ONLY after watching all three of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit films I pressed myself to read both The Hobbit for the first time in English, and John D. Rateliff's The History of The Hobbit, an edition of Tolkien's papers during the making of the story. It is in the line of The History of Middle-earth, but Christopher Tolkien had not undertaken the task due to the book not belonging (in the author's first conception of it) to J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium (invented mythology).
I can't but praise Rateliff's work on The Hobbit, especially the broad scope he uses in his comments on Tolkien's possible inspirations and models. They build up on Tolkien's stature as an author and scholar. And the connections between even those early stages and first edition of The Hobbit and the legendarium are shown to be so pervasive that I've even experienced again the feeling of the discovery of new things in Middle-earth, something that, after reading back and forth, once and again on it, I deemed to be impossible.
More in particular, the constant parallels that The Hobbit draws from the Silmarillion (to call briefly the ever revised mythological texts, not just the book finally published in 1977) lead me to speculate on which differences would there have been between the Middle-earth that Tolkien created as a framework for The Lord of the Rings during or after its writing, and the Middle-earth that could have been if, before creating The Lord of the Rings, he had decided to embed The Hobbit into the legendarium taking advantage of their mutual influences, which have been exposed by Rateliff.
So I've put together the elements taken from Tolkien's works in the years in which The Hobbit was created (roughly, the 30's decade), both from The History of The Hobbit and The History of Middle-earth (in this case volumes IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, a bit from the earliest geographical concepts in VII: The Treason of Isengard, vol. 2 of "The History of The Lord of the Rings"), and some details from later concepts and stories. Then I will try to establish some general timeline of events of Middle-earth within that frame.
To begin with, let us compile some elements that Rateliff points to in his keen commentaries in The History of the Hobbit (the numbering refers to its chapters and sections). Please keep in mind these are not "canonical" equations, just points where Tolkien borrowed from himself that will allow us to create a Middle-earth history alternative to the one finally the author defined:
I(a).iii. and I(c).iii. The Taur-na-Fuin to which Thû the necromancer of "The Lay of Leithian" flies is Mirkwood (or a part of the same woodland continuum), Thû being the Necromancer of The Hobbit (this would eventually be Tolkien's choice, since Thû is the same character that was later called Sauron, see the name evolution in The Lost Road, chapter II: "The Fall of Númenor"). As Rateliff explains:
I can't but praise Rateliff's work on The Hobbit, especially the broad scope he uses in his comments on Tolkien's possible inspirations and models. They build up on Tolkien's stature as an author and scholar. And the connections between even those early stages and first edition of The Hobbit and the legendarium are shown to be so pervasive that I've even experienced again the feeling of the discovery of new things in Middle-earth, something that, after reading back and forth, once and again on it, I deemed to be impossible.
More in particular, the constant parallels that The Hobbit draws from the Silmarillion (to call briefly the ever revised mythological texts, not just the book finally published in 1977) lead me to speculate on which differences would there have been between the Middle-earth that Tolkien created as a framework for The Lord of the Rings during or after its writing, and the Middle-earth that could have been if, before creating The Lord of the Rings, he had decided to embed The Hobbit into the legendarium taking advantage of their mutual influences, which have been exposed by Rateliff.
So I've put together the elements taken from Tolkien's works in the years in which The Hobbit was created (roughly, the 30's decade), both from The History of The Hobbit and The History of Middle-earth (in this case volumes IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, a bit from the earliest geographical concepts in VII: The Treason of Isengard, vol. 2 of "The History of The Lord of the Rings"), and some details from later concepts and stories. Then I will try to establish some general timeline of events of Middle-earth within that frame.
To begin with, let us compile some elements that Rateliff points to in his keen commentaries in The History of the Hobbit (the numbering refers to its chapters and sections). Please keep in mind these are not "canonical" equations, just points where Tolkien borrowed from himself that will allow us to create a Middle-earth history alternative to the one finally the author defined:
I(a).iii. and I(c).iii. The Taur-na-Fuin to which Thû the necromancer of "The Lay of Leithian" flies is Mirkwood (or a part of the same woodland continuum), Thû being the Necromancer of The Hobbit (this would eventually be Tolkien's choice, since Thû is the same character that was later called Sauron, see the name evolution in The Lost Road, chapter II: "The Fall of Númenor"). As Rateliff explains:
Comparison of the first Silmarillion map in Volume IV of The History of Middle Earth with Fimbulfambi's Map [Tolkien's first one of Erebor & surroundings] shows a striking parallelism in the former's placement of Taur-na-Fuin and Dor-na-Fauglith [Anfauglith...], and the latter's Wild Wood and Withered Heath; if the two were blended, the Mountain [Erebor] would probably be to the southeast of [...] Dorthonion [...], near where Tolkien would later place the Hill of Himring,
though
Its geographical location shifts as the "Third Age" of Middle-earth slowly takes shape in its own right through the writing of The Hobbit.
