legend of Atlantis, the strange communications received by members of the club out of remote past, and the violent irruption of the legend into northwestern Europe.

Closely associated with the Papers is a new version of the Númenórean legend, "The Drowning of Anadûnê," which constitutes the third part of the book. At this time the language of the Men of the West, Adunaic, was first devised—Tolkien's fifteenth invented language. The book concludes with an elaborate account of the structure of this language by Arundel Lowdham, a member of the Notion Club, who learned it in his dreams.

"Sauron Defeated" is illustrated with the changing conceptions of the fortress of Kirith Ungol and Mount Doom, previously unpublished drawings of Orthanc and Dunharrow, and fragments of manuscript written in Númenórean script.

PAGE NOTES:

• Learn more about "Sauron Defeated," by reading the 'Wikipedia Entry' for this book.