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More favourite Tolkien quotations!
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noWizardme
Half-elven


Nov 3 2014, 10:02pm

Post #1 of 34 (2024 views)
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More favourite Tolkien quotations! Can't Post

We do this from time to time...

Post me a favourite quotation from any thing Tolkien wrote. Please include something about why you like it, or have picked that particular one: that's as interesting as the quotation itself.

My go is:


Quote
... And there's they stood, as still as the shadows of stones, while night went slowly on.
A Knife In The Dark, Fellowship of the Ring

Quote
This describes the Black Riders , surrounding the house at Crickhollow. I'm enjoying"shadows of stones" instead of just stones: I think it's much better, especially if read out loud.

~~~~~~

"nowimė I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"

This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154


BlackFox
Half-elven


Nov 3 2014, 10:14pm

Post #2 of 34 (1631 views)
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Mmm... [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
Away eastward the sun was rising red out of the mists that lay thick on the world. Touched with gold and red the autumn trees seemed to be sailing rootless in a shadowy sea.
- Three Is Company, FOTR

Stirs both the poet and lover of nature in me.



noWizardme
Half-elven


Nov 3 2014, 10:35pm

Post #3 of 34 (1612 views)
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A fine choice! [In reply to] Can't Post

I like that one too: indeed I have a photo for it... http://pinterest.com/...OAAQgC0FXFVHaGoAAAA/

~~~~~~

"nowimė I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"

This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154


BlackFox
Half-elven


Nov 3 2014, 10:42pm

Post #4 of 34 (1606 views)
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A beautiful photo to match a beautiful quote [In reply to] Can't Post

I remembered there was a photo to match this quote in your collection, but I'd forgotten just how beautiful it was. Smile



BlackFox
Half-elven


Nov 3 2014, 10:47pm

Post #5 of 34 (1612 views)
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*shudders* [In reply to] Can't Post

That whole paragraph is marvelously creepy.



squire
Half-elven


Nov 3 2014, 10:58pm

Post #6 of 34 (1631 views)
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'I was alone, forgotten,...' [In reply to] Can't Post

'I was alone, forgotten, without escape upon the hard horn of the world. There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth. Faint to my ears came the gathered rumour of all lands: the springing and the dying, the song and the weeping, and the slow everlasting groan of overburdened stone.' - LotR III.5

Although all of this is powerful stuff, I just love the ending; I don't think any other author would think to personify bedrock, but for Tolkien that way of thinking is second nature.

Wow, I could go on and on about this passage, as with so many from this book, but that's it for now. But here's a picture, to help people get past the idea that LotR only looks backward.




squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary


= Forum has no new posts. Forum needs no new posts.


Meneldor
Valinor


Nov 4 2014, 4:22am

Post #7 of 34 (1570 views)
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Fool of a Took! // [In reply to] Can't Post

 


They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. -Psalm 107


noWizardme
Half-elven


Nov 4 2014, 7:18am

Post #8 of 34 (1585 views)
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Endings [In reply to] Can't Post

Great choice Squire! Tolkien was a genius at building sentences to a superb ending.

