I don’t think I have too much to say about _The Treason of Isengard_. It is very much, of course, a continuation of the previous HoME volume as we follow Tolkien’s further development of the story of the Lord of the Rings in as near a chronological manner as Christopher Tolkien is able to piece together from the numerous drafts, re-writings, and changes in his father’s text. That is perhaps the first thing to note: throughout the HoME series it has become obvious that Christopher Tolkien really did take on a monumental task in choosing to edit the early works/drafts of his father given the method (or madness?) of Tolkien’s writing process. That is definitely apparent in spades in this volume. Not only was Tolkien an inveterate re-writer, continually going back to the beginning of a previously written text to ‘polish it up’, only to end up re-writing the whole damn thing…usually before he had even finished the first draft of the initial phase, he was also in the habit of erasing and/or overwriting earlier pencil drafts in ink, adding marginal notes throughout, was often working on multiple competing versions of the same plot elements at the same time, and even inserting riders and writing stray notes on any scrap of paper he could find that refer to text on the ‘main’ pages. Truly a dizzying puzzle to try and unravel if one wants to discover a sequential progression in the text.

Some of the major developments to note in this volume:

- Here we see the final change of our friend Trotter the wooden shoe wearing hobbit-ranger to the figure that would eventually become Aragorn, son of Arathorn, heir of Isildur.

- Saruman emerges as a figure in the text (already a traitor), though still in a fairly minor role compared to the one he will occupy later.

- Lothlorien and Galadriel emerge seemingly from nowhere, an important development indeed given the central place Galadriel would come to occupy in Tolkien’s mind (to the point where he would go back and re-write huge segments of the Silmarillion material so she could be included…though that is not even hinted at yet).

- Gandalf is gradually raised in stature from the little old man who happens to be a wizard we saw in the original version of The Hobbit to something much more (though the concept of the Istari is not yet in place).

- Rohan and the society of the Riders developing out of whole cloth with obvious nods to Tolkien’s love of Anglo-Saxon culture and literature (esp. Beowulf) being apparent in their genesis.

- Some fun tidbits: it appears that Gandalf’s fall in Moria and subsequent return were part of the plan from the beginning; since we still have no Arwen the initial plan points to Aragorn falling for Eowyn when he meets her in Theoden’s Golden Hall (great vindication for numerous fan fic writers out there no doubt); Boromir was at first going to be an unremitting traitor who didn’t heroically die at the hands of Orcs while trying to save Merry and Pippin, but who would actually have been a full rival of Aragorn as the two vied for control of Minas Tirith.

Required reading if you have read the preceding volume and want to know how the story further grows and develops, but definitely not the point you want to start with the HoME series.fantasy inklings that-northern-thing ...more14 s Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~1,720 128

Picking up where the last one ended (yet another revision of the chapters up to the Mines of Moria, this goes through yet more revisions and returns to previously abandoned ideas, the most interesting being Hamilcar Bolger, aka Ham, and his adventures first as an abductee of the Nazgul and then as a traveling companion to Gandalf. Just the thought of the Nazgul riding around the countryside with Ham is humorous to me - until you realize that they'd just kill him upon discovering he doesn't have the ring. Tolkien came to the same conclusion and finally cut him from the quest. :( (But he'll survive in Fatty Bolger, as the hobbit who stayed behind.)

It was interesting to see that Tolkien thought he could wrap up this story more quickly than actually happened. His preliminary outline of Frodo and Sam's journey cut right to Cirith Ungol and he clearly had no idea how to get them out of that situation. There's no hint of the passage of the Dead Marshes, and certainly no hint of Faramir. Heck, he just barely came up with Denethor.

Seeing the Rohan side of things was interesting too. Treebeard is finally determined not to be evil, Saruman was theorized to be the balrog for a hot minute, Wormtongue's just a dude in Théoden's court, Théoden momentarily had a daughter who was just as quickly overlooked and discarded, poor thing, among other things. The outlines and discarded ideas and storylines in these histories are a treasure trove for AU fanfics.

Sadly, a lot of the earliest writing of the Rohan chapters was "lost" due to Tolkien's habit during this time to erase the penciled draft and write over it in ink. It was interesting to see things the actual Mariner song that should have been in the published LOTR but was misplaced at the time of submission, and the various little mistakes that never got edited out of the book, and not all of them are easily remedied, such as what exactly was Shadowfax up to between Weathertop/Rivendell and him showing up in Rohan three months later, since it obviously wouldn't have taken him that long to get there. (I decided he found Bill the Pony wandering around after being released outside Moria and escorted him to Bree. :D Before that? I don't know. Probably just enjoying his freedom, lol.)

