The New Shadow and Melkor
 

As many of you know, Tolkien began writing a sequel to the Lord of the Rings called The New Shadow, only to discontinue his work on it. Upon reading it over (and for the record I am glad that he did not finish and the story was left as it was) I noticed a very strange occurence.

Borlas, an elderly man of Gondor, is talking to his young friend Saelon, in the opening (and basically the only) scene in the attempted sequel. In this scene, Borlas talks about Melkor and the first Darkness:

First of all, Tolkien states clearly in several works that Melkor's name was never uttered in Middle Earth after the First Age, and that if anyone ever did refer to him, he was 'The First Dark Lord', the 'Dark Power' or , on occassion, Morgoth. But never Melkor. Do you think this was a Tolkien mistake in the writing, having a mortal man (and not a very learned one at that) speak the name of Melkor, and then go on to talk about Eru and the Themes (which I did not know most if any of the peoples of Middle Earth knew about)?

That is most interesting considering that yes no one ever spoke the name of Melkor for fear of a darkness or a black curse. And it is most strange that a mortal man of all things would be telling the story of the music of Eru! So perhaps that is why it was never finished, I'm not sure but you brought up a very interesting point although i've never heard of this work personally. So maybe Tolkien made a bit of a mistake...Do you think this was one of his earlier works before he decided to make it a sequel to LOR?

[ August 06, 2003: Message edited by: Esgallhugwen ]

It was not an earlier work, but started after Lord of the Rings was published. It takes place about 100 years or so after the War of the Ring.

oh i just thought i'd mention it because i've never heard of this work before. But anyway my point still stands. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] Well except for the now corrected part of it being a later work.

[ August 06, 2003: Message edited by: Esgallhugwen ]

Where did you get a hold of that work? Is it part of the history of ME Series?

You can read it by going
here

Cheers!
-Angmar

well, when the events spoken of occured, Morgoth was Melkor. He became morgoth after the theft of the silmarils.

Iarwain

Yes, it can be found in the History of Middle-earth series. It is in The Peoples of Middle-earth.

I may be making a huge leap of a hypothesis, but I have to ask: what happened to the realm of Rivendell after the elves left? Did they leave their archives as is or did they bring them along to Valinor? If these archives were untouched, then probably Men took them for themselves.

I think that they probably started taking them West, unless they gave them to the Library of Gondor or something. That's another possibility.

Good point, Neferchoirwen, what did happen to the lorebooks of Rivendell when the last of the Elves past over the Sea?

Finwe, I doubt that they brought much of their written lore to the Undying Lands. At the end of "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" it says that

I think that meant, and this is of course just my own speculation, that an end had come to the time of lore-keeping for the Elves. I think Finwe, that perhaps you were onto something when you said that the lore of Rivendell could have been taken to the Libraries of Gondor.

But at any rate, I doubt even the lorebooks of Rivendell would tell in such detail the Creation story that average Gondorians could recite it, and it is also at odds with Tolkien's saying that the name of Melkor was never openly uttered in Middle Earth again.

The libraries of Gondor it is. Putting more specifications to my earlier hypothesis, Aragorn might have done this---an idea that Tolkien might have thought of.

Yet

What of Arwen? Did she just die or did she pass on the lore to others while she was alive?

Lord of Angmar, I believe you are wrong. That 'an end was come for the Eldar of story and of song' refers to Middle-Earth, not Valinor -- which is where they were going, and where they would certainly have still had these things. As it is in Middle-Earth that the Elvish stories ended, and in the Undying Lands that they continued, I think it probable that they would indeed have taken their lore with them (from the former place to the latter).

They may have passed on some knowledge to Gondor or to the newly-restarted North-Kingdom; alternatively, lore-masters of the Dunedain may have further studied Elvish lore and thus brought it to the human kingdoms. Remember that such learned men and lore-masters did exist in Gondor, and that knowledge of the First Age would most likely have existed in record there already. Perhaps some gleaning of the tale of the Ainulidale, gained from contact with the Eldar, also existed for the knowledge of the very learned.

Exactly how such detailed information of these matters came to be known by an apparently common man of Gondor, in the New Shadow (another question of intrigue which we will never find out about; what was the 'new shadow' to be?), we will never know -- the story was not completed. Perhaps the reign of the very wise Aragorn was responsible, or perhaps the man was not who he appeared to be. As I say, though, we will never solve this mystery. (It's rather a shame that the New Shadow wasn't completed, I think, as quite finally leaving Middle-Earth a hundred or so years after the War of the Ring does foster a desire for a greater extension of the history; the story of a 'new shadow' would be fascinating.)

I agree Gwaihir. The end of lore in Middle Earth suggests that the lore in question was no longer on Middle Earth.

As for 'The New Shadow's only scene, I imagine the Professor stepped back, read it through, and thought to himself "Hold on, this is all wrong!"

Good point Gwaihir and Eomer, perhaps I am overinterpreting the last sentence of 'Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age'.

I suppose we shall never know wat the new shadow is. Tolkien felt strongly, though, that the Fall of Sauron should end his Middle Earth tales, since he is the last true Dark Lord.

I suppose we'll never know how old Borlas knew of the beginning of time and new the real name of the first Dark Lord.

Yes, that's probably true. All for the best I suppose. The appendix chronology of the reign of Elessar, and of his and Arwen's deaths, suffices after all to send us on our way with a note of some satisfactory substance. We don't altogether leave abruptly after Sauron's fall.

I wonder if the Prof. even knew himself what the New Shadow would be? Presumably some sort of evil of Men, I should think, rather than an actual third Dark Lord.

That is precisely what it would have been, a cult of Gondorian Men who practiced 'Satanic' rituals (worshipping Morgoth). Tolkien said that the book would have been nothing more than a thriller about stopping such a cult.

I doubt most Tolkien fans would have liked it at all.

Could the New Shadow have been the Mouth of Sauron? Have you ever thought of that possibility?

I don't think that the Mouth of Sauron was powerful enough to be called The New Shadow.

Perhaps it could be, Amarie, although the possibility is unlikely.

The effect on the Mouth after the fall of Sauron would be, I think, similar to the it effect on the wraiths. I think his spirit would be vanquished from Mortal Lands (if he was not already slain in the battle before the Black Gates, which is also a distinct possibility).

Also, there is the fact that the Mouth of Sauron had no name, but the new evil, as hinted by Tolkien in the first scene, was headed by a man named Herumor.

Still, nothing can be ruled out, and perhaps the one responsible for the new evil was of old a servant of Sauron.

I think you are referring to a passage i Valaquenta. But it is only said that Noldor did not utter his name. We know from Akallabeth that Men worshipped Melkor.

That's a very good point, Ailos. I was about to suggest that it may have been something to do with an old servant of Sauron; the name Melkor would indeed have been known to Gondor, from annals of Numenor.

The head of the cult would probably not have been the Mouth of Sauron. Assuming that he did survive Sauron's fall, unless he was of near-pure Numenorean blood he would be long-dead by the New Shadow -- set a hundred years after the War of the Ring. Still, it could have been him. (Lord of Angmar -- I doubt that he would take the name 'Mouth of Sauron' to head a dark cult with, instead assuming a new name for reference purposes.)

Mmmm... actually, the plot of this concieved book does sound more like fan-fiction writing, rather than anything authentic. A 'thriller' is undoubtedly what it would be, a short tale describing a one-off and novel event set in Middle-Earth.

However, assuming the incredibly strong hold on the Mouth of Sauron, is it not possible that he could have been 'wraith-like'? Therefore, able to survive that long?