Sauron & The New Shadow: What Tolkien's Sequel Revealed About Evil

What lies beyond the triumph of the Third Age?

In this video, I explore The New Shadow, Tolkien's unfinished story set in the Fourth Age, a tale of growing darkness after the death of King Elessar. I summarise the surviving manuscript, discuss Tolkien's reflections on why he abandoned it, and share my thoughts on what this story reveals about his understanding of evil, decay, and hope in the ages that followed.

📖 Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
00:57 – Summary of The New Shadow
04:37 – “Unfinished Sequel”
05:34 – Tolkien’s Letters
08:57 – The Finality of the Third Age
13:12 – Tolkien’s Darker Material
14:00 – Internal Struggles
15:08 – Outro

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📚 On-Screen Notes & 🎨 Artwork:
All on-screen notes, references, artist credits, images, and links are listed here:
👉 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

🖼️ Thumbnail Art:
Flag of Gondor under Sauron
LordBojangles
https://www.deviantart.com/lordbojangles

🎵 Audio:
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

“Darkness Haunts”
Tim Kulig
https://filmmusic.io/song/8696-darkne...

“Deep Ocean 2”
Frank Schroeter
https://filmmusic.io/song/7730-deep-o...

“The Death of a Dark Star”
MusicLFiles
https://filmmusic.io/song/7297-the-de...

❗ Disclaimer:
All videos are the result of my own research into the works of Tolkien unless stated otherwise. Permission and/or licenses have been obtained for the use of copyrighted material. All scripts and editing are my own work and property, and no AI tools have been used to create this video.