This ends with the King of the Golden Hall, and a rough outline of the Frodo and Sam chapters up to the escape from Cirith Ungol, and Tolkien realizing he'd need to split the storylines and move Frodo and Sam's half to after everyone else's parts.4-stars fantasy non-fiction ...more10 s Nikola Pavlovic301 48

Sedma knjiga Istorije Srednje Zemlje i druga knjiga koja prati nastajanje Gospodara Prstenova.
Ova knjiga se nastavlja na predhodnu, i veoma je zanimljivo pratiti Tolknov tok misli o idejama vezanim za radnju i svaki karakter ponaosob. Sve je manje vise na vec dobro znanom putu, medjutim alternativne ideje cesto nam daju neke od najzanimljivijih informacija koje ne mozete da nadjete u zavrsnom tekstu Druzine Prstena ili Dve kule, ali veoma realno leliujaju u pozadini. Svakome ko je procitao Gospodara Prstenova bice veoma zanimljivo da se upusti u ovaj, slobodno mogu reci, visi nivo analize najpoznatijeg dela fantastike. 9 s Melissa1,079 76

As always with this series I find Christopher’s dedication and determination to compile all of this immensely interesting and thank him for the hours and hours of work it must have entailed, and the insight to how a great writer crafts his stories is invaluable and sadly with the advent of modern word processing, something we are unly to see laid out in this way ever again.read-20194 s Jon836 252

@TolkienKC completed a concurrent group read of The Treason of Isengard and the fist half of the first book of The Two Towers in September of 2019. Check the Tolkien Society of Kansas City Facebook page for details.epic-fantasy fantasy fiction ...more4 s Brian 421 5

If you want to write fantasy, or if you write and you love Tolkien, you need to read this! This gives an inside look at Tolkien's creative process as he gets beyond the mind-blocks into a creative flow. Christopher Tolkien includes other drafts and ideas that would have turned out a completely different Lord of the Rings. It may be that in an alternate universe somewhere, Sam fought goblins up to the tower, and got so mad at one of them for hitting Frodo he plunged a sword into the vile throat, making him gurgle on his own filthy orc-blood. When they came outside the tower Sam the Conqueror took a few more down.

In these pages many other versions reside!

As we all know, in our universe Tolkien took a different path with Sam and Frodo, two helpless Hobbits in the hand of Providence (Illuvitar, the unseen and unspoken Hero of the story).7 s Neil R. Coulter1,149 143

In my review of the previous volume in Christopher Tolkien's History Of Middle-Earth, I said that it was a quicker, easier read than some of the earlier books in the series. One of the main reasons for this is that the four books that make up The History of the Lord of the Rings--the series-within-a-series--lead to an actual published endpoint. There is a final, definitive Lord of the Rings, and so it's enjoyable to see the early ideas and drafts heading toward the familiar story.The second volume of The History of the Lord of the Rings, The Treason of Isengard, is, however, a slightly more tedious read than The Return of the Shadow. One reason is that the first 189 pages are rewrites of material that was covered in The Return of the Shadow. The developments and changes are more slight--as of course they must be when it's existing material being revised, rather than new writing coming out of nothing. But once the drafts push on beyond the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, it is remarkable how quickly many of the major elements in the final story fall into place. I was especially interested to learn in what order Tolkien wrote the story once the Fellowship breaks apart.Throughout the drafting of what would become The Two Towers, as well as some parts of The Return of the King, the names continue to evolve, though most are well set by this point in the writing. Details are reimagined or reconfigured. And some major elements--such as Arwen--are yet to be devised. It was Tolkien's perspective that he was recording history "as it actually happened," and many times he saw many things fully formed in the initial drafts.Christopher Tolkien is highly intrigued by a couple of areas that don't engage my interest very much, and both areas appear repeatedly in The Treason of Isengard. The first is an interest in the minute details of timing and chronology. Christopher spends a great deal of endnote discussion time figuring out the precise details of which days the events took place. I just don't really care about those details. The other area that Christopher often writes about in the History series is geography. It wasn't a big part of The Return of the Shadow, but in The Treason of Isengard there is an entire chapter on the early maps of Middle-Earth; and though I am interested in Middle-Earth maps, I found myself skimming this chapter and not gleaning much from it.None of this is a problem with the book; just a difference in what fascinates me. The book continues to be an amazing tour of the creation of The Lord of the Rings, and I look forward to getting into the next volume.My of the other volumes in The History of the Lord of the Rings series: The Return of the Shadow The War of the Ring Sauron Defeated fiction non-fiction tolkien3 s Mary CatelliAuthor 52 books189

The continuing analysis of the writing process.