I really like the photo idea too.

~~~~~~

"nowimė I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"

This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154


emre43
Rohan

Nov 4 2014, 10:10am

Post #9 of 34 (1605 views)
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From the Chapter 'On the Fields of the Pelennor' [In reply to] Can't Post

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.


CuriousG
Half-elven


Nov 4 2014, 1:59pm

Post #10 of 34 (1603 views)
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Elrond at the Council [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
The Ring! What shall we do with the Ring, the least of rings, the trifle that Sauron fancies? That is the doom that we must deem.

I like the near-sarcasm or irony in Elrond's voice. He almost seems to mock Sauron, and it's not something that Gandalf would likely say.


Quote
Thereupon Elrond paused a while and sighed. ‘I remember well the splendour of their banners,’ he said. ‘It recalled to me the glory of the Elder Days and the hosts of Beleriand, so many great princes and captains were assembled. And yet not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken , and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so.’

Together with the quote above, I'm drawn into Elrond and would like to be a long-term guest at Rivendell like Bilbo and talk to him whenever I could. He seems like a fascinating yet accessible person with a rich, complex perspective on life.


Darkstone
Immortal


Nov 4 2014, 2:37pm

Post #11 of 34 (1592 views)
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"And then I saw that, of course, it had not happened to Frodo at all." [In reply to] Can't Post

I have long ceased to invent (though even patronizing or sneering critics on the side praise my 'inventions'): I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself. Thus, though I knew for years that Frodo would run into a tree-adventure somewhere far down the Great River, I had no recollection of inventing Ents. I came at last to the point, and wrote the 'Treebeard' chapter without any recollection of any previous thought: just as it is now. And then I saw that, of course, it had not happened to Frodo at all.
-Letter #180

I just love the last line. A delightful look into Tolkien's creative process.

******************************************
I met a Balrog on the stair.
He had some wings that weren't there.
They weren't there again today.
I wish he would just fly away.


CuriousG
Half-elven


Nov 4 2014, 3:07pm

Post #12 of 34 (1545 views)
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That is amazing. // [In reply to] Can't Post

 


acheron
Gondor


Nov 4 2014, 8:37pm

Post #13 of 34 (1553 views)
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On reviews [In reply to] Can't Post

"Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer." -- Foreword to the Second Edition of LOTR

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars, and so on -- while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man, for precisely the same reasons. -- Douglas Adams


Harold.of.Whoa
Rivendell


Nov 6 2014, 10:49pm

Post #14 of 34 (1562 views)
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An elegant turn of a phrase [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
The night seemed endless and timeless, minute after minute falling dead and adding up to no passing hour, bringing no change.
Chapter 3, Mount Doom, Return of the King


Have you ever experienced a night like that, where the minutes fall dead and add up "to no passing hour"? Have you ever heard that feeling described with more clarity?


Bracegirdle
Valinor


Nov 8 2014, 1:31am

Post #15 of 34 (1582 views)
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Always one of my favorite. . . [In reply to] Can't Post

Describing the northern marches of Ithilien:


Quote
Primeroles and anemones were awake in the filbert-brakes; and asphodel and many lily-flowers nodded their half-opened heads in the grass: deep green grass beside the pools, where falling streams halted in cool hollows on their journey down to Anduin.

Many find land-descriptions laborious, but this is word-beauty personified! Heart

He who breaks a thing to find out what it is, has a broken thing.
- BG


BlackFox
Half-elven


Nov 8 2014, 10:00am

Post #16 of 34 (1510 views)
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Excellent choice! [In reply to] Can't Post

IMO, few things showcase Tolkien's talent as a writer (not just as a storyteller) better than his descriptions of nature.



noWizardme
Half-elven


Nov 8 2014, 2:30pm

Post #17 of 34 (1509 views)
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Endless and timeless night... [In reply to] Can't Post

Another lovely quote! It was reminding me of the end of the narrow Wright song

Quote
"Cold be hand and heart and bone
and cold be sleep under stone
never more to wake on stony bed
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead
In the black wind the stars shall die
and still be gold here let them lie
till the Dark Lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land."

... It's as if this had been achieved in miniature.

~~~~~~

"nowimė I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"

This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154


BlackFox
Half-elven


Nov 8 2014, 3:24pm

Post #18 of 34 (1536 views)
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Another favourite of mine [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
So the days slipped away, as each morning dawned bright and fair, and each evening followed cool and clear. But autumn was waning fast; slowly the golden light faded to pale silver, and the lingering leaves fell from the naked trees. A wind began to blow chill from the Misty Mountains to the east. The Hunter's Moon waxed round in the night sky, and put to flight all the lesser stars. But low in the South one star shone red. Every night, as the Moon waned again, it shone brighter and brighter. Frodo could see it from his window, deep in the heavens burning like a watchful eye that glared above the trees on the brink of the valley. (my emphasis)
- The Ring Goes South, FOTR

Foreshadowing done right. Ominous, yet subtle.



