As if one could somehow exhaust Tolkien’s stories from the dawning of the First Age to the closing of the Third, many of us still have an appetite for what might happen in Middle-earth following the demise of Sauron and the coronation of the rightful king of Gondor. If you fall into this category, you are not alone, as Tolkien himself began to tell this story - at least for about 13 pages. In a 1964 letter to Colin Bailey, here is what Tolkien had to say about this would-be sequel to
He may have been right *at the time* that the freshly optimistic Anglophone world couldn’t handle a depressing story about a subsequent fall of man. It might have come across as cynical or pessimistic. Maybe this is true. Pastoral, even.
He may have been right *at the time* that the freshly optimistic Anglophone world couldn’t handle a depressing story about a subsequent fall of man. It might have come across as cynical or pessimistic. Maybe this is true. Pastoral, even.
But GOLLY we could use it now.
Absolutely!
It’s hard to believe that more Tolkien stories of any kind would be a bad thing.
Fair enough! I suppose I could have left it at this and saved the word count.