What was the original working title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s original working title for The Lord of the Rings was The New Hobbit.

Tolkien began writing the sequel because his publisher wanted another book resembling The Hobbit. The early project was therefore treated as a new hobbit story, even though it gradually expanded into a much larger work involving the history, languages, peoples, and mythology of Middle-earth.

As the manuscript developed, the story became the epic now known as The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien submitted the completed work to his publisher in 1952, and it was eventually issued in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954, followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King in 1955.

The working title should not be confused with the titles of Christopher Tolkien’s posthumously published volumes. The Return of the Shadow is the title of the first volume in The History of The Lord of the Rings, which examines drafts and revisions rather than serving as Tolkien’s original name for the novel.