noWizardme
Half-elven


Nov 8 2014, 3:32pm

Post #19 of 34 (1748 views)
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Filbert-brakes... [In reply to] Can't Post

I had to look that up - filbert = hazel

It's a lovely passage, thanks for bringing it up. It could so easily have been done wrong, & look like an author had been thumbing through the gardening catalogue to try and get some verisimilitude. But instead it is lovely.

~~~~~~

"nowimė I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"

This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154


noWizardme
Half-elven


Nov 8 2014, 4:16pm

Post #20 of 34 (1501 views)
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... One star shone red [In reply to] Can't Post

It's great isn't it. Can be seen as a purely astronomical phenomenon ) is it Mars?) But it also foreshadows Sauron and his eye, towards which Frodo must go when the R&R is over.

~~~~~~

"nowimė I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"

This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154


Bracegirdle
Valinor


Nov 8 2014, 6:01pm

Post #21 of 34 (1504 views)
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From "flibert-brakes" to a "red star" to "war"! [In reply to] Can't Post

The charge of the Rohirrim has to be near the top on most folks list:


Quote
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. Eomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first eored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Theoden 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 Orome the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. (my bold)
- The Ride of the Rohirrim, RotK

Can we read this passage and not break out in cheer and admiration with an internal vision of white hair blowing in the wind? Not I!

He who breaks a thing to find out what it is, has a broken thing.
- BG


(This post was edited by Bracegirdle on Nov 8 2014, 6:02pm)


HeWhoArisesinMight
Rivendell


Nov 9 2014, 2:20am

Post #22 of 34 (1497 views)
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Words of wisdom [In reply to] Can't Post

"Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? ... Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. "


Grand Bob
The Shire

Nov 13 2014, 2:28pm

Post #23 of 34 (1472 views)
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A couple [In reply to] Can't Post

One of my favorite quotes is from "Three is Company":

"The sun went down. Bag End seemed sad and gloomy and dishevelled. Frodo wandered around the familiar rooms and saw the light of sunset fade on the walls and shadows creep out of the corners. It grew slowly dark indoors."

This quote reconstructed the exact feeling I had as a child the day we moved out of my favorite house. All of the furniture had been moved, and at sunset I took one last walk around the rooms before saying goodbye. I always pause at this point in my annual LotR reading.

My favorite advice quote, that I have used with my kids (and now grandkids) is from Sam:

"It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish."

I also use this one often at work.


noWizardme
Half-elven


Nov 13 2014, 2:35pm

Post #24 of 34 (1458 views)
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Things to say to [grand]kids! [In reply to] Can't Post

...ought to be a subthread all of it's own. I've also found myself coming all over "Gaffer" when people really need to get started.

Another one might be:


Quote
“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.
(The Hobbit)

("looking" means "looking for yourself", not the brief glance that is is known in my family as a "kiddie look" followed by "Muu-u-u-u-um; where's my...?"
Smile )

And - Welcome to the Reading Room Grand Bob! Nice to hear from you.

~~~~~~

"nowimė I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"

This year LOTR turns 60. The following image is my LOTR 60th anniversary party footer! You can get yours here: http://newboards.theonering.net/...i?post=762154#762154


(This post was edited by noWizardme on Nov 13 2014, 2:36pm)


Rembrethil
Tol Eressea


Nov 13 2014, 3:10pm

Post #25 of 34 (1436 views)
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Thanks for sharing Grand Bob. [In reply to] Can't Post

Yes, Tolkien has infinitely quotable phrases sprinkled throughout his works. I often quote them in my life, however, the attribution more often escapes the notice of the un-Tokienlightened than not....Unsure

Welcome to the Reading Room! We always love to see new people here! if you have the time, please do join us for our discussion of LotR starting on Dec. 7th. We only discuss on chapter a week, so it is quite manageable. People pop in and out whenever they have the time, and it is immensely enjoyable. Here is the Link if would like to see the schedule. Hope to see you there!!

Call me Rem, and remember, not all who ramble are lost...Uh...where was I?

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