It's not so wide-open as it was in The Return of the Shadow, since the prior story imposed definitely constraints. But he's still sorting out which hobbits have what names, and which ones will go. At one point Elrond firmly puts his foot down on the notion that either Merry or Pippin can go. Sam didn't always go with Frodo after the split up, and sometimes he was the first one to see Gandalf again. Eowyn was considered as a love interest for Aragorn, but only briefly. And her cousin, Theoden's daughter, didn't exist for long. At one point Boromir and Aragorn made it to Minas Tirth together, and Aragorn got chosen as Lord there, to Boromir's jealousy.

Interesting to watch the provisional status of everything fixed in the final version.j-r-r-tolkien lit-crit3 s Mafalda Fernandes285 217

4.5*1989 fave-books movie-tvseries-adaptation ...more2 s Jenna (Falling Letters)709 65

The first part of this one took me awhile to get through because it's mostly rewriting the passages from HoME Vol. 6. I even skipped a chapter about maps...... But by the end of the volume, we're in Rohan and that's one of my favourite parts.2019 tolkien1 Max857 24

Goooood, more the Lord of the Rings history! That's what I signed up for! This reads a lot faster than the previous few.fantasy favourites2 s Elo 665 61

A really good companion if you love Tolkien and want to discover his writing process when he write his masterpiece. If not, I’d advice you to leave this be.

It is really interesting to see many alternative on how the story could have gone. Reading this, you start to understand how much work and thinking Tolkien put into his work.
As a regular Tolkien fan, you know it already but reading here all the alternatives (and yet not all of them are even here) about the story, quotes or the multiple names in several drafts, that Christopher Tolkien presents to us. Many excerpts written in now fading pencil draft, crossed sentences on many supports.

Christopher Tolkien underlines the main differences, with all of his father’s source material at hands, between the drafts and the final version.

You’ll discover that Aragorn had many names, Theoden had a daughter for a little while, an analysis of the evolution of the maps and other tidbits of alternative what-ifs which are really neat to know.

This book is really for people who want to dig even more into Tolkien’s world and love to read more academic oriented works as it’s very complete with many notes.in-english tolkien written-by-men1 Kyriakos SorokkouAuthor 6 books209 Read





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1 Mitch201 9

If the next book opens with yet another return to the Shire, then I will cackle for a full 23 minutes before lighting myself on fire.
Real talk: This was interesting and informative just the last book, but the narrative is starting to resemble the published text more and more with each passing chapter which means it's not nearly as amusing and wild anymore lol. I'd much rather read the final published form. tolkien1 Michael PryorAuthor 144 books190

Insightful, illuminating, fascinating.1 Leah27

Fairly certain the reason that Aragorn has so many names is because Tolkien just couldn't pick one.owned1 Emily93 5

Love love loved this! It was covering Tolkien’s notes and background while he was writing the LOTR series. It’s so incredible to see the work he put into them.1 BrianAuthor 14 books119

Another collection of manuscripts showing the development of The Lord of the Rings, which proved just as helpful to me in understanding the mind of this highly influential author. Again, this is only for the die-hards but there's a lot of people who fit that category, and I predict soon that we'll get lots of interpretations of Tolkien that will be absolute bunk, so let's note some stuff.

First off, I noticed that the way Tolkien writes, it is as though he thought of it as his duty not to invent the world of Middle Earth so much as to discover it. This is one of the reasons the book has such weight: it feels Tolkien thought the world had to be a certain way, whether he wanted it to be that way or not, and that has a huge impact. It certainly makes things weird, but I think it explains the uncompromising nature of the project.

Second, the most fascinating thing about this book is the fact that Tolkien clearly didn't know where he was going. While many people highlight his perfectionism, pointing out that he wouldn't just copy and paste, and would always start over, this is only half the truth: Tolkien really did lean heavily on what he had already written and that's evident here. Some of the funnest portions are the bits where, after having decided that Boromir should try to take the ring from Frodo, he ponders (in the manuscripts) completely different outcomes. This shows that Tolkien was not at all sure where things would go, and thus any interpretation of the book that presupposes some grand platonic scheme in Tolkien's mind before he wrote the books must be discounted. It also shows, in my opinion, that Tolkien was more plot centered than character centered.

