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The History of Middle-Earth #7

The Treason of Isengard: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part 2

j.r.r. tolkien christopher tolkien

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The Treason of Isengard continues the account of the creation of The Lord of the Rings started in the earlier volume, The Return of the Shadow.

It traces the great expansion of the tale into new lands and peoples south and east of the Misty Mountains: the emergence of Lothlórien, of Ents, of the Riders of Rohan, and of Saruman the White in the fortress of Isengard.

In brief outlines and pencilled drafts dashed down on scraps of paper are seen the first entry of Galadriel, the earliest ideas of the history of Gondor, and the original meeting of Aragorn and Éowyn, its significance destined to be wholly transformed.

The book also contains a full account of the original map which was to be the basis of the emerging geography of Middle-earth; and an appendix examines the Runic alphabets, with illustrations of the forms and an analysis of the Runes used in the Book of Mazarbul found beside Balin's tomb in Moria.

512 pages, Paperback

First published November 30,1989
Series
The History of Middle-Earth

This edition

Format
512 pages, Paperback
Published
February 4, 2002 by HarperCollins
ISBN
ASIN
Language
English

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About the author

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j.r.r. tolkien

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien's most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium' that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children's stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.

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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
LightNoragami1
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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"The Treason of Isengard", was an interesting take on Sauraman's betrayal and eventual defeat by the Ents as well as the Battle of Helm's Deep. The editor's notes of Christopher Tolkien that explained how J.R.R Tolkien came up with the final form of these stories from "The Two Towers" were very informative. I'd recommend it to any fan of Middle Earth stories.
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Nilvius
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Still tremendously cool to track the journey of lotr to the page. Less enlightening than the previous volume because Tolkien clearly had more purpose than before, but still exhaustive and extremely interesting to fans. A singular work of scholarship, as part of the wider HOME.

Linguistic note: includes a quick treatise on runes.
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TheRealKing
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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This one was a tough one to finish tbh. Looking forward to the ones about the Silmarillion
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Grazzt
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Compared to The Return of the Shadow, this book just doesn't measure up. Much less fun trivia, more first draft paragraphs. Also, it frequently refers directly to the text of The Two Towers, as if it expects the reader to have he Two Towers available for reference at all times. This book was still interesting in showing how close Tolkien's prose is in his rough drafts to the final form, and in how uniquely he develops plot. Also, as someone who enjoyed reading LOTR more than the Silmarillion, it's bizarre that I now found myself wishing for the planned out complexity of the First Age storylines. You can tell Tolkien's passion was really in those stories.
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Faceorface
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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You know you're a nerd when the mention of Dairon and Rumil in the Rune appendices sends you into a little spiral of glee because "remember when Cirdan mentioned them in The Rings of Power I know those guys!!"
In all seriousness though, this was once again a very fun read and I have lots of facts now stored in my brain about the writing of LOTR that I will whip out at any given random moment. Seeing how Tolkien would plan out the story from different parts is so rough when you know what happens. What do you MEAN Boromir would have lived but turned traitor. I love seeing the progression from Ond to Ondor to Gondor and the mess that is What is Aragorn's Actual Name. Even Galadriel wasn't really developed until he realized how powerful she actually was. As I probably said before, it's really inspiring to see Tolkien's process and how he also did not know everything he was doing. Now it is time for me to get back to the massive restructuring of my story.
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guapotrist
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Sedma knjiga Istorije Srednje Zemlje i druga knjiga koja prati nastajanje Gospodara Prstenova.
Ova knjiga se nastavlja na predhodnu, i veoma je zanimljivo pratiti Tolknov tok misli o idejama vezanim za radnju i svaki karakter ponaosob. Sve je manje vise na vec dobro znanom putu, medjutim alternativne ideje cesto nam daju neke od najzanimljivijih informacija koje ne mozete da nadjete u zavrsnom tekstu Druzine Prstena ili Dve kule, ali veoma realno leliujaju u pozadini. Svakome ko je procitao Gospodara Prstenova bice veoma zanimljivo da se upusti u ovaj, slobodno mogu reci, visi nivo analize najpoznatijeg dela fantastike.
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sneepsnop
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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As always, it is delightful to realize Tolkien was a fairly normal author. I love the moments of Christopher's confusion and annoyance. They're so funny. I love that Tolkien wrote on every scrap of paper he could get his hands on. I love that when he had to change the timeline, Tolkien missed a couple of moments. I love that Tolkien also had imperfections and went back and forth over whether it was Gandalf or Saurman that the Three saw outside of Fangorn. I laughed at the point where Tolkien apparently forgot that Gimli was present. Most of all, I was delighted to discover that Aragorn didn't say "other" but "others" in reference to Pippin's small size. The singular and utterly out of character "other" was a typo. Excuse me while I go correct all my copies of LOTR.
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