This is probably old hat, but for all that, I don't actually see a thread like this on HoF. Probably because this was gotten out of everybody's system when they first started posting on LOTR messageboards 10 years ago
I'm planning to tinker a little with the interior decorating in our abode, and I was thinking of using a few good quotes from LOTR for that.
One of my personal favorites is Gandalf advising Frodo in a Shadow of the Past:
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
I also found a good one for a kitchen, courtesey of Sam's old Gaffer:
Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.
And also:
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
And one good for sticky debates:
It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.
So, anyway, I was wondering, which quotes from LOTR have stuck with y'all? Favorite quotes, if you'd like. Come on, let's all pretend we're n00bs on a LOTR board again, it'll be fun!
What a lovely idea, Griffy. This made me go back and find some things I had forgotten. But not these, which were the ones I was 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.
...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.
“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.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
There's more than one quote in LOTR that states that the Shadow was only a passing thing, set of against passages that despairs of ever being rid of it. Balanced.
Well, I prefer to put a thumb on that scale, and so I think did JRRT. The victory of hope over despair in LotR (even though the cost is great, and even though the victory also leads to sorrow and separation) is the fundamental reason I love the book so immoderately. It's dreadfully un-modern, but so am I.
“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.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
It's The Hobbit, but "Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards for they are subtle and quick to anger".
Also "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."
Alatar wrote:It's The Hobbit, but "Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards for they are subtle and quick to anger".
That's LOTR. Chapter 3, Three's Company. Said by Gildor.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
There is a seed of courage hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest and most timid hobbit, waiting for some final and desperate danger to make it grow.
"What do you fear, lady?" Aragorn asked.
"A cage," Éowyn said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I'm going to move this over to the Shibboleth forum, but I'll leave a shadow here in Bag End so people can find it.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Here's one I like for an entirely different reason:
He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye.
So much cold evil packed into a single sentence.
“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.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup..."
Oh wait...no, I think that was some wiseass D&D player/LOTR fan, after having fried his opponent to a crisp...
Um...Frodo Lives?
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
As one exits my home he/she sees above the front door a wooden plaque that states:
North with the wind in the left eye
and a blessing on your footsteps!
(This is one of the things that Goldberry tells the Hobbits as they leave the House of Tom Bombadil.)
Coincidentally enough, my front door opens to the West just as Tom Bombadil's. The nearest main road is reached by going North, East, then North again.
I used to have this sig quote on another site...it has always resonated with me!
“Faithful heart may have forward tongue.” Théoden of Éomer in "The King of the Golden Hall", TTT
There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
~Diana Cortes
Great thread! These are some I have written down for myself in the past.
"But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have."
"I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead...I must see it through."
"But the courage that had been awakened in him was now too strong: he could not leave his friends so easily."
"Be bold, but wary!"
"Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must."
"However it may prove, one must tread the path that need choses."
"It would seem like wisdom but for the warning of my heart."
"Yet we that remain cannot forsake our companions while we have strength left."
"There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark."
"The time for fear is past."
"Yet dawn is ever the hope of men."
"None knows what the new day shall bring him."
"One good turn deserves another."
"Whether he erred or no, of this I am sure: he died well, achieving some good thing."
"We are truth-speakers...we boast seldom, and then perform, or die in the attempt."
" But where there's life, there's hope."
"Sam did not wait to wonder what was to be done, or whether he was brave, or loyal, or filled with rage. He sprang forward with a yell, and siezed his master's sword in his left hand. Then he charged."
"No, my heart will not yet despair. We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees."
"Where will wants not, a way opens."
"Such good will not be denied."
"If you do not trust me to endure the test, you do not know me yet."
"Forth now, and fear no darkness!"
"Do what you will; but I will hinder it, if I may."
"Few other griefs amid the ill chances of this world have more bitterness and shame for a man's heart than to behold the love of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned."
"As I have begun, so I will go on. We come now to the very brink, where hope and despair are akin. To waver is to fall."
"Ut Prosim"
"There are some things that it is better to begin than refuse, even though the end may be dark" Aragorn
"Those who commit honorable acts need no forgiveness" http://killology.com/sheep_dog.htm
My favourite piece is the fragment Sam quotes of The Fall of Gil-galad:
Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
The last whose realm was fair and free
Between the mountains and the sea.
His sword was long, his lance was keen.
His shining helm afar was seen.
The countless stars of heaven's field
Were mirrored in his silver shield.
But long ago he rode away,
And where he dwelleth none can say.
For into darkness fell his star;
In Mordor, where the shadows are.
I like it so much that I know it by heart. Its evoking, in only a few words, of a warrior monarch who died thousands of years in Middle-earth's past, I find both beautiful and sad.
"In Mordor, where the shadows are." Yes. It spoke to Sam (the one in the book ) so strongly that he remembered it, too.
“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.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
~Diana Cortes