Here's some of the juiciest bits: before they got to Lothlorien, Tolkien intended for Sam to find Gollum and enlist his help in finding the fleeing Frodo. At that point Gollum leads them to Mordor where black riders arrive, turned into demonic eagles. Frodo and Sam reach the crack, Gollum takes the ring, but Sam grabs Gollum and dies with him in the gulf. The idea of multiple spiders is also thought of at this point, as is the idea of Sam temporarily bearing the ring. Also, when the ring is destroyed, wouldn't this have been cool: "Frodo standing on side of Fire Mountain holds up sword. He now commands Ringwraiths and bids them be gone. They fall to earth and vanish wisps of smoke with a terrible wail." (210). At the same time, Merry and Pippin meet Fangorn (no orc attack), Legolas and Gimli get lost and are captured by Saruman, and Aragorn and Boromir go to Minas Tirith and when Denethor is killed, the men elect Aragorn, forcing Boromir to go to Saruman for help. In some versions of this, Legolas and Gimli lose heart and head north, only to meet Gandalf. Gandalf used mithril to escape Moria. Saruman AND Sauron attack Minas Tirith at the same time, and Treebeard breaks the siege of Minas Tirith. Tolkien even speculates on killing Boromir (through Aragorn) Pippin! Saruman is dressed in a mud-colored robe and told to beg for a day's digging.

At this point, Lothlorien is written, and at one point Galadriel and Celeborne have white hair. Frodo, I think, sees the vision at first alone, and then Sam is added. Gimli gets a green stone from Galadriel, rather than Aragorn! However, the story is otherwise the same as in the final version. After this, we get another outlining. As usual, Tolkien plans to have Aragorn and Boromir go to Minas Tirith together, where they come into conflict. More importantly, Tolkien starts writing the ending of Frodo and Sam's adventures. After some brief dialogue with Gollum's meeting with Sam and the two tracking down Frodo, he writes bits and pieces of Frodo's coma because of spider stings (there are still multiple spiders) and his capture after Sam takes the ring. Gollum leads the orcs to Frodo's body and is tasked with hunting down Sam. Sam's rescue of Frodo from Cirith Ungol is actually fairly close (though this time Frodo uses the ring to escape and they kill an orc to get his armor for the visible Sam). Frodo is separated from Sam in Mordor.

At this point however, Tolkien decides upon a less dramatic breaking of the fellowship in which Boromir is killed, Merry and Pippin captured by orcs, and the three hunters pursue them. Much stronger than Legolas and Gimli going across the plain. When Pippin and Merry meet Treebeard, he talks about Tom Bombadil. When Gandlaf returns, Tolkien ponders making Saruman the balrog.

The first draft of the arrival at Rohan has no Wormtongue, and Theoden is just grouchy and reluctant to help Gandalf, not under enchantment as in the final version. Eowyn, of course, is destined to marry Aragorn at this point.

So, again, a special thanks to Christopher Tolkien for being such a good scholar. I really do hope that these books are referenced as people write and interpret Tolkien.1 Luka Novak292 7

This book is not a logical sequel to "The Return of the Shadow" but rather somewhat arbitrary separation of Tolkien early drafts. This book does not start where "The Return of the Shadow" ended as there are again later drafts of previous chapters. Christopher Tolkien had to separate his father's papers into several books so we are not presented with one massive book and this place seems as good as any. So if you expect this book to cover evolution of "The Two Towers" you'll be dissapointed.

Rewrites of early parts of LOTR-Fellowship of the Ring up to Rivendell mostly cover details. Tolkien tinkers with movement of Black riders, movement of Hobbits and most of all dates. Overall interesting details but something that only really hard core Tolkien fans would find cruicial.

The most important part of this volume is "Council of Elrond". This chapter is used as a tool to place LOTR into Tolkien's world and transforms it from "The Hobbit" sequel unconnected to his massive fantasy world to continuation of earlier ages. Tolkien achieves this by renaming characters to equate them with older ones and their motives. Elrond is given place at defeat of Sauron (The Last Alliance), Aragorn becomes Isildur's heir (removed several generations, of course), Gandalf and Saruman are given bigger role in Middle-earth and so on.

