TORN’s latest library piece tackles the tantalizingly-enigmatic event of the Dagor Dagorath. Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of Tolkien’s fantasy world is its literal creation and ultimate destruction.
The Last Battle has found itself scattered in many of the author’s works but never before has it been compiled together as one tale. The following article has attempted such a task …
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Introduction
Many mythologies in literature make several references to their own interpretation of events related to the end of the world. No different is the case in J.R.R. Tolkien’s own fantasy world. Clues are to be found sparsely scattered in some of his major works – hinting at the end of the world and the rebuilding of Arda.
Christopher Tolkien however, has made it somewhat clear that the concept of the Dagor Dagorath (“the battle of all battles”), was abandoned earlier on from his father’s mythology, due to a number of reasons. Conflicting accounts and unsustainable bases seemed to indicate that this event had no possible place within Middle-earth’s ranging history and it ever seeing the light of day seems altogether dim.
Nonetheless, that does not mean that one cannot embark on a journey of research, trying to piece the existing fragments together; collating early drafts with more revised ones and fleshing out an account of the details of events that lead to the Last Battle itself.
That is precisely the purpose of this article. To use entirely Tolkien’s own words (whenever possible) and to construct a thorough and flowing tale of all the known facts of the Last Battle – structuring it in such a way as to be a fitting chapter within the legendarium, and acting as a kind of appendix perhaps in the last page of The Silmarillion or a short chapter in Unfinished Tales.