I(c).i. and III. There are two races of dwarves: the Indrafangs of Belegost of whom the dwarves of The Hobbit descend, and the Nauglath of Nogrod.
I(c).ii. and XIX.ii. The mines of Moria have no specific connection to any of the aforementioned dwarven realms, being only the place where Thorin's father "went" and Thorin's grandfather was murdered. They just seem to be one of the goblin mines in the Misty Mountains.
III.iii. The Elrond from The Hobbit is the same appearing in the Silmarillion stories (as it eventually happened, when The Lord of the Rings was developed).
IV.i. Quoting Rateliff: "There seems to be no connection between the goblins of the Misty Mountains and the Necromancer".
V.iii. Quote: "Bilbo's ring is not the same as Frodo's in its nature nor its powers [...] Gollum's ring is a simple ring of invisibility", "simply a magical ring that makes you (mostly) invisible"; and of course the whole matter of the Rings of Power does not exist in The Hobbit. Nor seems Gollum to be a hobbit at all, but a creature of the dark caves (V.i.).
IX.iii. The Elvenking is Thingol himself, allowed to be re-incarnated to reign again over the remnants of his former people and their kin who abandoned the Great Journey before coming to Beleriand.
IX.v. The Dorwinion of "The Lay of the Children of Húrin" and of The Hobbit is one and the same. It would however be a region more extended from the Sea of Rhûn towards the lands finally known as Gondor than what we know from the definitive map of NW Middle-earth: that allows a position to both south of Beleriand and south-east of Mirkwood, the different locations in Tolkien's concept of the land bearing that name (see map below).
XI.i. The Withered Heath is the remainder of Dor-na-Fauglith (> Anfauglith), so that the dragons didn't flee anywhere at the drowning of Angband: they simply stayed there in a kind of hibernation.
XIV.ii. The Arkenstone is one of the Silmarils, cast by one of Feanor's sons to a volcanic pit after robbing it and proving they had no right to their possession any more.
And now adding some other facts coming from those volumes IV and V of The History of Middle-earth (now with references to the volumes and chapters):
IV.V. "The Ambarkanta": The Misty Mountains don't appear in the general outline of Middle-earth geography because they are introduced by The Hobbit. Not existing any distinctive mention to them, they could be equated with any other of the major world-level ranges (Blue, Red, Grey, Yellow, Iron, and Wind), and the Blue Mountains are the most natural choice, being the NW range.
VI.XXIII. By the way, the White Mountains of Gondor were on their turn a product of The Lord of the Rings, see vol. VI: The Return of the Shadow, and could be considered a part of the Blue, according to the shape of these in the Map V of "The Ambarkanta".
V.II.ii. "The first version of The Fall of Númenor" incorporates this tale as an epilogue to the history of Beleriand told in the Silmarillion. Here we already have the story of the conversion of many Númenóreans to the worship of Morgoth by Thû (who comes to Númenor not in chains, but apparently on his own initiative "in the likeness of a great bird" (§5), maybe the fair version of his known ability to take the shape of a bat).
In §14 we are told that after the drowning of Númenor, "Amroth was King of [the Númenóreans of] Beleriand", and allying with Elrond and the elves of Beleriand he waged war on Thû: here arises the concept of the War of the Last Alliance, and probably also the origin of the name "Dol Amroth", which appears in the Gondorian geography developed in The Lord of the Rings (see VII.XV, "The First Map of The Lord of the Rings"), though later it was given a different explanation as the name "Amroth" itself was replaced by "Elendil" and given to an elf-lord of moving parentage.
