The Return of the Shadow

The Return of the Shadow (1988) is the sixth volume in the History of Middle-earth series.

It begins with the initial composition, and goes through to the episode in the Mines of Moria. The inscription in Book VI reads: "In the Return of the Shadow are traced the first forms of the story of the Lord of the Rings; herein the journey of the hobbit who bore the Great Ring, at first named Bingo but afterwards Frodo, is followed from Hobbiton in the Shire through the Old Forest to Weathertop and Rivendell, and ends in this volume before the tomb of Balin, the Dwarf-Lord of Moria."

J.R.P.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium
Published works	The Hobbit (1937) • The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring [1954] • The Two Towers [1954] • The Return of the King [1955]) • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book [1962] • The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle [1967]
Posthumous publications	Bilbo's Last Song [1974] • The Silmarillion [1977] • Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth [1980] The History of Middle-earth (The Book of Lost Tales Part One [1983] • The Book of Lost Tales Part Two [1984] • The Lays of Beleriand [1985] • The Shaping of Middle-earth: The Quenta, The Ambarkanta, and The Annals [1986] • The Lost Road and Other Writings [1987] • The Return of the Shadow [1988] • The Treason of Isengard [1989] • The War of the Ring [1990] • Sauron Defeated [1992] • Morgoth's Ring [1993] • The War of the Jewels [1994] • The Peoples of Middle-earth [1996] • Index [2006]) The Great Tales of Middle-earth (The Children of Húrin [2007] • Beren and Lúthien [2017] • The Fall of Gondolin [2018]) The Nature of Middle-earth [2021] • The Fall of Númenor [2022] • The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien [2024] Articles about Middle-earth by... Category • Name • Writings • Characters • Living Creatures • Rivers • Realms • Ages