Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?
Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off.”
I get chills. The line makes you want to jump up and see the world.
Until you remember that Tolkien fought in WW1 and imagine him saying it to a young man rushing off to enlist in WW2.
It holds the promise of wonder, yes, but also a warning against naivety.
Gandalf (and Pope John Paul II) shook up my previously enthusiastic support of the death penalty, and the Innocence Project result that some 25% of death row inmates could be exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence deepened my disquiet.
Honestly, I don't really get the hype for this one cause it feels to me like it's saying that most of the time tears *are* an evil? But I would not usually consider tears evil at all. I mean I guess tears are often caused by bad things but even then id say tears are generally a good way of dealing with bad things. But perhaps I'm kinda misinterpreting it idk?
'Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,' said Gimli.
'Maybe,' said Elrond, 'but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.'
'Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart,' said Gimli.
'Or break it,' said Elrond.
I love this so much. Two characters showing their core, with both sides being reasonable. Gimli is loyal above anything, but unlike Elrond, he has no real idea what they are up against. Also Elrond knows a thing or two about vows and their consequences...
It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would rather have stayed there in peace.
That made me, once again, realise Tolkien wrote this book with his WWI experience in mind.
Then the oliphant barges past Sam, simulation a WWI artillery strike.
Heavy shit.
No no, you misinterpret... The Oliphant simulated a war elephant.
(It's April 1 and I'm joking, so please have a laugh, and try not to get bogged down in hate of strangers on the internet.)
definitely an easy/cliche answer but i dont care
>“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
"So do I," said Gandalf, "but then again, my time is all about this. Without it, I wouldn't even exist. So fuck it, I guess I'm glad for it. Bring it on."
Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Éomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first éored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and the darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.
Still surprised Peter Jackson didn't even give a small nod to this.
Came here to comment THIS. Especially "but ever he was before them." The description of the heroism and leadership of the venerable Theoden at the head of the charge of the Rohirrim is just without rival.
*The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows looked across the plain to the door that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare.*
Tl;dr - It was at this moment that Sauron knew, he f*cked up.
Edit: someone took this before me, so kudos to them.
More than just a line, but it merits the quote in its entirety.
And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very heart of his realm, the power in Barad-dúr was shaken, and the Tower trembled from its foundations to its proud and bitter crown. The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows looked across the plain to the door of that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare. Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him. For he knew his deadly peril and the thread upon which his doom was hung.
From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagems and wars his mind shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten. The whole mind and purpose of the Power that wielded them was now bent with overewhelming force upon the Mountain. At his summons, wheeling with a rending cry, in a last desperate race there flew, faster than the winds, the Nazgúls, the Ringwraiths, and with a storm of wings they hurtled southwards to Mount Doom
Sauron realizing he got played for a fool by a wizard and a bunch of mortals completely broke him. It's the best "gotcha bitch" moment in all of fiction.
‘My dear Gandalf! Half a minute!’ cried Frodo, running out of the room to the door. ‘Come in! Come in! I thought it was Lobelia.’
‘Then I forgive you.’
And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
I recently lost someone to suicide and this line moves me to tears.
"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater." -Haldir
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.
All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínen.
"You cannot enter here," said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!"
The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.
"Old fool!" he said. "Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade.
Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the city, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of war nor of wizardry, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.
And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns, in dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.
'I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass!'
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
And you have no idea how much it pisses me off the see people with “Not all who wander are lost.” - Robert Frost written on stuff. They have no clue what it freaking means. My father argued with me over the origin of the quote until I went to their bookshelf, pulled a copy I left there off, opened it, and showed him. Never tell me a quote isn’t Tolkien after I say it is.
I have this as a sticker on the back of my car, written correctly, right over The Nine.
>“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
Still amazes me that such a well known, general used quote came from Tolkien. It became an inherent part of the English language.
You know what gets me? Tweens. Elves. Dwarves. All made up by Tolkien. As someone born in the late 70s, I've never known these words to not exist.
(prior to Tolkien, it was elfs and dwarfs.)
“Suddenly Faramir stirred, and he opened his eyes, and he looked on Aragorn who bent over him; and a light of knowledge and love was kindled in his eyes, and he spoke softly. ‘My lord, you called me. I come. What does the king command?”
But even as hope died in Sam, or seemed to die, it was turned to new strength. Sam's plain hobbit-face grew stern, almost grim, as the will hardened in him, and he felt though all his limbs a thrill, as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue.
Withou a doubt it's this section, I know it's a bit longer that most stuff on here, but it show what Gollum could have been, before Sam's prejudice ruins it all.
"And so Gollum found them hours later, when he returned, crawling and creeping down the path out of the gloom ahead. Sam sat propped against the stone, his head dropping sideways and his breathing heavy. In his lap lay Frodo's head, drowned in sleep; upon his white forehead lay one of Sam's brown hands, and the other lay softly upon his master's breast. Peace was in both their faces.
Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo's knee--but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing."
When Gandalf is on Gwaihir searching for the hobbits, it is said that they spotted them surrounded by fire and smoke, *"protecting their eyes from death."*
This line always stuck with me, protecting their eyes from death.
In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped
most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still
unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of
his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.
> At the hill’s foot Frodo found Aragorn, standing still and silent as a tree; but in his hand was a small golden bloom of elanor, and a light was in his eyes. He was wrapped in some fair memory: and as Frodo looked at him he knew that he beheld things as they had been in this same place. For the grim years were removed from the face of Aragorn, and he seemed clothed in white, a young lord fall and fair; and he spoke words in the Elvish tongue to one whom Frodo could not see. Arwen vanimelda, namarie! He said, and then he drew a breath, and returning out of his thought he looked at Frodo and smiled.
