HarperCollins, 2002. Zwarte paperback met op het omslag "Gandalf Returns to Bag End" door John Howe. Eerste deel in de serie die over het schrijven van In de Ban van de Ring handelt.*
In The Return of the Shadow are traced the first forms of the story of The Lord of the Rings; herein the journey of the hobbit who bore the great ring, at first named Bingo but afterwards Frodo, is followed from Hobbiton in the Shire through the Old Forest to Weathertop and Rivendell, and ends in this volume before the tomb of Balin, the Dwarf-lord of Moria.
