Forum

A fox passing through the woods on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed.
'Hobbits!' he thought. 'Well, what next? I have heard of strange doing 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 about this.' He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.

Take care! I don´t care. Don´t you worry about me! I am as happy now as I have ever been, and that is saying a great deal.

'You´ll live to regret it, young fellow! Why didn´t you go too? You don´t belong here; you´re no Baggins - you - you´re a Brandybuck!'

'Did you hear that, Merry? That was an insult, if you like,' said Frodo as he shut the door on her.

'It was a compliment,' said Merry Brandybuck, 'and so, of course, not true.'

I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don´t feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold even if my feet cannot stand there again.

'The road goes on for ever,' said Pippin; 'but I can´t without a rest'

'Don´t let us go too far!' said Frodo. 'I don´t want to be seen, but I want to see if there´s another Black Rider.'

'Very well,' said Pippin. 'But don´t forget the sniffing.'

Sam could never describe in words, nor picture clearly to himself, what he felt or thought that night, though it remained in his memory as one of the chief events of his life. The nearest he ever got was to say: 'Well, sir, if I could grow appels like that, I would call myself a gardener. But it was the singing that went to my heart, if you know what I mean.'

The merry voice of Pippin came to him. He was running on the green turf and singing.

'No! I could not!' he said to himself 'It is one thing to take my young friends walking over the Shire with me, until we are hungry and weary, and food and bed are sweet. To take them into exile, where hunger and weariness may have no cure, is quite another - even if they are willing to come. The inheritance is mine alone. I don´t think I ought even to take Sam.'

Farewell we call to hearth and hall
Though wind may blow and rain may fall
We must away ere break of day
Far over wood and mountain tall.

"In that room there are three tubs and a copper full of boiling water!" --Merry

'Lawks!' said Merry, looking in. The stone floor was swimming. 'You ought to mop that up before you get anything to eat, Peregrin', he said.

Sam muttered something inaudible. 'It's out of his own head, of course', said Frodo. 'I am learning alot about Sam Gamgee on this journey. First he was a conspirator, now he's a jester. He'll end up by becoming a wizard-- or a warrior!'
'I hope not', said Sam. 'I don't want to be neither!'

"You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin -to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours --closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. We are your friends, Frodo. Anyway: ther eit is. We know most of what Gandalf has told you. We know a good deal about the Ring. We are horribly afraid --but we are coming with you; or following you like hounds."

"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will."

"A stout fellow with red cheeks... but this one is taller than some and fairer than most, and he has a cleft in his chin: perky chap with a bright eye"

"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 jugement. For even the wise cannot see all ends. ... the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many --yours not least."

And seated a little apart was a tall man with a fair and noble face, dark-haired and grey-eyed, proud and stern of glance.
He was cloaked and booted as if for a journey on horseback; and indeed though his garments were rich, and his cloak lined with fur, they were stained with long travel. He had a collar of silver in which a single white stone was set; his locks were shorn about his shoulders. On a baldric he wore a great horn tipped with silver that now was laid upon his knees. He gazed at Frodo and Bilbo with sudden wonder.
'Here,' said Elrond, turning to Gandalf, 'is Boromir, a man from the south. He arrived in the grey morning, and seeks for counsel.'

"The time of my thought is my own to spend."
~Dáin

There was a hush, and all turned their eyes on Frodo. He was shaken by a sudden shame and fear; and he felt a great reluctance to reveal the Ring, and a loathing of its touch. He wished he was far away.

'I caught him, Gollum. He was covered with green slime. He will never love me, I fear; for he bit me, and I was not gentle. Nothing more did I ever get from his mouth than the marks of his teeth.'
~Aragorn

'White!' he sneered. 'It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.'
'In which case it is no longer white,' said I. 'And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.'
~Saruman & Gandalf

'The Men of Gondor are valiant, and they will never sumbit; but they may be beaten down. Valour needs first strength, and then a weapon.'
~Boromir

'I have never known you give me pleasant advice before,' he said. 'As all your unpleasant advice has been good, I wonder if this advice is not bad.'
~Bilbo to Gandalf

'What are you going to do then?' asked Pippin, undaunted by the wizard's bristling brows.
'Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took,' said Gandalf. 'But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words.'

'There lies the Mirrormere, deep Kheled-zâram!' said Gimli sadly. 'I remember that he said: "May you have joy of the sight! But we cannot linger there." Now long shall I journey ere I have joy again. It is I that must hasten way, and he that must remain.'

