The Shadow of the Past

Uncommon card · No. 140391

"The Shadow of the Past" is the second chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy work, The Lord of the Rings, published in 1954–1955. Tolkien called it "the crucial chapter"; the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey labelled it "the vital chapter". This is because it represents both the moment that Tolkien devised the central plot of the book, and the point in the story where the protagonist, Frodo Baggins, and the reader realise that there will be a quest to destroy the One Ring. A sketch of the chapter was among the first parts of the book to be written, early in 1938; later that year, it was one of three chapters of the book that Tolkien drafted. In 1944, he returned to the chapter, adding descriptions of Gollum, the Ring, and the hunt for Gollum. The chapter changes the book's tone from the first chapter's light-hearted hobbit partying. It introduces major themes of the book, including a sense of the depth of time behind unfolding events, the power of the Ring, and the inter-related questions of...

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