Few stories have left such a permanent mark on the literary landscape as The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien's epic tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the eternal struggle between good and evil is a cornerstone of modern fantasy. But while readers around the world continue to return to Middle-earth generation after generation, many don't know that Tolkien did, at one point, attempt to write a direct sequel to The Lord of the Rings. It was called The New Shadow, and though it was ultimately abandoned after only thirteen pages, those brief pages offer a glimpse into a different kind of story-one that could have cast the triumphs of the Third Age in a new and haunting light.
The New Shadow: A Glimpse into the Fourth Age
The New Shadow was Tolkien's attempt to explore the world of Middle-earth after the fall of Sauron. Set in the Fourth Age, over a century after the events of The Lord of the Rings, the story takes place during the reign of Aragorn's son, Eldarion. But rather than portraying a world basking in the glow of hard-won peace, Tolkien envisioned a society slipping back into moral decay and spiritual unrest. The story begins in Gondor, where rumors of a dark cult-heirs in spirit, if not in power, to the minions of Sauron-are beginning to spread. These groups, often composed of young, disaffected nobles and citizens, are fascinated by evil for evil's sake, mimicking the old ways, donning black masks, and desecrating the values their parents fought to preserve.
The surviving pages are little more than a conversation between two characters: Borlas, an old man who remembers the time of war, and Saelon, a younger man with secret knowledge and possibly sinister motives. The tone is foreboding, even claustrophobic. There are no wide vistas, no valiant battles, no elves or dwarves-only suspicion, decay, and the uncomfortable reality that evil is never truly vanquished.
If you're curious, the text of The New Shadow can be found in The Peoples of Middle-earth, the twelfth volume of The History of Middle-earth, edited by Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien. It's available both in print and in many eBook formats, and those 13 pages are absolutely worth reading for any Tolkien enthusiast.
Tolkien's Dilemma: Why He Abandoned the Sequel
Tolkien ultimately set the manuscript aside, writing in his notes that he found the story "sinister and depressing."" He feared that the tale lacked the mythic resonance of The Lord of the Rings. In a letter to a reader, Tolkien explained that the central problem was that any sequel would necessarily be about the decay of Gondor and the decline of the world rather than its salvation. The great evil of Morgoth was gone. Sauron was no more. What was left was ordinary human corruption, not cosmic struggle.
He also feared that it would feel too mundane. Compared with the grand saga of Frodo and the Ring, the story of political unrest and underground cults might seem trivial or uninspiring. Tolkien had set the bar impossibly high for himself. After all, how does one follow the most iconic high fantasy story of all time?
And yet-this is precisely where I feel the Professor may have been mistaken.
A Case for the Sequel: Why The New Shadow Deserved to Be Finished
Yes, The New Shadow was shaping up to be a darker, more subdued story-but that doesn't mean it lacked value or relevance. Quite the opposite. In fact, this shift in tone could have been one of its greatest strengths.
Middle-earth had always been a world defined by moral clarity, but The Lord of the Rings also makes clear that evil is never truly defeated-it is merely weakened, buried, delayed. Tolkien's own mythology says as much: Morgoth may be chained, but his corruption still seeps through the world. Sauron was his lieutenant, not his source. And Men-ordinary Men-have always been the most susceptible to that lingering corruption.
A story set in a post-Sauron Middle-earth could have offered an incredibly powerful meditation on what happens after the war is won. In our own world, history is littered with examples of people who fought for justice and then watched as corruption reemerged. Evil doesn't need a dark tower or a flaming eye to cause devastation. It exists in fear, in greed, in apathy. That Tolkien, with his rich moral compass and profound insight into human nature, didn't finish The New Shadow is a literary loss.
More than that, he underestimated the power of his own gifts. Tolkien could elicit awe not only from armies on horseback and flaming swords, but from poetry, banter, and the internal lives of his characters. His fans loved not just the battles, but the moments-Bilbo's speech at his birthday party, Sam's tenderness in Mordor, the quiet conversation between Faramir and Eowyn. The New Shadow could have been filled with such moments, given the proper emotional stakes and careful craftsmanship.
A Mirror of Our Own World
One of the most compelling aspects of The New Shadow is that it moves away from mythic good-versus-evil and into the grey zones of human frailty. This feels eerily similar to the world we live in today. Our societies, like Gondor in the Fourth Age, often seem to teeter between progress and decay. We, too, are haunted not by demons or gods, but by our own history, by systems too large to see, and by people who court power at any cost.
In such a world, stories about subtle evils, creeping nihilism, and moral rot are not only relevant-they're necessary. Tolkien's deeply Catholic worldview emphasized the importance of free will, individual action, and persistent hope in the face of despair. A sequel like The New Shadow could have explored those themes with even more precision. It could have shown that the battle for goodness is never truly over-and that even when evil wears a human face, courage and grace still matter.
And let's not forget, Tolkien had hinted that there would have been cults-groups of people, perhaps in worship of Sauron or Morgoth, who sought to sow discord in the Fourth Age. This is a potent narrative thread. Cults thrive in uncertain times, offering the illusion of power and clarity. That alone could have given the story a chilling, relevant weight. Imagine infiltrations, secret gatherings, false prophets, and the kind of manipulation that tears families and kingdoms apart. Not through war, but through ideology.
Would that not be just as terrifying as the Black Riders? And more importantly, would it not be just as real?
Untapped Potential in the East
Another lost opportunity in abandoning The New Shadow was the chance to explore parts of Arda we never got to see-particularly the East and South, where Sauron once had great influence. Tolkien left many tantalizing hints about the lands of Rhun and Harad, and a sequel could have taken us there. Perhaps the dark cults had their roots in those lands, or perhaps their rise sparked a new political and spiritual crisis for the West.
Exploring these regions would have expanded the scope of Middle-earth even further, offering us new peoples, languages, and traditions. Readers long for this kind of world-building. The far East of Arda is a blank canvas. A thoughtful, human-scale story set against a backdrop of international unrest could have provided exactly the kind of depth and expansion Tolkien fans would devour.
And yes, it would have been darker. But so what?
The Silmarillion is steeped in tragedy. The Children of Hurin is downright bleak. Tolkien was no stranger to sorrow, but he always, always ended on a note of hope. He understood that light shines brighter in darkness. Imagine The New Shadow ending not in a grand battle, but with a small, quiet act of defiance-one person choosing the right path when no one is looking. That would be Tolkien at his most profound.
A Shadow That Might Have Illuminated
The New Shadow may only be thirteen pages long, but its implications reach much further. In it, we glimpse a version of Middle-earth that mirrors our own world more closely than ever. A world where evil whispers instead of screams, where it wears a charming smile rather than jagged armor, and where good must persist without the certainty of divine intervention. And yet, that's where Tolkien's message could have been most resonant: that even when the gods are silent, and the enemy is unseen, hope remains.
It's a shame the Professor never returned to finish it-but perhaps he didn't have to. Maybe it's up to us now to imagine what could have been, and to let that imagining remind us of the lessons Tolkien already gave us.
Have you read The New Shadow? What do you think Tolkien could have done with it? Let us know!
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