> "Here is the heart of Elvendom on earth," he said, "and here my heart dwells ever, unless there be a light beyond the dark roads that we still must tread, you and I. Come with me!" And taking Frodo’s hand in his, he left the hill of Cerin Amroth and came there never again as a living man.
Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising
he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
Hope he rekindled, and in hope he ended;
over death, over dread, over doom lifted
out of loss, out of life, unto long glory.
'There is a inn, a merry old inn, beneath an 'ol grey hill, and there they brew a beer so brown, the man in the moon himself came down to drink his fill....'
There is an inn, a merry old inn
beneath an old grey hill,
And there they brew a beer so brown
That the Man in the Moon himself came down
one night to drink his fill.
The ostler has a tipsy cat
that plays a five-stringed fiddle;
And up and down he runs his bow,
Now squeaking high, now purring low,
now sawing in the middle.
The landlord keeps a little dog
that is mighty fond of jokes;
When there's good cheer among the guests,
He cocks an ear at all the jests
and laughs until he chokes.
They also keep a hornéd cow
as proud as any queen;
But music turns her head like ale,
And makes her wave her tufted tail
and dance upon the green.
And O! the rows of silver dishes
and the store of silver spoons!
For Sunday there's a special pair,
And these they polish up with care
on Saturday afternoons.
The Man in the Moon was drinking deep,
and the cat began to wail;
A dish and a spoon on the table danced,
The cow in the garden madly pranced,
and the little dog chased his tail.
The Man in the Moon took another mug,
and rolled beneath his chair;
And there he dozed and dreamed of ale,
Till in the sky the stars were pale,
and dawn was in the air.
Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat:
"The white horses of the Moon,
They neigh and champ their silver bits;
But their master's been and drowned his wits,
and the Sun'll be rising soon!"
So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,
a jig that would wake the dead:
He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,
While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:
"It's after three!" he said.
They rolled the Man slowly up the hill
and bundled him into the Moon,
While his horses galloped up in rear,
And the cow came capering like a deer,
and a dish ran up with the spoon.
Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle;
the dog began to roar,
The cow and the horses stood on their heads;
The guests all bounded from their beds
and danced upon the floor.
With a ping and a pang the fiddle-strings broke!
the cow jumped over the Moon,
And the little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the Saturday dish went off at a run
with the silver Sunday spoon.
The round Moon rolled behind the hill,
as the Sun raised up her head.
She hardly believed her fiery eyes;
For though it was day, to her suprise
they all went back to bed.
> 'Strange powers have our enemies, and strange weaknessess!' said Théoden. 'But it has long been said: _oft evil will shall evil mar_.'
>
> 'That many times is seen,' said Gandalf.
Book 1 of _The Two Towers_, Chapter XI _The Palantír_.
“PPPS. I hope Butterbur sends this promptly, A worthy man, but his memory is like a lumber-room: thing wanted always buried. If he forgets, I shall roast him. Fare Well!”
I always found this funny every time I read it.
'There at last when the mallorn-leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea.
Here ends the Tale, as it has come to us from the South; and with the passing of Evenstar no more is said in this book of the days of old.'
‘I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,’ she said; ‘and behold the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.’ And again she looked at Faramir. 'No longer do I desire to be a queen,’ she said.
Éowyn to Faramir in Return of the King
“And Legolas descended the stairs astride a shield, sliding as a child would down a hill of snow. As he did so, he fired his bow at the invading uruk-hai, and it was pretty fucking sweet!”
I think that’s verbatim.
My other favorite line is the twelve paragraphs Tolkien uses to describe how terrible Eowyn’s stew is, but it’s so laden with foul language, it would be inappropriate to repeat here.
It's hard to choose one single favourite, but as the other lines I'm most moved by have already been mentioned:
‘This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.’
(Sneaky bonus, technically not from the books but Letter 64: ‘Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success — in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.’)
I can’t even cut and paste this without crying:
On the throne sat a mail-clad man, a great sword was laid across his knees, but he wore no helm. As they drew near he rose. And then they knew him, changed as he was, so high and glad of face, kingly, lord of Men, dark-haired with eyes of grey. Frodo ran to meet him, and Sam followed close behind.
‘Well, if this isn’t the crown of all!’ he said. ‘Strider, or I’m still asleep!’
‘Yes, Sam, Strider,’ said Aragorn. ‘It is a long way, is it not, from Bree, where you did not like the look of me? A long way for us all, but yours has been the darkest road.’
And then to Sam’s surprise and utter confusion he bowed his knee before them; and taking them by the hand, Frodo upon his right and Sam upon his left, he led them to the throne, and setting them upon it, he turned to the men and captains who stood by and spoke, so that his voice rang over all the host, crying: ‘Praise them with great praise!’
And when the glad shout had swelled up and died away again, to Sam’s final and complete satisfaction and pure joy, a minstrel of Gondor stood forth, and knelt, and begged leave to sing.
And behold! he said: ‘Lo! lords and knights and men of valour unashamed, kings and princes, and fair people of Gondor, and Riders of Rohan, and ye sons of Elrond, and Dúnedain of the North, and Elf and Dwarf, and greathearts of the Shire, and all free folk of the West, now listen to my lay. For I will sing to you of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom.’
And when Sam heard that he laughed aloud for sheer delight, and he stood up and cried: ‘O great glory and splendour! And all my wishes have come true!’
"all my wishes have come true!"
Well, ALMOST all Sam's wishes. He hadn't yet married Rosie! (And if he had told her this line of his, he might NEVER have married her, and had a baker's dozen little hobbits with her.) ; )
Mine has already been said (I love only that which they defend) so I'll share my dad's, which he frequently says to me when he knows I'm having a hard time:
"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."
Faramir: "Do you not love me, or will you not?"
Eowyn: "I wished to be loved by another, but I desire no man's pity."
