[Zigûr]

An idea from "The New Shadow" which has resounded with me in recent months is that of "Gondorian boys [...] playing at being Orcs and going round doing damage".

"Shall I gather my band and go and cut down his trees? Then he will think that the Orcs have really returned."

I find it very insightful to see Professor Tolkien imagining a world in which terrible evil is treated as a joke, not taken seriously, or even admired by people too young and comfortable to recognise how bad things really once were.

Despite probably being unintentional, I think the narrative works surprisingly well cutting off when it does. It doesn't really matter what's in Borlas' house, in my view at least. What matters is the almost wearied recognition that, in some shape or other, evil will indeed persist.

"He halted in the narrow passage that ran through the house, and it seemed that he was wrapped in a blackness: not a glimmer of twilight of the world outside remained there."

This puts me in mind of a horror film, oddly enough.

It really is a remarkable piece of prose, in my opinion.