In battle, this Amroth is slain by Thû, who is however defeated and flees "to a dark forest", his very familiar place to hide. And in the next recasting of Thû's defeat (V.II.iv. The second version of The Fall of Númenor), Tolkien is more specific when he tells that his fortresses were in Mordor (first appearance of the name) and that he
All in all, if I go on with the premise that the Hobbit sequel would ultimately tell the involvement of Bilbo (or of a relative and heir of his) in the events around Thû's definitive defeat, in my opinion some possible moments for the story told in The Hobbit to take place could be:
So let us finally go on to my "never-came-to-be" chronology, for which I provide two "compressed NW Middle-earth" maps below. I give no exact years as this is just a speculative sketch, only general reference points in some cases:
The remarkable consequence of this alternative Middle-earth that never came to be is that the Third Age of the Sun that is a part of the Rings of Power story disappears. It is an expectable missing, since Tolkien developed the story for The Lord of the Rings.
In a geographic parallel, the moves of the peoples and characters in the geography of the later legendarium are reduced in a step: neither the elves cross two ranges in the Great Journey, nor due to the Wars of Beleriand do elves, the Great Eagles, etc. have to take a so long journey to their positions in The Hobbit. Even the afterwards-created character of Galadriel, had she ever appeared in the Hobbit sequel at all, would have had to take less steps until finally becoming the lady of Lórien.
As can be seen in the maps below, the general geographic scenario puts together the map of Wilderland from The Hobbit and the map of Beleriand from the 30's Silmarillion, plus some elements drawn from the Ambarkanta, Tolkien's first Lord of the Rings map, and finally some details from later stages of the legendarium. I've taken the drawings for those two main parts from "Mapping Arda - Reloaded" (Other Minds #2), and manually drawn the rest. The lands under the shadow at different moments are shown in grey.
This would be NW Middle-earth after the Unnumbered Tears:
III.iii. The Elrond from The Hobbit is the same appearing in the Silmarillion stories (as it eventually happened, when The Lord of the Rings was developed).
IV.i. Quoting Rateliff: "There seems to be no connection between the goblins of the Misty Mountains and the Necromancer".
V.iii. Quote: "Bilbo's ring is not the same as Frodo's in its nature nor its powers [...] Gollum's ring is a simple ring of invisibility", "simply a magical ring that makes you (mostly) invisible"; and of course the whole matter of the Rings of Power does not exist in The Hobbit. Nor seems Gollum to be a hobbit at all, but a creature of the dark caves (V.i.).
IX.iii. The Elvenking is Thingol himself, allowed to be re-incarnated to reign again over the remnants of his former people and their kin who abandoned the Great Journey before coming to Beleriand.
IX.v. The Dorwinion of "The Lay of the Children of Húrin" and of The Hobbit is one and the same. It would however be a region more extended from the Sea of Rhûn towards the lands finally known as Gondor than what we know from the definitive map of NW Middle-earth: that allows a position to both south of Beleriand and south-east of Mirkwood, the different locations in Tolkien's concept of the land bearing that name (see map below).
XI.i. The Withered Heath is the remainder of Dor-na-Fauglith (> Anfauglith), so that the dragons didn't flee anywhere at the drowning of Angband: they simply stayed there in a kind of hibernation.
XIV.ii. The Arkenstone is one of the Silmarils, cast by one of Feanor's sons to a volcanic pit after robbing it and proving they had no right to their possession any more.
And now adding some other facts coming from those volumes IV and V of The History of Middle-earth (now with references to the volumes and chapters):
IV.V. "The Ambarkanta": The Misty Mountains don't appear in the general outline of Middle-earth geography because they are introduced by The Hobbit. Not existing any distinctive mention to them, they could be equated with any other of the major world-level ranges (Blue, Red, Grey, Yellow, Iron, and Wind), and the Blue Mountains are the most natural choice, being the NW range.
VI.XXIII. By the way, the White Mountains of Gondor were on their turn a product of The Lord of the Rings, see vol. VI: The Return of the Shadow, and could be considered a part of the Blue, according to the shape of these in the Map V of "The Ambarkanta".
V.II.ii. "The first version of The Fall of Númenor" incorporates this tale as an epilogue to the history of Beleriand told in the Silmarillion. Here we already have the story of the conversion of many Númenóreans to the worship of Morgoth by Thû (who comes to Númenor not in chains, but apparently on his own initiative "in the likeness of a great bird" (§5), maybe the fair version of his known ability to take the shape of a bat).