Another interesting thing is we see Tolkien's style of writting. LOTR wasn't created from a draft where he had a general idea of events but events more or less wrote themselves. While he had a general idea of ending (destruction of the Ring, last clash between Sauron and Men....) he had little idea about how to get there. While he had general idea about two massive battles which later became siege of Minas Tirith and Black Gates later was to be fought at Mordor itself and former was still sketchy, as can be seen by his inclusion of Ents/Hurons/trees. These elements later found their way to battle of Helm's Deep but at this point Tolkien's ideas about Rohan were still vague.

And it's with Rohan that this book ends. Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf and Aragorn enter that land and see the king but early work shows that much was changed later. While leter events are sketched and you can see hints of pivotal moments these are still rough ideas. You can sense ideas about battle of Helm's Deep but it was to be fought at Isen fords, battle that was covered only briefly in the LOTR.

And if Rohan is still vague Gondor doesn't exists beyond "there is a land in the south where stewards rule for absent king".

Overall written (or edited) in same style as "The Return of the Shadow" this book covers further evolution of LOTR into what we came to love.1 Richard513 6

Although not quite as exciting as the first part of Christopher Tolkien's account of the evolution of The Lord of the Rings, reviewed here, this is still a fascinating read for the Tolkien aficionado. The reason for the "not quite" can be found not in the quality or detail of its scholarship (which is as meticulous as ever), nor in any lack of substantial variation from the book as eventually published (there is plenty), but emerges as a direct consequence of J.R.R. Tolkien's writing process. The first 180+ pages of this volume are devoted to tracing, as Christopher makes clear, his father's attempts to resolve the "intractable problems" that had emerged during the drafts that make up The Return of the Shadow. This means that the beginning of this book has to go over a lot of the ground of its predecessor before it can move forward; and for the reader who is hoping to see the story move from 3, to 4, to 5 (numbers arbitrary), a return to 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 can be a little frustrating.

Once this point is reached, though, with Tolkien senior eventually able to move on from Moria, to Lorien, to Rohan, there is plenty of fresh material to enjoy. This ranges from early plot lines (Boromir's projected return to Minas Tirith), to extended sequences of narrative that would end up changing quite radically (such as the early versions of Frodo and Sam's passage through Kirith Ungol and escape from Minas Morgul), and also includes glimpses of radical changes that Tolkien considered only momentarily (such as having Gandalf face Saruman, instead of a Balrog, in Moria), as well as absences (no Arwen or Faramir, as yet) and characters who lived for a few brief lines or pages, before vanishing (such as Idis, the daughter of Theoden, who appears beside Eowyn for a while, silent and overshadowed by her, until she is gone forever). the first volume, there is also plenty of detail on chronology and geography, and here for the first time an exhaustive examination of Tolkien's early maps, runes, and the evolution of some of the poems in the text. Much of this can be safely skipped or skimmed; and indeed doing so, according to the reader's interest, might be the best way to make the most of an enjoyable but sometimes formidable book.fantasy tolkien1 Nicholas Whyte4,914 191

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1849441...

The most interesting point for me was that Frodo and Sam's path to Mordor, and even back to the Shire, emerged in Tolkien's thinking much earlier than the story of the others after the death of Boromir. He seems to almost make up the tale of Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn as he goes along, and I must admit it's not the most satisfying part of the book (and was the most messed around with by Peter Jackson for the film). In the middle of this, however, the Treebeard chapter stands out as a coming together of long-simmering ideas for Tolkien, who was fascinated by trees and forests and had been dropping foreshadowing references to Treebeard into his drafts without really thinking them through.

Tolkien took great care over names. It's a bit jarring to read "Trotter" instead of "Strider", "Ingolf" instead of "Aragorn" and "Ondor" instead of "Gondor", but I think it's not just familiarity with the final product - the eventually chosen names are genuinely better. There are a very few exceptions - Tolkien was not happy with "Osgiliath", and I think rightly so, but didn't find a good alternative. Irish readers find it amusing that one of Treebeard's fellow elder Ents is named Finglas; this name is there in the very first draft.

I noted with interest that all the early examples of runes - basically Gandalf's messages left at Bree and scrawled at Weathertop - use the good old-fashioned futhark, rather than what we came to know as the Cirth. The switch was made while composing the inscription on Balin's tomb in Moria, and implemented consistently after that. The development of the runes shows off Tolkien's deep knowledge of phonetics; you would expect him to have some familiarity with the subject as a philologist, but clearly it was a profound fascination. (Do you pronounce the 'o's differently in 'Lord' and 'Moria'? I don't, but Tolkien evidently did, going by his first drafts.)

