The Shadow of the Past

"The Shadow of the Past" is the second chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy work, The Lord of the Rings, which was published in 1954–1955. Tolkien called it "the crucial chapter";^[1] the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey labelled it "the vital chapter".^[2] This is because it represents both the moment that Tolkien devised the central plot of the book, and the point in the story where the protagonist, Frodo Baggins, and the reader realise that there will be a quest to destroy the Ring. A sketch of it was among the first parts of the book to be written, early in 1938; later that year, it was one of three chapters of the book that he drafted. In 1944, he returned to the chapter, adding descriptions of Gollum, the Ring, and the hunt for Gollum.

The chapter changes the book's tone from the first chapter's light-hearted hobbit partying, and introduces major themes of the book. These include a sense of the depth of time behind unfolding events, the power of the Ring, and the inter-related questions of providence, free will, and predestination.

Peter Jackson, in his Lord of the Rings film trilogy, splits up Gandalf's description of the Ring's history to Frodo and compresses other parts of his talk.