What happened to Mordor?

[zxcvbn]

Well, reading these lines from the book, I don't think Mordor's corruption was cleansed anytime in the Fourth Age.

They had come to the desolation that lay before Mordor: the lasting
monument to the dark labour of its slaves that should endure when all their
purposes were made void; a land defiled, diseased beyond all healing --
unless the Great Sea should enter in and wash it with oblivion.

'unless the Great Sea should enter in and wash it with oblivion'. That would mean the Bibical Flood that Tolkien predicted at the end of the Fourth Age.

[Sir Kohran]

They had come to the desolation that lay before Mordor: the lasting
monument to the dark labour of its slaves that should endure when all their
purposes were made void; a land defiled, diseased beyond all healing --
unless the Great Sea should enter in and wash it with oblivion.

What a great piece of writing.

That would mean the Bibical Flood that Tolkien predicted at the end of the Fourth Age.

Very interesting - in The New Shadow, Tolkien planned to have Gondor fall into decay and evil practices once Aragorn had died. Perhaps that story would have ended with God becoming angry with all the evil Middle-Earth had fallen into and flooding the world, only saving Noah and his family - this would remove the last traces of Middle-Earth's history from the world and lead into the rest of the Bible and then towards modern history. Did Tolkien plan something like this?

[Gwathagor]

Hmmm....penal colony? That's what I would have done with Mordor.

What's this New Shadow business? Why have I never heard of this before?

[Lindale]

Originally Posted by Sir Kohran

Did Tolkien plan something like this?

Will we ever know? (unless Christopher still has unpublished stuff he hasn't edited yet.)

If Mordor becomes a sort of Gondorian colony, how different would the King (but definitely not Aragorn, he's too noble for that) be from Sauron-minus-the-Magic/Power?

And I notice a sort of cyclic thingy with JRRT. A great man (it applies to all races, be it Men or Dwarves or whatever) rises from the ashes and becomes king/lord, and rules well. Then for the next few generations shadows arise, and the last king is the most evil of all. Destruction ala Noah comes, but a good man descended from the first king (they always have to be descended, wonder why?) and leads a part of the people and becomes a sort of a new king on grounds of heredity and maybe morality as well. And then the cycle begins again.

[Elmo]

But Gondor's already been a colonial power. She did conquer large parts of Rhun and Harad.

[zxcvbn]

No, Gondor wasn't a colonial power. At its peak, the Haradrim and Easterlings paid tribute to it, but it didn't conquer and settle their territories. During his reign Aragorn only restored its original boundaries. As for Nurn, it was given to Sauron's freed slaves.

[Gwathagor]

Again, I ask: what is "The New Shadow"?

[zxcvbn]

"The New Shadow" was meant to be a sequel to LOTR. Set after Aragorn's death, it would feature some new sorcerous cults rising under the Mouth of Sauron(I believe).
Tolkien wrote about 14 pages and then abandoned it as he thought it would demean everybody's sacrifices in LOTR if evil just rose again in little more than a century.

[Lindale]

Originally Posted by zxcvbn

No, Gondor wasn't a colonial power. At its peak, the Haradrim and Easterlings paid tribute to it, but it didn't conquer and settle their territories. During his reign Aragorn only restored its original boundaries. As for Nurn, it was given to Sauron's freed slaves.

You can argue neo-colonialism for that....

[Groin Redbeard]

I was reading a book about about the mythes and lore of Middle Earth and I found something that reffered to an ancient library in Mordor. It talked about Sauron during the years of preparation for battle of the Last Alliance. It said that Sauron was fearful that he might be overthrown, however slight the chances may have been, and started to right down all of his knowledge and store it somewhere in the plains east of Gorgoroth (I forget the name of it, it's where the black steeds are bred for the Nazgul) for another to come and finish his work. I don't know if this bit of information is true, I just thought that it was interesting. Who knows, this might have been that plot for "The New Shadow."