The Return of the Shadow

The History of The Lord of the Rings

The cover of the paperback edition of The Return of the Shadow
Editor	Christopher Tolkien
Author	J. R. R. Tolkien
Cover artist	John Howe
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	High fantasy Literary analysis
Publisher	George Allen & Unwin (UK)
Publication date	1988 (Return of the Shadow) 1989 (The Treason of Isengard) 1990 (The War of the Ring) 1992 (Sauron Defeated)
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
Pages	paperbacks: 512 (The Return of the Shadow) 512 (The Treason of Isengard) 496 (The War of the Ring) 496 (Sauron Defeated)
ISBN	(The Return of the Shadow) (The Treason of Isengard) (The War of the Ring) (Sauron Defeated)
Preceded by	The Lost Road and Other Writings
Followed by	Morgoth's Ring

The History of The Lord of the Rings is a 4-volume work by Christopher Tolkien that documents the process of J. R. R. Tolkien's writing of The Lord of the Rings. The History is also numbered as volumes 6 to 9 of The History of Middle-earth ("HoME", as below). Some information concerning the appendices and a soon-abandoned sequel to the novel can also be found in volume 12, The Peoples of Middle-earth.

The volumes include:

The titles of the volumes derive from the discarded names for the separate books of The Lord of the Rings. J. R. R. Tolkien conceived the latter as a single volume comprising six "books" plus extensive appendices, but the original publisher split the work into three, publishing two books per volume with the appendices included into the third. The titles proposed by Tolkien for separate books were: Book I, The First Journey or The Ring Sets out; Book II, The Journey of the Nine Companions or The Ring Goes South; Book III, The Treason of Isengard; Book IV, The Journey of the Ring-bearers or The Ring Goes East; Book V, The War of the Ring; and Book VI, The End of the Third Age. The title The Return of the Shadow comes from a discarded name for Volume I.

Three of the titles of the volumes of The History of The Lord of the Rings were also used as book titles for the 7-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings - The Treason of Isengard for Book III, The War of the Ring for Book V and The End of the Third Age for Book VI.

The first volume encompasses three initial stages of composition, or as Christopher Tolkien entitled them, "phases", and finishes with the Fellowship of the Ring entering the Mines of Moria. The second continues to the meeting with Théoden king of Rohan, and includes the discussions of the original map of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age and of the evolution of Cirth. The War of the Ring continues to the opening of the Black Gate. The last volume finishes the story, featuring also the rejected Epilogue, in which Sam answers his children's questions.