In §14 we are told that after the drowning of Númenor, "Amroth was King of [the Númenóreans of] Beleriand", and allying with Elrond and the elves of Beleriand he waged war on Thû: here arises the concept of the War of the Last Alliance, and probably also the origin of the name "Dol Amroth", which appears in the Gondorian geography developed in The Lord of the Rings (see VII.XV, "The First Map of The Lord of the Rings"), though later it was given a different explanation as the name "Amroth" itself was replaced by "Elendil" and given to an elf-lord of moving parentage.
In battle, this Amroth is slain by Thû, who is however defeated and flees "to a dark forest", his very familiar place to hide. And in the next recasting of Thû's defeat (V.II.iv. The second version of The Fall of Númenor), Tolkien is more specific when he tells that his fortresses were in Mordor (first appearance of the name) and that he
was thrown down, and his bodily shape destroyed, and his servants were dispelled, and the host of Beleriand destroyed his dwelling; but Thû's spirit fled far away, and was hidden in waste places, and took no shape again for many ages.The matter of Númenor would ultimately result in the Second Age of the Sun, but here we still have no chronology and the "there remains still a legend of Beleriand" (§14) gives, I think, an idea of those events happening in a timespan much shorter than some 3300 years. Nor we have anyhow a reference of the lapse between the Fall of Númenor and this "Last Alliance".
All in all, if I go on with the premise that the Hobbit sequel would ultimately tell the involvement of Bilbo (or of a relative and heir of his) in the events around Thû's definitive defeat, in my opinion some possible moments for the story told in The Hobbit to take place could be:
- after Morgoth being overthrown and ousted, but before Thû's journey to Númenor (therefore from his main stronghold of Dol Guldur), so that between The Hobbit and its sequel, or in the sequel itself we would have the drowning of Númenor and rounding of Arda;
- between Thû's stay in Númenor (of whose cataclysmic drowning the hobbits would have some memory, at least a vague one) and Thû's defeat by the alliance of men and elves, which could even be told in the sequel;
- after Thû's defeat by the alliance, which would then not be a definitive one, this having to be moved to a later time (that was in the end the option developed by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings).
So let us finally go on to my "never-came-to-be" chronology, for which I provide two "compressed NW Middle-earth" maps below. I give no exact years as this is just a speculative sketch, only general reference points in some cases:
- When the Valar pass to Aman, Melkor, whose main stronghold is Utumno, builds an outpost in Angband, and prepares his dominion over the regions south of the Iron Mountains by digging tunnels in the ranges connected to the Iron Mountains, and creating volcanoes from which the Balrogs and other powerful servants can spread his power. Some of these are future Gondolin, Dol Guldur, Erebor, and Orodruin.
- The War of the Powers destroys and sinks Utumno into Ulmo's realm, and the volcanoes are left alone, and some become extinct. The highlands north of Beleriand are raised by the cataclysmic fights.
- The dwarves appear in the Blue Mountains. Some say they are creatures seeded by Melkor in his tunnels, but redeemed by Aule after the war when he discovered them. That is the reason given for their lust for gold, similar to the dragon-sickness (Rateliff XIV.i), and for the wicked acts that are more typical of one of their races, the Nauglath of Nogrod. The other race, the Indrafangs (Longbeards) of Belegost are more friendly to the elves.
- Under the guidance of Melian, the elves of Beleriand clear the darkness of the forests of their land, in contrast with the Mirkwood that extends from the remains of Utumno to the Blue Mountains.
- After the return of Melkor/Morgoth and the pursuing noldor to Middle-earth, they engage in an intermittent war for several centuries, Morgoth from Angband and the noldor from Beleriand and the highlands. Thus Morgoth's power is mainly held back in NW Middle-earth.
- When the noldor suffer their first great defeat in the Dagor Bragollach, Morgoth sends Thû to darken again the woods north of Doriath.
- Men eventually come to Beleriand and ally themselves to the noldor. A small stature human people, the hobbits, come there too, but live secretively in the Taur-im-Duinath, that had been before unpopulated.
- After the terrible defeat of the noldor in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, some of the elves of Beleriand, led by Galadriel daughter of Finarfin, cross the Blue Mountains and in the eastern side establish the lordship of Lothlórien over some of the wood-elves, creating inside the Mirkwood a core from which to liberate that old forest from its darkness, as Melian had done in Beleriand in the past.