Anyway, much enjoying this reconstruction of how the classic came to be.1 Michael ReillyAuthor 0 books5

The fascinating evolution of Tolkien's characters and events continues in this second part of The History of The Lord of the Rings. The emergence of important elements, and the subsequent reshaping of the overall adventure is always interesting to read, and is highly informative of Tolkien's ongoing search for relevance and meaning in the unfolding – and expanding – storyline.

Christopher Tolkien provides solid reasoning and informed opinion on various issues and alterations, and gives us an insight into his father's writing processes and general thinking by determining when text or notes were most ly written, and how the timeline of events was continuously updated as new developments impacted on chapters already conceived.

Although this series of books is full of detailed discussion and repeated examinations of material already covered, I've not found myself bored or confused by either the tone or the content at any point so far. There is great intrigue in the way that Tolkien constructs TLotR – its complex history, overlapping subplots and broad themes – with many important parts of the final story only appearing at the time of writing without preparation or earlier consideration. This 'behind the scenes' access never fails to appeal, especially with Christopher's personal connection, which significantly adds to the authenticity.1 Nonethousand Oberrhein703 30

From Rivendell to Rohan
It is undeniable that what pushes a reader to go through several versions of the same narrative goes beyond the simple curiosity. There is a sort of affectionate awe in discovering how, layer after layer the personality of known characters are shaped, structured and anchored deep into the legendarium that defined a genre in the XXth century. We readers are not here for the pretty story anymore, but to feel the blood and bones of a myth being born.

Here below my to the previous volumes of the History of Middle-earth:
Vol.1: Sit down and listen
Vol.2: Heroics of a young author
Vol.3: The poet of Middle-earth
Vol.4: Sketches and Annals of the First Age
Vol.5: A glimpse of Númenor
Vol.6: When Trotter led the way
british tolkieniana1 Jennifer651 23

Dense and certainly not for everyone, but fascinating and full of intriguing odds and ends about the creation of the Lord of the Rings series. Tolkien originally intended Aragorn marry Eowyn! It's amazing how late some very essential plot points ( Arwen) enter the story at all.1 sare106 Read

This one was a tough one to finish tbh. Looking forward to the ones about the Silmarillion1 Nathan Albright4,488 128

The Treason Of Isengard (The History Of The Lord Of the Rings:  Part Two), by J.R.R. Tolkien

It is remarkable just how little of this book has to do with the Treason of Isengard.  Although I am very familiar with the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, I have to say that I was unaware that there was so big an interest in the manuscript history of his Lord of the Rings to make it worth making a giant series that relies on the fact that readers are not only aware of the Lord of the Rings itself but are interested in seeing large amounts of variants that reveal the painstaking process by which that epic came into being.  And let it be understood that this book is by no means the only such book in the series--it is the second of three that I have read and it manages to cover some of the same ground that the first book had gone over showing the fourth and fifth (!) efforts that Tolkien made to get through some of the beginning chapters of the Fellowship of the Ring.  This sort of book is a clear example of a secondary work, one whose existence depends on the excellence and worth of a previous work, but such works are not bad ones.

This book consists of twenty-six chapters featuring manuscripts and various comments by the Tolkiens on material that ranges from the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring to the beginning of The Two Towers.  The material includes a discussion of Galdalf's delay (1), the fourth phase of the introduction to Fellowship (2,3), more discussion about Gandalf and Saruman (4), Bilbo's song at Rivendell (5), the council of Elrond (6,7), the movement of the ring to the south (8), the mines of Moria (9,10), the story as foreseen from that point (11), , Lothlorien (12), and Galadriel (13), and the farewell to Lorien (14).  There are chapters on the first map of the LotR (15), the story as foreseen from Lorien (16), the great river (17), the breaking of the fellowship (18), the departure of Boromir (19), the riders of Rohan (20), the Uruk-hai (21), Treeberad (22), some miscellaneous notes (23), the white rider (24), the story foreseen from Fangorn (25), and the king of the golden hall (26), a well as an appendix on runes and an index.  All told, this material takes up more than 400 pages, some of it turning in itself in the way that snakes are sometimes shown to have devoured their own tails, but not in a bad way.