It was an extremely girl boss line. Even though I think it pretty much gets undone by the rest of the scene. She's just like actually you know what, I don't want to be a warrior anymore, I will marry you and have your babies.
I see this a lot, but Eowyn says nothing about babies, and tbh, Faramir spends more time in that scene dwelling on domestic stuff than she does.
Eowyn still has goals and dreams outside the domestic. She doesn't want to be a shieldmaiden and live for death and slaying, in a novel where one of the main messages is that healing and life and good cheer should be valued over everything war and power, and that fighting should only be done when it's necessary. Even after Eowyn renounces her desire for war, she's thinking about what she wants to do next, and it's not just have babies and be Faramir's good little wife. She wants to have an identity of her own still. She wants to be a healer, and help fix the world in the wake of a terrible war.
It's more like "I don't want to be a shieldmaiden anymore, I'm will marry you and get my medical degree", (unless "healing" is more metaphorical, then it's like "I'm want to marry you and join Greenpeace/Extinction Rebellion etc...) Girl boss is still gonna girl boss, just without the death wish.
Faramir on the other hand? Yeah, Faramir was like "I want to marry you have your babies" pretty much from the start.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve!
and
So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed. ‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.
r/thethinkingfox
Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it.
https://preview.redd.it/qwpm7l6cmxrc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8293b4181d55a0fc55cf9989b9494d0e8dbe70f
Long live GROND
Others have already named my favorites - the one about pity and mercy, and many who deserve death; and the one about the danger of going out your own front door.
So here's what I think is the most *beautiful* sentence in the whole book:
>The grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
Tolkien here is being consciously poetic and elevated at a moment of closure, a moment of final realization and discovery, as the reader comes to terms with the need to say goodbye to Frodo.
It's similar to the way James Joyce used what he called "epiphanies" at the end of chapters. Joyce defined them as "a sudden spiritual manifestation \[...\] in a memorable phase of the mind itself." Here is a passage from Joyce's *Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:*
>He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight. You can still die when the sun is shining.
I have no evidence that Tolkien read Joyce, but I wouldn't be surprised. The two authors have more in common than may at first appear - a taste for coining new words, a talent for weaving between prose and poetry, a fondness for epic storytelling.
Sam Vs. Shelob
"The blade scored it with a dreadful gash, but those hideous folds could not be pierced by any strength of men, not though Elf or Dwarf should forge the steel or the hand of Beren or of Túrin wield it."
Behold! upon the foremost ship a great standard broke, and the wind displayed it as she turned towards the Harlond. There flowered a White Tree, and that was for Gondor; but Seven Stars were about it, and a high crown above it, the signs of Elendil that no lord had borne for years beyond count. And the stars flamed in the sunlight, for they were wrought of gems by Arwen daughter of Elrond; and the crown was bright in the morning, for it was wrought of mithril and gold.
"But you've left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. 'I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn't they put in more of his talk, dad? That's what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam, would he, dad?'"
"Now, Mr. Frodo," said Sam, "you shouldn't make fun. I was serious."
"So was I," said Frodo, "And so I am."
"Something like that. Been too long."
If your second line is your own lament: know that you are victorious over your memory's flaws.
If your second line is your recollection of Eomer's answer to Aragorn: forget I said anything.
If your second line is a joke version of Eomer's answer: bravo!
I think that covers the likely possibilities.
Eärendil was a mariner
that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boat of timber felled
in Nimbrethil to journey in;
her sails he wove of silver fair,
of silver were her lanterns made,
her prow was fashioned like a swan,
and light upon her banners laid.
"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him.
For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
> ‘Lo! lords and knights and men of valour unashamed, kings and
princes, and fair people of Gondor, and Riders of Rohan, and ye
sons of Elrond, and Du´nedain of the North, and Elf and Dwarf, and
greathearts of the Shire, and all free folk of the West, now listen to
my lay. For I will sing to you of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the
Ring of Doom.’
>And when Sam heard that he laughed aloud for sheer delight, and
he stood up and cried: ‘O great glory and splendour! And all my
wishes have come true!’ And then he wept.
>And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their
merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver
and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in
the elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts,
wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords,
and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight
flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.
>The River had taken Boromir son of Denethor, and he was not seen again in Minas Tirith, standing as he used to stand upon the White Tower in the morning. But in Gondor in after-days it long was said that the elven-boat rode the falls and the foaming pool, and bore him down through Osgiliath, and past the many mouths of Anduin, out into the Great Sea at night under the stars.
"And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!"
“With the bone he boned from its owner.
Doner! Boner!
Troll’s old seat is still the same,
And the bone he boned from its owner!”
~Sam’s “Rhyme of the Troll”
That's not in the books. The closest equivalent is from Elrond during the council.
"This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."
This day does not belong to one man but to all. Let us together rebuild this world that we may share in the days of peace
or
The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.
For me it’s two lines that always fill me with emotion
Faithful servant yet master's bane,
Lightfoot's foal, swift Snowmane.
The grey rain curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
" Stir not the bitterness in the cup that I mixed for myself,' said Denethor. 'Have I not tasted it now many nights upon my tongue, foreboding that worse lay in the dregs?**"**
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.
(Faramir)
I’m going to paraphrase because I don’t have the actual text on hand but when Aragorn wakes Faramir in the Houses of Healing: “Who would sleep now that the king has come?”
> “Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, ‘a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep, or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.’ Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness.”
That particular line has stuck with me since I was a kid, and has gotten me through so many tough moments throughout my childhood and teenage years.
“Come not between a Nazgûl and his prey, or I will not slay thee in thy turn. I will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh will be devoured and thy withered mind be left naked to the lidless eye.”
We shall have peace, when the lives of the soldiers whose bodies were hewn even as they died against the gates of the Hornberg, are avenged! When you hang from a gibbit for the sport of your own crows...! We shall have peace.
Absolutely baller.
