The New Shadow - JR Tolkien

Tolkien began a fourth book, that was meant to be a successor to the lord of the rings. The book was entitled "The New Shadow" and was not published.

According to the record, there was only a few pages of the work ever done, it was a work of the fourth age, which is the age of man. It is telling that Tolkien, in his deference to childhood fantasies, and a perfectionist - chose to stop work rather than look deeply into humanity and the race of men.

Tolkien was a master craftsman of lore. And he would have attempted to view a race of people that are by definition imperfect. The real question is, even if he only did 10 pages or so - where would this work be found?


In order to separate illusion from reality in Tolkien's work and see beyond the simple fairy tale we have to accept a monstrous bias and work diligently to delete it first from our own lives. It is impossible, for example, to delete the routine of life. But it is not impossible to delete the escapist viewpoints that not knowing your neighbors, not building your own community nor engaging oneself directly in the world around you can provide any form of traction to understand the fragment or the odd bit of writing that is left. Tolkien did not necessarily write of the world around him, but was radically involved in it, and allowed it to intrude upon his writings. It is easy to imagine that , if one were given over to the work, one could fold a larger part of ones life into the work of creating the Lord of the Rings. It is impossible to create, without investing part of ones life. And it is also impossible to remove the strange loop that lies within. We fool ourselves by simply taking conjugates. By seeing that which , in reality - is concave. As convex.

And Tolkien knew this better than anyone. The principle that must be exercised is constraint. Tolkien was actively involved in the spiritual progression of his own world.

I for one do not wish to live in a world of middle earth so much as a world in which the authors, or creators of middle earth. Live. - A. M. D. G.

Does anyone know of a good shot of Kat Von D? I am trying to get a tattoo and I want to get the left leg, ankle as well as the rest of her side and across her abdoment and her hair with the white fall. Kat is just soo good at shading. The letter on her ankle has a special meaning for me.>:)