"In the first part of Sauron Defeated, Christopher Tolkien completes his account of the writing of The Lord of the Rings, beginning with Sam's rescue of Frodo from the Tower of Kirith Ungol, and giving a very different account of the Scouring of the Shire. This part ends with versions of the previously unpublished Epilogue, an alternate ending to the masterpiece in which Sam attempts to answer his children's questions years after the departure of Bilbo and Frodo from the Grey Havens." "The second part introduces The Notion Club Papers, now published for the first time. Written by J. R. R. Tolkien in the interval between The Two Towers and The Return of the King (1945-1946), these mysterious Papers, discovered in the early years of the twenty-first century, report the discussions of a literary club in Oxford in the years 1986-1987. Those familiar with the Inklings will see a parallel with the group whose members included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. After a discussion of the possibilities of travel in space and time through the medium of 'true dream,' the story turns to the legend of Atlantis, the strange communications received by members of the club out of remote past, and the violent irruption of the legend into northwestern Europe." "Closely associated with the Papers is a new version of the Numenorean legend, The Drowning of Anadune, which constitutes the third part of the book. At this time the language of the Men of the West, Adunaic, was first devised - Tolkien's fifteenth invented language. The book concludes with an elaborate account of the structure of this language by Arundel Lowdham, a member of the Notion Club, who learned it in his dreams." "Sauron Defeated is illustrated with the changing conceptions of the fortress of Kirith Ungol and Mount Doom, previously unpublished drawings of Orthanc and Dunharrow, and fragments of manuscript written in Numenorean script."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Pt. 1. The End of the Third Age I. The Story of Frodo and Sam in Mordor II. The Tower of Kirith Ungol III. The Land of Shadow IV. Mount Doom V. The Field of Kormallen VI. The Steward and the King VII. Many Partings VIII. Homeward Bound IX. The Scouring of the Shire X. The Grey Havens. XI. The Epilogue Appendix: Drawings of Orthanc and Dunharrow Pt. 2. The Notion Club Papers The Notion Club Papers Part One

The Notion Club Papers Part Two Major Divergences in Earlier Versions of Part Two i. The earlier versions of Night 66 ii. The original version of Lowdham's 'Fragments' iii. The earlier versions of Lowdham's 'Fragments' in Adunaic iv. Earlier versions of Edwin Lowdham's Old English text v. The page preserved from Edwin Lowdham's manuscript written in Numenorean script Pt. 3. The Drowning of Anadune i. The third version of The Fall of Numenor ii. The original text of The Drowning of Anadune iii. The second text of The Drowning of Anadune iv. The final form of The Drowning of Anadune v. The theory of the work vi. Lowdham's Report on the Adunaic Language.