“Sauron Defeated” marks the ninth volume of Christopher Tolkien’s epic “History of Middle Earth” project. In the first part, Christopher reviews the final stages of the drafting of The Lord of the Rings. The most interesting early fragments come from The Scouring of the Shire. Early drafts show what could have been, with Frodo taking on a warlike persona which feels clearly “wrong”, but nonetheless fascinating. There is also a rather delightful epilogue with Sam’s children that is excellently written and reinforces the themes of wonder and melancholy of LoTR.

But the real gem in this book is “The Notion Club Papers”, specifically Part Two. Here, Tolkien lays out a metatextual narrative, with a character hearing echoes and dreams of languages and stories from Middle Earth. This lines up well with how Tolkien himself has described “discovering” or “finding” the stories of Middle Earth, rather than “inventing” them. We can only wonder how much this fictional account reflected some of Tolkien’s genuine feelings: “I’ve been painfully trying to indicate that I do *not* believe that this stuff is ‘invented’, not by me at any rate.”

I place this at 4 stars despite these wonderful sections because I freely admit that the first part of The Notion Club Papers, and the philological discussions at the end of the book, sailed over my head. Fans of C. S. Lewis’ science-fiction novels may find more to enjoy from Part One of The Notion Club Papers. But I still heartily recommend this book, particularly to anyone who has ever been intrigued by Tolkien’s musings that he did not “invent” Middle Earth, but rather “discovered” it.