[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

I believe that in one of the HoME books -- in the chapter dealing with "The New Shadow," JRRT's own abandoned start to a sequel -- it is said that the reason he gave it up was because he felt it would not really add to the mythical/legendary aspect of his body of work. As I recall, he felt it would be just another adventure story, derivative of what had already been written and therefore redundant and superfluous. It would have been writing more just to write more, to satisfy his publishers and readers but not his own designs in creating and writing about his world.

I tend to agree with him. More adventures are things for the fan writers. A true sequel should be something more mythological in nature, bringing the cycle -- which Tolkien created to be a mythology for England -- another significant step closer to the historical world. The "new shadow" would probably not be another incarnation of Sauron, since Tolkien was clear that in the destruction of the Ring, so much of him was expended, he would never rise again. It could, however, be another fallen Maia -- or more likely, I think, fallen Men attempting to emulate the Dark Lords of previous ages. Inevitably, the dynasty of Aragorn and his heirs will fall. It did not survive into historical times. But why not? What happened that so totally obliterated evidence of that Golden Age in the distant past? Wars, pestilence, nature -- all of the above?