It is hard to recommend this book to someone who is not a huge fan of Lord of the Rings.  While the original publishers of Tolkien's works wondered how big of an audience would be interested in the Hobbit and then Lord of the Rings and thought that they may lose money on it, the existence of this book not only proves that Lord of the Rings has a huge enough audience to support other books being written about it but that there is an audience that event wants to read the manuscripts that demonstrate the painfully slow process by which Tolkien's story that was originally going to be a simple and straightforward story of the destruction of the one ring as a sequel to the Hobbit became a sprawling epic that hinted at still more sprawling epic stories involved in his legendarium.  I found this book interesting, but at the same time I wonder if this sort of book is really a good one to enjoy very often, since laws and sausages I would prefer not to know how my novels are made from endless and frustrating edits that add length and complexity to originally simple and straightforward plans, especially since Tolkien and I write in very different ways.challenge-2019 Jackson Compton71

I've read most of the History of Middle Earth series that covers the writing of the Silmarillion material. This was my first History of Middle Earth book that covered only Lord of the Rings (I read Sauron Defeated which was limited to a couple chapters on the Lord of the Rings). I had thought that the Lord of the Rings history would actually be even more interesting than the Silmarillion but I actually found that not to be the case in this book.

The history of the writing of the Lord of the Rings is different than the history of the writing of the Silmarillion. This stems from the fact that both of these publications are very different types of stories and narrative style; The Silmarillion being practically a history book and the Lord of the Rings being a flowing, detailed, and character-driven story. The history of the writing of the Silmarillion often contained unfinished detailed stories that actually expanded on the published Silmarillion and provided additional material not published elsewhere. This was because Christopher could not include it all when creating the published version. Contrast that with the Lord of the Rings drafts which were often just early rejected versions of the same story and, most times, the finished product is much more entertaining to read. Some of the drafts were just a worse version of what was eventually published.

This was not always true however. I found that by following some of the changes that Tolkien decided to make, I actually became more aware of important small things that often deepened my understanding of his characters. To give an example: Tolkien made a conscious choice to change his initial draft of Gandalf passing the ring on from Bilbo to Frodo. Tolkien decided that Gandalf would have placed the ring on the mantle after Bilbo left since he would not have held it in his hand the whole time between when Bilbo leaves and Frodo arrives. Gandalf understood the temptation of the ring and Tolkien's initial version where Gandalf just casually held onto it for a while didn't fit in with this. It was small things this that were most interesting to me.

Other than that, the biggest takeaway just how little of a plan Tolkien had when embarking on this "Hobbit sequel". It's amazing how the story just unraveled as he wrote without following much of a plan. This was definitely different than what I would have expected.tolkien Matias Cerizola471 32

La Traición De Isengard.- J.R.R. Tolkien?
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"Regresaré a ti y te volveré a buscar,?
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 regresaré a ti y te confortaré, y te?
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 encontraré en la lluvia. Juntos?
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 caminaremos por la tierra y?
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 recogeremos la semilla y el fruto y?
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 viajaremos a una isla donde los dos?
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 podamos vivir de nuevo."?
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La Traición De Isengard es el segundo volumen de la Historia De El Señor De Los Anillos, una serie de libros editados por Christopher Tolkien donde se muestra la evolución a través de los años de la escritura de esta monumental obra.?
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En esta etapa de la escritura de ESDLA, año 1942, tenemos otro cambio en Trotter, ya está cerca de ser el Aragorn que todos conocemos, se reescribe parte del viaje de Hobbiton a Bree, Hamilcar Bolger (luego Fredegar) tiene una participación mayor, tiene las primeras apariciones Saramund (luego Saruman), vemos la evolución del Concilio de Elrond mediante varias versiones, tenemos el primer contacto con Galadriel, una versión un tanto distinta de la muerte de Boromir, un borrador escrito sobre otro borrador describiendo a los Jinetes de Rohan y (entre otros muchos más temas) la historia de la escritura de Barbol y el primer mapa hecho por Tolkien de ESDLA. También resulta muy interesante el capítulo final dedicado a las Runas que se leen la tumba de Balin en Moría.?
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Cómo en el caso del libro anterior de la serie, El Retorno De La Sombra, esta no es una lectura para iniciarse en El Señor De Los Anillos o en la Tierra Media, sin dudas estos libros están pensados para quien tenga bien presente la historia finalmente publicada y poder así apreciar mejor el tremendo trabajo de escritura que hizo nuestro querido Profesor. ?
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