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Exploring Tolkien's Fourth Age - Page 2

© Michael Martinez

Tolkien decided that he could have written a thriller about the discovery and overthrow of the cult, which would have been plotting the overthrow of Eldarion. But such a story did not interest him, even though it surely would interest his many readers. Borlas might not have remained the primary character, but he could have been instrumental in initiating or catalyzing whatever countermeasures Eldarion's supporters would take against the cult. Middle-earth would of course have to be a very different place from the world described in The Lord of the Rings. If we assume the later dating of the story, around the year 220 of the Second Age, would have remained fixed, then we can deduce a few things about the state of the world. For instance, in The Peoples of Middle-earth we learn that Durin VII, the Dwarven king destined to restore the Longbeard Dwarves to Moria, would probably have been the son of Thorin III Stonehelm, the son of Dain II Ironfoot. Thorin III was born in the year 2866 of the Third Age, and he would have been 153 years old when his father died in the War of the Ring. Thorin probably would not have lived to the end of Aragorn's reign (though Gimli, who was born in TA 2879, did live that long). Hence, Durin VII became King under the Mountain around the year Fourth Age 100. When did the Longbeard Dwarves return to Moria? Maybe early in Durin's reign, but probably not until after Aragorn's death. Undoubtedly the event would have occurred before the year 172 of the Fourth Age, when Findegil made the last recorded note in the Thain's Copy of the Red Book of Westmarch. So the recovery of Moria probably occurred between the years 120 and 172. Such an event would have resulted, perhaps, in one of the last wars with Orcs before the time of The New Shadow. Borlas, the aged protagonist of The New Shadow, could smell "the old evil", which apparently was the evil represented by the true Orcs, former servants of Sauron, and other creatures. Perhaps he would have fought these creatures in his youth. Indeed, in a letter Tolkien wrote to a reader in 1963, he noted of Faramir: as "Prince of Ithilien, the greatest noble after Dol Amroth in the revived Numenorean state of Gondor, soon to be of imperial power and prestige, was not a 'market-garden job'....Until much had been done by the restored King, the P. of Ithilien would be the resident march-warden of Gondor, in its main eastward outpost -- and also would have many duties in rehabilitating the lost territory, and of clearing it of outlaws and orc-remnants, not to speak of the dreadful vale of Minas Ithil (Morgul)" (Tolkien, "Letters", p. 323).

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