- Morgoth's minions overrun most of Beleriand, and start spreading south. They go down the Blue Mountains again and occupy many of its tunnels and make war on the dwarves. These suffer a further setback after some nauglath smiths kill Thingol, King of the wood-elves of Beleriand, over the payment of their works in the Nauglamír or its possession: the green-elves led by Beren ambush and annihilate them. Thenceforth the leading dwarven kingdom is Belegost, though relations between elves and all dwarves are strained forever.
- When Morgoth is overthrown by the army of Valinor, Angband is sunk, and a part of Beleriand and the highlands are riven and invaded by the sea too. The dwarven halls are also greatly destroyed and dwarves seek new homes east of the Blue Mountains, as other inhabitants of Beleriand do.
- Maedhros and Maglor rob the two Silmarils recovered from Morgoth, but having no right to hold them, and torn by physical and spiritual pain, Maglor throws his to the advancing sea, while Maedhros flies east until he finally casts himself with the Silmaril into Erebor, one of Morgoth's volcanoes rekindled by the cataclysms.
- The Valar decree pardon and rewards for those who have fought Morgoth, and to proclaim it, Fionwe, herald of Manwe, sends some Maiar, who in the guise of wizards will stay in Middle-earth to watch over the fulfilment of the Valar's will. Chief of them are Gandalf and Radagast.
- To the noldor the Valar lift the prohibition to return to Valinor, and many of them, as well as other elves, set sail to the West. The elves who stay in the remaining regions of Beleriand are led by Elrond, who takes refuge in a house in one of the western valleys of the Blue Mountains.
- The Valar appoint the re-extinguished volcano of Erebor as a kingdom for the Longbeards, and as a gift from Aule, Maedhros's Silmaril (called the Arkenstone by the dwarves) is recovered from the depths and held as a heirloom of the royal line.
- For the Fathers of Men the island of Númenor is raised in the Great Sea, and for several generations their kingdom grows, and some of them settle back in the southernmost regions of Beleriand, the Belfalas.
- Thingol is allowed to re-incarnate and comes back to Middle-earth to reign over his lost people, the Teleri wood-elves of Mirkwood.
- Some four centuries after Morgoth's defeat, Thû, who had been in hiding in his stronghold of Dol Guldur, south of Mirkwood, since his defeat by Lúthien and Huan, comes out when he flies to Númenor in the shape of a bird, and preaches salvation through the worship of Morgoth. He achieves the destruction of Númenor when he convinces the king to conquer immortality taking Valinor by force, and the Valar destroy the island and make the world round. This cataclysm further sinks Beleriand, drowning most of the islands; the hobbits have to flee from the coastland, and after this they shun the sea.
- Thû comes back to Dol Guldur and takes possession of one of Morgoth's active volcanoes, Orodruin, around which, in the land of Mordor, he starts building fortresses with the intention to install himself as a new Dark Lord; at that moment evil creatures have no unified purpose (Rateliff XII.ii), and maybe only bats and the great spiders that have darkened Mirkwood are under his influence.
- Further pressed by the advance of the sea, some dragons come to the light in the Withered Heath, a region formerly part of Angband. The largest of them, Smaug, attracted by the gold treasure of the thriving kingdom of Erebor, attacks the Longbeards and ousts them from there. They go back to the Blue Mountains, now more humid and full of mists, because of which they are now more usually named the Misty Mountains. They find them so infested by goblins that recovering their old kingdom of Belegost is revealed an impossible endeavour, though they still fight a bitter war culminated by the massacre of the mines of Moria, and they build their dwellings in the western foothills.
- Some two centuries after the drowning of Númenor, the events described in The Hobbit take place.
- Events in the Hobbit sequel in which Bilbo's nephew and heir is involved: in Belfalas, the remaining Númenóreans raise their charismatic leader Amroth (after whom his growing, favored hometown and base has been renamed Dol Amroth) as King, and under Gandalf's advice they ally to Elrond and his elves of Beleriand to fight Thû. To this Last Alliance join the old Wizards, Galadriel, Thingol, the Longbeard dwarves, the Eagles, the Ents, and all the enemies of darkness, and Thû is destroyed for the last time, his spirit becoming a shadow for ever, and his fortresses razed to the ground. This war hastens the fading of the elves, and many of them set sail to the West, while the lingerers are only shadows and can only be seen by mortals when deliberately making the effort.