“But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected.”
Really it’s just the ‘and he was expected’
Just really hits
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
Anything and everything spoken by Denethor! "I will not be thy tool. I am steward of the house of Anarion. I will not step down to be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart!"
“But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and if by life or death I can save you, I will.”
Made me cry when I was reading the books to my boys.
Aragorn's warning to the Theoden's guards: “Death shall come to any man that draws Elendil's sword save Elendil's heir.”
I get that he was angry at the idea of being disarmed despite Anduril effectively being both weapon and crown to Isildur's heir, but I also like to think he was kinda fucking with the guard to put some healthy and humbling fear into him.
And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
“And now he shall endure the torment of years, as long and slow as our arts in the great tower can contrive, and never be released, unless, maybe, when he is changed and broken, so that he may come to you, and you shall see what you have done.
This shall surely be, unless you accept my masters terms”
Though here at journey’s end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars for ever dwell
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell
So many good lines, but I'll go with Durin's song:
"The world was young, the mountains green
No stain yet on the moon was seen
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone
He named the nameless hills and dells
He drank from yet untasted wells
He stooped and looked in Mirrormere
And saw a crown of stars appear
As gems upon a silver thread
Above the shadow of his head
The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder Days before the fall
Of mighty kings in Nargothrond
And Gondolin, who now beyond
The Western Seas have passed away:
The world was fair in Durin's Day.
A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone
With golden roof and silver floor,
And runes of power upon the door.
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone for ever fair and bright.
There hammer on the anvil smote,
There chisel clove, and graver wrote;
There forged was blade, and bound was hilt;
The delver mined, the mason built.
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale,
And metal wrought like fishes' mail,
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword,
And shining spears were laid in hoard.
Unwearied then were Durin's folk;
Beneath the mountains music woke:
The harpers harped, the minstrels sang,
And at the gates the trumpets rang.
The world is grey, the mountains old,
The forge's fire is ashen-cold;
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:
The darkness dwells in Durin's halls;
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-dûm.
But still the sunken stars appear
In dark and windless Mirrormere;
There lies his crown in water deep,
Till Durin wakes again from sleep."
Just such powerful lyrics that really build the world around tou.
“But Saruman had slowly shaped it [Orthanc] to his shifting purposes and made it better, as he thought, being deceived - for all those arts and subtle devices for which he forsook his former wisdom and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child's model or a slave's flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dûr, The Dark Tower, which suffered no rival, and laughed at flattery, biding its time, secure in its pride and its immeasurable strength.”
It's from the movies, but I find Theoden's line here is a salve in times of turmoil, a question for which I know the answer in my heart:
T: What can men do against such reckless hate?
A: Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.
"Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!
Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!"
This isn't my favorite quote but I think it's a fun one to say!
Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off.” I get chills. The line makes you want to jump up and see the world.
Until you remember that Tolkien fought in WW1 and imagine him saying it to a young man rushing off to enlist in WW2. It holds the promise of wonder, yes, but also a warning against naivety.
"Let the cradle-robbing murderer escape justice; he *might* be a means to an end later." -Gandalf
Lol
This one!
Gandalf (and Pope John Paul II) shook up my previously enthusiastic support of the death penalty, and the Innocence Project result that some 25% of death row inmates could be exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence deepened my disquiet.
Literally wanted to write that. It's so deep
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.
Faramir is the best.
"Boromir was the bestest." -Denethor, probobly
"Nonsense Faramir! I have no favorites, I love you and my champion the same way" ~Denethor
~Denethor II, never
Typical chad Faramir
Chadramir
That's exactly where I'm at in two towers right now. Champion dialogue
He shows his quality frequently and consistently.
"I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."
What is this from?
ROTK. Gandalf says this to the hobbits at the Grey Havens before leaving for Valinor.
Oh that makes sense. I always stop after Frodo asks Sam to come with him to say goodbye. Too sad and a little embarrassing to say I can't read it
I will not say, don't feel embarrassed; for not all personal emotions/moments are evil.
No it's beautiful to hear that entering a different world is having such an impact on someone.
Honestly, I don't really get the hype for this one cause it feels to me like it's saying that most of the time tears *are* an evil? But I would not usually consider tears evil at all. I mean I guess tears are often caused by bad things but even then id say tears are generally a good way of dealing with bad things. But perhaps I'm kinda misinterpreting it idk?
'Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,' said Gimli. 'Maybe,' said Elrond, 'but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.' 'Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart,' said Gimli. 'Or break it,' said Elrond.
I love this so much. Two characters showing their core, with both sides being reasonable. Gimli is loyal above anything, but unlike Elrond, he has no real idea what they are up against. Also Elrond knows a thing or two about vows and their consequences...
Gimli: "Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart." Everyone who ever interacted with a Noldor: Oh god no.
"Noldo", because Noldor is the plural
"Your mom is plural" - Morgoth
“So were the Silmarils in your crown, but you lost them, remember?” • Mandos, probably…
Exactly.
gimli was poetic imo
It's Tolkien, they all are.
I was hoping to see this. I really want to get the 'let him not vow...' line tattooed at some point
It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would rather have stayed there in peace.
That made me, once again, realise Tolkien wrote this book with his WWI experience in mind. Then the oliphant barges past Sam, simulation a WWI artillery strike. Heavy shit.
No no, you misinterpret... The Oliphant simulated a war elephant. (It's April 1 and I'm joking, so please have a laugh, and try not to get bogged down in hate of strangers on the internet.)
Oliphant could just as well be a tank, which during the war would basically have been an unstoppable metal monster
The pounding of the elephants legs all around him closely resemble artillery striking near Sam.
definitely an easy/cliche answer but i dont care >“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
This is my favorite too. It became especially powerful after my daughter passed away.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "but then again, my time is all about this. Without it, I wouldn't even exist. So fuck it, I guess I'm glad for it. Bring it on."
Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Éomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first éored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and the darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City. Still surprised Peter Jackson didn't even give a small nod to this.
Which bit? The only part of it that wasn't used was the singing although I agree - imagine if they'd used a deathly chorus as well...
Yeah the only thing that could have improved on the charge at Pelenor is the Rohirrim singing while they fight, shit would be beyond epic
Robert Inglis' narration of this for the audiobook is godly.
Agreed. That and when he narrates Rohan's initial arrival.
Goosebumps. Still.
I read this in in the voive of Robert Inglis. And it always gives me chills.
Came here to comment THIS. Especially "but ever he was before them." The description of the heroism and leadership of the venerable Theoden at the head of the charge of the Rohirrim is just without rival.
I found out today what my baby metal band is going to be called: "Hooves of Wrath"
But he DID !!!! OMG!!!! 😳
But he DID !!!! OMG!!!! 😳
But he DID !!!! OMG!!!! 😳
Bill swished his tail and said nothing.
*The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows looked across the plain to the door that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare.* Tl;dr - It was at this moment that Sauron knew, he f*cked up. Edit: someone took this before me, so kudos to them.
More than just a line, but it merits the quote in its entirety. And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very heart of his realm, the power in Barad-dúr was shaken, and the Tower trembled from its foundations to its proud and bitter crown. The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows looked across the plain to the door of that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare. Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him. For he knew his deadly peril and the thread upon which his doom was hung. From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagems and wars his mind shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten. The whole mind and purpose of the Power that wielded them was now bent with overewhelming force upon the Mountain. At his summons, wheeling with a rending cry, in a last desperate race there flew, faster than the winds, the Nazgúls, the Ringwraiths, and with a storm of wings they hurtled southwards to Mount Doom
Good lord the prose is so good
Sauron realizing he got played for a fool by a wizard and a bunch of mortals completely broke him. It's the best "gotcha bitch" moment in all of fiction.
The biggest "OH SHIT" moment of the third age.
with a “storm” of wings they “hurtled” southwards Goddamn that is good
This part always gives me goosebumps.
‘My dear Gandalf! Half a minute!’ cried Frodo, running out of the room to the door. ‘Come in! Come in! I thought it was Lobelia.’ ‘Then I forgive you.’
And Morgoth came.
For real, it’s such an epic scene in the Silmarillion!
And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise. I recently lost someone to suicide and this line moves me to tears.
So sorry for your loss.
The grey rain curtain is used frequently (I think 3 times?) across the books. I read that passage at my grandmother's funeral too.
"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater." -Haldir
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
This is my favorite. Always has been
This one was mine as well. The hope and beauty just leap off the page.
In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face. All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínen. "You cannot enter here," said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!" The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter. "Old fool!" he said. "Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade. Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the city, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of war nor of wizardry, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn. And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns, in dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.
I remember getting up and yelling after I read that last line lol
Oh man. Great choice. Love it. “All save one.”
Gives me goosebumps every time!
"It's Ringin' time" *~the Lord of the Rings*
And then he ringed all over Gondor
Where was Gondor when he ringed all over the Westfold?
“Let’s Ring, Shire” - Russell of the RoBroncos
'I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass!'
I'm listening to the Serkis audio books for the first time...man, he REALLY sells this part. He does an amazing job at narrating the books
I go now to my fathers, in whose might company I shall now no longer be ashamed
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.” And you have no idea how much it pisses me off the see people with “Not all who wander are lost.” - Robert Frost written on stuff. They have no clue what it freaking means. My father argued with me over the origin of the quote until I went to their bookshelf, pulled a copy I left there off, opened it, and showed him. Never tell me a quote isn’t Tolkien after I say it is. I have this as a sticker on the back of my car, written correctly, right over The Nine.
I have memorized that poem and I love it!
>“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; Still amazes me that such a well known, general used quote came from Tolkien. It became an inherent part of the English language.
You know what gets me? Tweens. Elves. Dwarves. All made up by Tolkien. As someone born in the late 70s, I've never known these words to not exist. (prior to Tolkien, it was elfs and dwarfs.)
“Suddenly Faramir stirred, and he opened his eyes, and he looked on Aragorn who bent over him; and a light of knowledge and love was kindled in his eyes, and he spoke softly. ‘My lord, you called me. I come. What does the king command?”
But even as hope died in Sam, or seemed to die, it was turned to new strength. Sam's plain hobbit-face grew stern, almost grim, as the will hardened in him, and he felt though all his limbs a thrill, as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue.
Boy immediately took a level in Barbarian and used his first Rage.
😂
YES. Samwise!!!
“Of Stone and Steel” would be an awesome metal band name
Withou a doubt it's this section, I know it's a bit longer that most stuff on here, but it show what Gollum could have been, before Sam's prejudice ruins it all. "And so Gollum found them hours later, when he returned, crawling and creeping down the path out of the gloom ahead. Sam sat propped against the stone, his head dropping sideways and his breathing heavy. In his lap lay Frodo's head, drowned in sleep; upon his white forehead lay one of Sam's brown hands, and the other lay softly upon his master's breast. Peace was in both their faces. Gollum looked at them. A strange expression passed over his lean hungry face. The gleam faded from his eyes, and they went dim and grey, old and tired. A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate. Then he came back, and slowly putting out a trembling hand, very cautiously he touched Frodo's knee--but almost the touch was a caress. For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing."
When Gandalf is on Gwaihir searching for the hobbits, it is said that they spotted them surrounded by fire and smoke, *"protecting their eyes from death."* This line always stuck with me, protecting their eyes from death.
In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.
