Return of the Shadow (Re-read)

In the 5th book from the History of Middle Earth series, things finally begin to pick up. This time Christopher Tolkien turns his sights on the most popular era of Tolkien's career, The 3rd Age.

This tells of the development of the Lord of the Rings novels and gives drafts of earlier editions. Jus to give you an example here are some of the interesting ideas Tolkien explored when first writing out the novels:

Bilbo was at first celebrating his 71st birthday in the beginning of the book.

Instead of Frodo, Sam, Pippen and Merry it start off as Bingo, Frodo, Odo and Vigo. Then before "Merry" was Marmaduke and later Vigo is replaced with Folco while Sam is added as a 5th hobbit to the party

Instead of Strider it was Trotter.....get it? No joke. 

Gandolph was originally featured in Bree with the Hobbits at first. He tells them he escaped the prison of Treebeard. Treebeard would later capture Frodo and friends until Tolkien made a note about turning him into a good guy. 

Pretty interesting stuff.  Well worth the read!

Have a good weekend folks!