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."