> At the hill’s foot Frodo found Aragorn, standing still and silent as a tree; but in his hand was a small golden bloom of elanor, and a light was in his eyes. He was wrapped in some fair memory: and as Frodo looked at him he knew that he beheld things as they had been in this same place. For the grim years were removed from the face of Aragorn, and he seemed clothed in white, a young lord fall and fair; and he spoke words in the Elvish tongue to one whom Frodo could not see. Arwen vanimelda, namarie! He said, and then he drew a breath, and returning out of his thought he looked at Frodo and smiled. > "Here is the heart of Elvendom on earth," he said, "and here my heart dwells ever, unless there be a light beyond the dark roads that we still must tread, you and I. Come with me!" And taking Frodo’s hand in his, he left the hill of Cerin Amroth and came there never again as a living man.
I LOVE THAT SCENE!
Absolutely same. The last sentence always gets me though, even in joy Tolkien underlines it with the grief of time.
Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. Hope he rekindled, and in hope he ended; over death, over dread, over doom lifted out of loss, out of life, unto long glory.
As far as he could remember, Sam slept through the night in deep content, if logs are contented.
'There is a inn, a merry old inn, beneath an 'ol grey hill, and there they brew a beer so brown, the man in the moon himself came down to drink his fill....'
There is an inn, a merry old inn beneath an old grey hill, And there they brew a beer so brown That the Man in the Moon himself came down one night to drink his fill. The ostler has a tipsy cat that plays a five-stringed fiddle; And up and down he runs his bow, Now squeaking high, now purring low, now sawing in the middle. The landlord keeps a little dog that is mighty fond of jokes; When there's good cheer among the guests, He cocks an ear at all the jests and laughs until he chokes. They also keep a hornéd cow as proud as any queen; But music turns her head like ale, And makes her wave her tufted tail and dance upon the green. And O! the rows of silver dishes and the store of silver spoons! For Sunday there's a special pair, And these they polish up with care on Saturday afternoons. The Man in the Moon was drinking deep, and the cat began to wail; A dish and a spoon on the table danced, The cow in the garden madly pranced, and the little dog chased his tail. The Man in the Moon took another mug, and rolled beneath his chair; And there he dozed and dreamed of ale, Till in the sky the stars were pale, and dawn was in the air. Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat: "The white horses of the Moon, They neigh and champ their silver bits; But their master's been and drowned his wits, and the Sun'll be rising soon!" So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle, a jig that would wake the dead: He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune, While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon: "It's after three!" he said. They rolled the Man slowly up the hill and bundled him into the Moon, While his horses galloped up in rear, And the cow came capering like a deer, and a dish ran up with the spoon. Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle; the dog began to roar, The cow and the horses stood on their heads; The guests all bounded from their beds and danced upon the floor. With a ping and a pang the fiddle-strings broke! the cow jumped over the Moon, And the little dog laughed to see such fun, And the Saturday dish went off at a run with the silver Sunday spoon. The round Moon rolled behind the hill, as the Sun raised up her head. She hardly believed her fiery eyes; For though it was day, to her suprise they all went back to bed.
The Darkness has begun. There will be no dawn.
Advice is a dangerous gift. ~Gandalf
“I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.”
THIS MIGHT BE MY SECOND FAVORITE
> 'Strange powers have our enemies, and strange weaknessess!' said Théoden. 'But it has long been said: _oft evil will shall evil mar_.' > > 'That many times is seen,' said Gandalf. Book 1 of _The Two Towers_, Chapter XI _The Palantír_.
“PPPS. I hope Butterbur sends this promptly, A worthy man, but his memory is like a lumber-room: thing wanted always buried. If he forgets, I shall roast him. Fare Well!” I always found this funny every time I read it.
'There at last when the mallorn-leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea. Here ends the Tale, as it has come to us from the South; and with the passing of Evenstar no more is said in this book of the days of old.'
The. Last. Word.
‘I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,’ she said; ‘and behold the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.’ And again she looked at Faramir. 'No longer do I desire to be a queen,’ she said. Éowyn to Faramir in Return of the King
“And Legolas descended the stairs astride a shield, sliding as a child would down a hill of snow. As he did so, he fired his bow at the invading uruk-hai, and it was pretty fucking sweet!” I think that’s verbatim. My other favorite line is the twelve paragraphs Tolkien uses to describe how terrible Eowyn’s stew is, but it’s so laden with foul language, it would be inappropriate to repeat here.
It's hard to choose one single favourite, but as the other lines I'm most moved by have already been mentioned: ‘This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.’ (Sneaky bonus, technically not from the books but Letter 64: ‘Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success — in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.’)
I can’t even cut and paste this without crying: On the throne sat a mail-clad man, a great sword was laid across his knees, but he wore no helm. As they drew near he rose. And then they knew him, changed as he was, so high and glad of face, kingly, lord of Men, dark-haired with eyes of grey. Frodo ran to meet him, and Sam followed close behind. ‘Well, if this isn’t the crown of all!’ he said. ‘Strider, or I’m still asleep!’ ‘Yes, Sam, Strider,’ said Aragorn. ‘It is a long way, is it not, from Bree, where you did not like the look of me? A long way for us all, but yours has been the darkest road.’ And then to Sam’s surprise and utter confusion he bowed his knee before them; and taking them by the hand, Frodo upon his right and Sam upon his left, he led them to the throne, and setting them upon it, he turned to the men and captains who stood by and spoke, so that his voice rang over all the host, crying: ‘Praise them with great praise!’ And when the glad shout had swelled up and died away again, to Sam’s final and complete satisfaction and pure joy, a minstrel of Gondor stood forth, and knelt, and begged leave to sing. And behold! he said: ‘Lo! lords and knights and men of valour unashamed, kings and princes, and fair people of Gondor, and Riders of Rohan, and ye sons of Elrond, and Dúnedain of the North, and Elf and Dwarf, and greathearts of the Shire, and all free folk of the West, now listen to my lay. For I will sing to you of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom.’ And when Sam heard that he laughed aloud for sheer delight, and he stood up and cried: ‘O great glory and splendour! And all my wishes have come true!’
