The New Shadow

From the One Wiki to Rule Them All, the Lord of the Rings Encyclopedia.

The New Shadow is an incomplete sequel to The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about 30 pages of The New Shadow before abandoning it.

[edit] Why It Was Abandoned

Tolkien felt that nothing in the Fourth Age would be enchanting or incredible the way the tales of older books were. Also, with both Melkor and Sauron defeated, there was no manifestation of evil in the world.

[edit] Plot

The story starts in Gondor with Borlas. This created a problem with timing because the book is during the reign of Eldarion. That would make Borlas around 200 years old.

Borlas becomes concerned with a secret society formed among the boys of Gondor. They have taken to dressing up like Orcs and doing Orcish things such as cutting down trees with no reason. There is also rumors about a man called Herumor, which is Quenya for "Dark Lord", who is the leader of the cult. Tolkien called it a Satanic cult, so it was presumably a revival of the worship of Morgoth, Sauron, or both.

The story continues to a point where Borlas receives an invitation from Saelon, a young man his son grew up with, to attend a secret meeting. The meeting is presumably one of the cult mentioned above. It's unknown whether Saelon is a member or wants help to destroy it.