Sauron Defeated is the 9th book in The Complete History of Middle-earth volume series and last book concerning The Lord of the Rings. This book is divided into three sections. The first section covers the writings regarding the ending of the epic tale of the Lord of the Rings. Here we get to read a significant amount of the Battle of Bywater! But perhaps what struck the most to me was the writings regarding the departure, end, and epilogue of The Lord of the Rings. The beauty of reading The Complete History of Middle-earth is getting to know the unpublished versions of the story, or in some cases a significant large amount of new content extending the story. Christopher Tolkien’s literary analysis also includes quotes and snippets from his father’s letters. Which in this book, we get read the longer version of the ending of the Lord of the Rings that Tolkien himself later regretted of not having it to incorporated as the official ending.

The second part of this book is regarding The Notion Club Papers. This consists of texts Tolkien wrote during his time being part of a literary scholarly club at Oxford. While some of the material we’ve already seen in The Lays of Beleriand and on The Lost Road and Other Writings.  Here we get to see how the influence his peers had in his works. Particularly how the legends of Atlantis and European history influence in Tolkien’s Legendarium.

The third part of this book is regarding The Drowning of Anadûnê. Closely related to part of two of this book, we finally get see the evolution of the history and narrative of Númenor and its direct link from the myths in the Silmarillion to world of The Lord of the Rings.