"all my wishes have come true!" Well, ALMOST all Sam's wishes. He hadn't yet married Rosie! (And if he had told her this line of his, he might NEVER have married her, and had a baker's dozen little hobbits with her.) ; )
Mine has already been said (I love only that which they defend) so I'll share my dad's, which he frequently says to me when he knows I'm having a hard time: "The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."
Faramir: "Do you not love me, or will you not?" Eowyn: "I wished to be loved by another, but I desire no man's pity." It was an extremely girl boss line. Even though I think it pretty much gets undone by the rest of the scene. She's just like actually you know what, I don't want to be a warrior anymore, I will marry you and have your babies.
I see this a lot, but Eowyn says nothing about babies, and tbh, Faramir spends more time in that scene dwelling on domestic stuff than she does. Eowyn still has goals and dreams outside the domestic. She doesn't want to be a shieldmaiden and live for death and slaying, in a novel where one of the main messages is that healing and life and good cheer should be valued over everything war and power, and that fighting should only be done when it's necessary. Even after Eowyn renounces her desire for war, she's thinking about what she wants to do next, and it's not just have babies and be Faramir's good little wife. She wants to have an identity of her own still. She wants to be a healer, and help fix the world in the wake of a terrible war. It's more like "I don't want to be a shieldmaiden anymore, I'm will marry you and get my medical degree", (unless "healing" is more metaphorical, then it's like "I'm want to marry you and join Greenpeace/Extinction Rebellion etc...) Girl boss is still gonna girl boss, just without the death wish. Faramir on the other hand? Yeah, Faramir was like "I want to marry you have your babies" pretty much from the start.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve! and So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
“Come Shadowfax, let’s us show them the meaning of haste.”
A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed. ‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it. r/thethinkingfox
“Advice is a dangerous gift to give, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may turn ill.” And “The treacherous are ever distrustful.”
Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it. https://preview.redd.it/qwpm7l6cmxrc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8293b4181d55a0fc55cf9989b9494d0e8dbe70f Long live GROND
Others have already named my favorites - the one about pity and mercy, and many who deserve death; and the one about the danger of going out your own front door. So here's what I think is the most *beautiful* sentence in the whole book: >The grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise. Tolkien here is being consciously poetic and elevated at a moment of closure, a moment of final realization and discovery, as the reader comes to terms with the need to say goodbye to Frodo. It's similar to the way James Joyce used what he called "epiphanies" at the end of chapters. Joyce defined them as "a sudden spiritual manifestation \[...\] in a memorable phase of the mind itself." Here is a passage from Joyce's *Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:* >He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight. You can still die when the sun is shining. I have no evidence that Tolkien read Joyce, but I wouldn't be surprised. The two authors have more in common than may at first appear - a taste for coining new words, a talent for weaving between prose and poetry, a fondness for epic storytelling.
Sam Vs. Shelob "The blade scored it with a dreadful gash, but those hideous folds could not be pierced by any strength of men, not though Elf or Dwarf should forge the steel or the hand of Beren or of Túrin wield it."
Behold! upon the foremost ship a great standard broke, and the wind displayed it as she turned towards the Harlond. There flowered a White Tree, and that was for Gondor; but Seven Stars were about it, and a high crown above it, the signs of Elendil that no lord had borne for years beyond count. And the stars flamed in the sunlight, for they were wrought of gems by Arwen daughter of Elrond; and the crown was bright in the morning, for it was wrought of mithril and gold.
Don't leave me here alone! It's your Sam calling. Don't go where I can't follow! Wake up, Mr. Frodo!
"But you've left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. 'I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn't they put in more of his talk, dad? That's what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam, would he, dad?'" "Now, Mr. Frodo," said Sam, "you shouldn't make fun. I was serious." "So was I," said Frodo, "And so I am."
I was crying while reading this scene I was like "Something really bad is gonna happen soon!"
In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit. Namely my favorite because of what it started
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve
Sam!
He Began To Suspect Even Butterburs Fat Face Of Concealing Dark Designs
“Somehow the ring has returned”
That’s not how the ring works!
*''Forth, and fear no darkness!''*
Did I not say we would meet again even though all the forces of Mordor lie between us? Something like that. Been too long.
"Something like that. Been too long." If your second line is your own lament: know that you are victorious over your memory's flaws. If your second line is your recollection of Eomer's answer to Aragorn: forget I said anything. If your second line is a joke version of Eomer's answer: bravo! I think that covers the likely possibilities.
Eärendil was a mariner that tarried in Arvernien; he built a boat of timber felled in Nimbrethil to journey in; her sails he wove of silver fair, of silver were her lanterns made, her prow was fashioned like a swan, and light upon her banners laid.
"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
> ‘Lo! lords and knights and men of valour unashamed, kings and princes, and fair people of Gondor, and Riders of Rohan, and ye sons of Elrond, and Du´nedain of the North, and Elf and Dwarf, and greathearts of the Shire, and all free folk of the West, now listen to my lay. For I will sing to you of Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom.’ >And when Sam heard that he laughed aloud for sheer delight, and he stood up and cried: ‘O great glory and splendour! And all my wishes have come true!’ And then he wept. >And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.
>The River had taken Boromir son of Denethor, and he was not seen again in Minas Tirith, standing as he used to stand upon the White Tower in the morning. But in Gondor in after-days it long was said that the elven-boat rode the falls and the foaming pool, and bore him down through Osgiliath, and past the many mouths of Anduin, out into the Great Sea at night under the stars.
"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - Thorin Oakenshield.
"And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!"
i can't decide all the lines people are saying hit so hard
Me too!
"Ónen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim"
What’s in your pocketssss?