In a geographic parallel, the moves of the peoples and characters in the geography of the later legendarium are reduced in a step: neither the elves cross two ranges in the Great Journey, nor due to the Wars of Beleriand do elves, the Great Eagles, etc. have to take a so long journey to their positions in The Hobbit. Even the afterwards-created character of Galadriel, had she ever appeared in the Hobbit sequel at all, would have had to take less steps until finally becoming the lady of Lórien.
As can be seen in the maps below, the general geographic scenario puts together the map of Wilderland from The Hobbit and the map of Beleriand from the 30's Silmarillion, plus some elements drawn from the Ambarkanta, Tolkien's first Lord of the Rings map, and finally some details from later stages of the legendarium. I've taken the drawings for those two main parts from "Mapping Arda - Reloaded" (Other Minds #2), and manually drawn the rest. The lands under the shadow at different moments are shown in grey.
This would be NW Middle-earth after the Unnumbered Tears:
And this just before the Last Alliance:
- O -
HOWEVER, a more compact geography would be reached if we directly equated the first set of parallels we mentioned above, i.e.:
- Mirkwood = Dorthonion;
- Dor-na-Fauglith = Withered Heath;
- Himring = Erebor.
- Misty Mountains = Erydlómin (> Ered Wethrin), actually being the border of Hithlum ("Mist Shadow", or "Land of Mist" in The Silmarillion), and therefore bearing the same "misty" attribute. In the early Silmarillion map they are shown in the middle of several lands marked (as others are) "ORC-RAIDS", so we can suppose the orcs/goblins would thrive again in the caves in this range after the War of Wrath.
- Great River = Sirion (or what the War of Wrath left of it).
- Woodmen = exactly the tribe of Haleth who might have been their model (Rateliff X.ii).
- Grey Mountains = Iron Mountains (the final Ered Mithrin were actually a remainder of the Ered Engrin), or even the later Ered Gorgoroth.
- Mountains of Mirkwood = Andram, also a not too high range, that in time could have become forested.
- Elvenking's Halls = outright Menegroth, where Thingol would be reigning again.
- Forest River = Esgalduin River (< Esgaduin), its course changed to the East, but in any case showing a nice coincidence (was it in Tolkien's mind?, Rateliff XIII.iv) between the names Esgaduin and Esgaroth, where the river enters Long Lake.
- River Running (Celduin) = Celon (another nice coincidence, two hydronyms with the same meaning).
- Iron Hills = foothills of the Blue Mountains.
- The Necromancer's fortress (> Dol Guldur) would have been placed in in the new forests formed just south of the Andram, that would then have become invaded and darkened by the spiders, much as the Misty Mountains/Erydlómin would have been infested by orcs/goblins. Or maybe it was Amon Ereb itself (though it's there where Maedhros, Maglor and Elrond lived before Morgoth was overthrown, according to the contemporary Silmarillion, so Thû could only take abode there after the noldor abandoned it).
- Therefore, finally both the hobbit country and Rivendell would have been placed within the limits of Hithlum (no doubt its climate made milder by changes due to the destruction of Angband or the expulsion of Morgoth), Hithlum having been cleared of Morgoth's servants by the War of Wrath.
This scenario could allow a chronology even shorter than the one presented above, The Hobbit story becoming a continuation to the tale of the First Age, and producing that the Erebor to which Maedhros would have cast himself with the Silmaril was Himring itself, so that he would not have fled far to the East, but to his home of old. To make the map of Beleriand match the map of Wilderland, it would have to be stretched in the North-South direction, or to overlay the whole Hobbit geography on the Silmarillion map we could assume the changes in Beleriand would have been brought about by the War of Wrath. The map thusly shaped would be something like this:
- O -
BUT STILL we could abridge the history one step further, and it was pointed to by Tolkien himself when creating The Hobbit. This story would have to happen even before the fall of Morgoth, since Tolkien, in the first stages of its writing, and when its end was far from definite, thought of that option (Rateliff I(c).iii), because "less than a century has passed between those events [the defeat of the Necromancer by Lúthien and Huan] and the time of our story". Later Tolkien, when settling the final scenario and environment for the story, removed the reference to that event and opted for a longer timespan. If he had never done that, The Hobbit would have ended up being not a Silmarillion epilogue, but actually one of its chapters, and what would its possible sequel have told? One of the final defeats against Morgoth? Would it have been incorporated into one of the then well established tales (Túrin, Gondolin, the Nauglamír and Doriath)? Or maybe... the War of Wrath itself? Intriguing, but already too far suppositions.