Cover of the 2000 publication (Art by Alan Lee)
"The End of the Third Age" is the title of Part One of Sauron Defeated, and is Part Four of The History of The Lord of the Rings altogether, but it was also published separately, as a lone paperback edition, in September of 2000 by Houghton Mifflin (US) (ISBN 0-618-08356-1).
The End of the Third Age contains J.R.R. Tolkien's many early drafts of the large story that would later become in 1949 the second half of The Return of the King, as well as his sketches of stories' chief locations. These drafts, which Christopher Tolkien first compiled around 1992, make up the book's eleven chapters, and are each accompanied by Christopher's notes and commentary. Most of these chapters would evolve (with unchanged titles) into Book Six of The Return of the King.
Table of Contents
- Foreword
- I - The Story of Frodo and Sam in Mordor
- II - The Tower of Kirith Ungol
- III - The Land of Shadow
- IV - Mount Doom
- V - The Field of Kormallen
- VI - The Steward and the King
- VII - Many Partings
- VIII - Homeward Bound
- IX - The Scouring of the Shire
- X - The Grey Havens
- XI - The Epilogue
- Appendix: Drawings of Orthanc and Dunharrow
- Index
Adjacent Titles
In the History of The Lord of the Rings series, The End of the Third Age is preceded by The War of the Ring.
In Sauron Defeated, the following Part is The Notion Club Papers.