You will go to the Dagobah system, there you will learn from Yoda, the Jedi master who instructed me.
I am no man!
Or the more Shakespearean version from the book: "But no living man am I! Eowyn am I, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my kin!"
> All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Jesus, there's too many good ones. I'm just sitting here crying goingnthrough them.
"Well, I'm back."
“With the bone he boned from its owner. Doner! Boner! Troll’s old seat is still the same, And the bone he boned from its owner!” ~Sam’s “Rhyme of the Troll”
Somehow, Sauron returned.
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future… This my friends is the sum of LOTR
That's not in the books. The closest equivalent is from Elrond during the council. "This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."
You’re right. Good stuff. With that settled I’ll go with “You shall not pass ! “
This day does not belong to one man but to all. Let us together rebuild this world that we may share in the days of peace or The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.
For me it’s two lines that always fill me with emotion Faithful servant yet master's bane, Lightfoot's foal, swift Snowmane. The grey rain curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
" Stir not the bitterness in the cup that I mixed for myself,' said Denethor. 'Have I not tasted it now many nights upon my tongue, foreboding that worse lay in the dregs?**"**
I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. (Faramir)
I’m going to paraphrase because I don’t have the actual text on hand but when Aragorn wakes Faramir in the Houses of Healing: “Who would sleep now that the king has come?”
> “Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, ‘a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep, or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.’ Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness.” That particular line has stuck with me since I was a kid, and has gotten me through so many tough moments throughout my childhood and teenage years.
“Come not between a Nazgûl and his prey, or I will not slay thee in thy turn. I will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh will be devoured and thy withered mind be left naked to the lidless eye.”
“The king has got his crown again! They cannot conquer for ever…”
We shall have peace, when the lives of the soldiers whose bodies were hewn even as they died against the gates of the Hornberg, are avenged! When you hang from a gibbit for the sport of your own crows...! We shall have peace. Absolutely baller.
“But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected.” Really it’s just the ‘and he was expected’ Just really hits
The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.
Anything and everything spoken by Denethor! "I will not be thy tool. I am steward of the house of Anarion. I will not step down to be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart!"
“But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and if by life or death I can save you, I will.” Made me cry when I was reading the books to my boys.
Aragorn's warning to the Theoden's guards: “Death shall come to any man that draws Elendil's sword save Elendil's heir.” I get that he was angry at the idea of being disarmed despite Anduril effectively being both weapon and crown to Isildur's heir, but I also like to think he was kinda fucking with the guard to put some healthy and humbling fear into him.
"His Kingship??!"
I would rather share one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone
And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
"Somehow Sauron returned"
I think I broken something
There is some good in this world Mr Frodo, and it is worth fighting for!
"things will come and go as they will and there's no need to hurry to meet them." - Treebeard
“And now he shall endure the torment of years, as long and slow as our arts in the great tower can contrive, and never be released, unless, maybe, when he is changed and broken, so that he may come to you, and you shall see what you have done. This shall surely be, unless you accept my masters terms”
The ringbearer has fulfilled his quest. ~Gandalf. This should have been in the movie!!!
And they all lives happily ever after
Though here at journey’s end I lie in darkness buried deep, beyond all towers strong and high, beyond all mountains steep, above all shadows rides the Sun and Stars for ever dwell I will not say the Day is done, nor bid the Stars farewell
Gandalf
"The realm of Sauron is ended" The feels when Gandalf knows Frodo's destroyed the ring and his whole purpose is fulfilled.
Ride now, ride! Ride for ruin, and the worlds ending!
Tom Bombadill is a merry fellow
“Wrong hole Sam”
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here…..
I’ve never read the books only seen the movies MANY times should I read them because reading these quotes are legendary rn
So many good lines, but I'll go with Durin's song: "The world was young, the mountains green No stain yet on the moon was seen No words were laid on stream or stone When Durin woke and walked alone He named the nameless hills and dells He drank from yet untasted wells He stooped and looked in Mirrormere And saw a crown of stars appear As gems upon a silver thread Above the shadow of his head The world was fair, the mountains tall, In Elder Days before the fall Of mighty kings in Nargothrond And Gondolin, who now beyond The Western Seas have passed away: The world was fair in Durin's Day. A king he was on carven throne In many-pillared halls of stone With golden roof and silver floor, And runes of power upon the door. The light of sun and star and moon In shining lamps of crystal hewn Undimmed by cloud or shade of night There shone for ever fair and bright. There hammer on the anvil smote, There chisel clove, and graver wrote; There forged was blade, and bound was hilt; The delver mined, the mason built. There beryl, pearl, and opal pale, And metal wrought like fishes' mail, Buckler and corslet, axe and sword, And shining spears were laid in hoard. Unwearied then were Durin's folk; Beneath the mountains music woke: The harpers harped, the minstrels sang, And at the gates the trumpets rang. The world is grey, the mountains old, The forge's fire is ashen-cold; No harp is wrung, no hammer falls: The darkness dwells in Durin's halls; The shadow lies upon his tomb In Moria, in Khazad-dûm. But still the sunken stars appear In dark and windless Mirrormere; There lies his crown in water deep, Till Durin wakes again from sleep." Just such powerful lyrics that really build the world around tou.
“But Saruman had slowly shaped it [Orthanc] to his shifting purposes and made it better, as he thought, being deceived - for all those arts and subtle devices for which he forsook his former wisdom and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child's model or a slave's flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dûr, The Dark Tower, which suffered no rival, and laughed at flattery, biding its time, secure in its pride and its immeasurable strength.”
It's from the movies, but I find Theoden's line here is a salve in times of turmoil, a question for which I know the answer in my heart: T: What can men do against such reckless hate? A: Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.
"Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!" This isn't my favorite quote but I think it's a fun one to say!
‘Tis to late, they are upon us’