'Look my friends!' he called. 'Here's a pretty hobbit-skin to wrap an elven-princeling in! If it were known that hobbits had such hides, all the hunters of Middle-earth would be riding to the Shire.'
~ Aragorn upon finding Frodo's mithril vest

'They're Elves', sad Sam. 'Can't you hear their voices?'
'Yes they are Elves', said Legolas; 'and they say that you breathe so loud they could shoot you in the dark.' Sam hastily put his hand over his mouth.
...
Legolas ran lightly up, and followed slowly; behind came Sam trying not to breathe loudly.

‘Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.’

Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before. You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch.

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

"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." -Bilbo at his party.

'Why are you so unfriendly?' said Boromir. 'I am a true man, neither thief nor tracker. I need your Ring: that you know now; but I give you my word that I do not desire to keep it. Would you not at least let me make trial of my plan? Lend me the Ring!'

He heard himself crying out: Never, never! Or was it Verily I come, I come to you? He could not tell.

'Of all the confounded nuisances you are the worst, Sam!'
~ Frodo

I know that well enough, Mr. Frodo. Of course you are. And I'm coming with you.

Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took. But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words.

'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 to us.'

That night they heard no noises. But either in his dreams or out of them, he could not tell which, Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until it at last was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.

Handsome is as handsome does, as we say in the Shire.

They spoke no more of the small news of the Shire far away, nor of the dark shadows and perils that encompassed them, but of the fair things they had seen in the world together, of the Elves, of the stars, of trees, and the gentle fall of the bright year in the woods.

Maybe, when the One has gone, the Three will fail, and many
fair things will fade and be forgotten.

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.

There must be someone with intelligence in the party.

Do you not see now wherefore your coming is to us as the foorstep of Doom? For if you fail, then we are laid bare to the enemy. Yet if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlórien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away. We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten.

Lórien was slipping backward, like a bright ship masted with enchanted trees, sailing on to forgotten shores, while they sat helpless upon the margin of the grey and leafless world.
Even as they gazed, the Silverlode passed out into the currents of the Great River, and their boats turned and began to speed southward. Soon the white form of the Lady was small and distant. She shone like a window of glass upon a far hill in the westering sun, or as a remote lake seen from a mountain: a crystal fallen in the lap of the land. Then it seemed to Frodo that she lifted her arms in a final farewell, and far but piercing-clear on the following wind came the sound of her voice singing. But now she sang in the ancient tongue of the Elves beyond the Sea, and he did not understand the words: fair was the music, but it did not comfort him.

As Frodo was borne towards them the great pillars rose like towers to meet him. Giants they seemed to him, vast grey figures silent but threatening. Then he saw that they were indeed shaped and fashioned: the craft and power of old had wrought upon them, and still they pre-served through the suns and rains of forgotten years the mighty likenesses in which they had been hewn. Upon great pedestals founded in the deep waters stood two great kings of stone: still with blurred eyes and crannied brows they frowned upon the North. The left hand of each was raised palm outwards in gesture of warning; in each right hand there was an axe; upon each head there was a crumbling helm and crown. Great power and majesty they still wore, the silent wardens of a for-gotten kingdom. Awe and fear fell upon Frodo, and the hobbit cowered down, shut-ting his eyes and not daring to look up as the boat drew near. Even Boromir bowed his head as the boats whirled by, as frail and fleeting as little leaves, under the enduring shadow of the sentinels of Númenor.

‘Dreams and old tales sping to life out of the grass. Do we walk in legends or on the green earth in the daylight?’
‘A man may do both,’ said Aragorn. ‘For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day!’

The woman turned and went slowly into the house. As she passed the doors she turned and looked back. Grave and thoughtful was her glance, as she looked on the king with cool pity in her eyes. Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings. Thus Aragorn for the first time in the full light of day beheld Éowyn, Lady of Rohan, and thought her fair, fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood. And she now was suddenly aware of him: tall heir of kings, wise with many win-ters, greycloaked, hid-ing a power that yet she felt. For a moment as still as stone she stood, and turning swiftly, she was gone.

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 at heart, or what lies or threats had led him on his long march from his home, and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace.

‘For myself,’ said Faramir, ‘I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens, not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but 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: the City of the Men of Númenor.’

'It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.'
(...) 'Not in Middle-earth, nor until the lands that lie under the wave are lifted up again. Then in the willow-meads of Tasarinan we may meet in the Spring. Farewell!'