Favourite Tolkien quote?

[geordie]

Personally, I don't have many favourite quotes from Tolkien (and none at all from the m*****s; please, don't go there, or I'll have to set Spot on you) -

- but here's one which I saw the other day, which I do like;it's a bit obscure -

''...my room is like a jackdaw's nest, full of discarded invasions onto other people's condemned property.''
(from a letter to Donald Swann, in Scull & Hammond Chronology, p.715)

What's your favourite quote from Tolkien's writings?

[Dorwiniondil]

I've got lots. Try this one: "The incarnate mind, the tongue, and the tale are, in our world, coeval" (OFS para. 27)

[Thorin Firehelm]

Simply from his literature only, I rather favour one from Roast Mutton. "I am afraid to say their language was not at all drawing room fashion" that always sticks in my head.

[Troelsfo]

Like @Dorwiniondil, I have lots, but with both @geordie and @Dorwiniondil around, memories stray to Oxonmoots and other events and this one comes to mind:

nowhere does time ‘fly’ so fast compared with daily experience as when sitting and drinking and conversing with dear friends in an inn.

from the Smith of Wootton Major essay.

[Reikon Suchi-ru]

it's a common favorite but I still love this one:

"But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him." (Return of the King)

[FireroseArien]

I used "Not all those who wander are lost" as my senior quote in high school. I love that entire poem, but that particular line struck a chord for me. I was a bit of a loner in middle school and high school, but I never really felt alone (unless we were forced to do dreaded group/partner assignments). And I've always had a respect for people who have been able to chart their own course.

If I were to reread now I might pick another line, but I don't think I'll ever not love that line...

[Oro]

I know this is a long one, but I love it. It is Sam’s moment, it is when the heart of a hobbit, the plain hobbit-sense as Tolkien calls it, overcomes the lure of evil and unravels the spell of The One Ring.

“His thought turned to the Ring, but there was no comfort there, only dread and danger. No sooner had he come in sight of Mount Doom, burning far away, than he was aware of a change in his burden. As it drew near the great furnaces where, in the deeps of time, it had been shaped and forged, the Ring's power grew, and it became more fell, untameable except by some mighty will. As Sam stood there, even though the Ring was not on him but hanging by its chain about his neck, he felt himself enlarged, as if he were robed in a huge distorted shadow of himself, a vast and ominous threat halted upon the walls of Mordor. He felt that he had from now on only two choices: to forbear the Ring, though it would torment him; or to claim it, and challenge the Power that sat in its dark hold beyond the valley of shadows. Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dur. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be. In that hour of trial it was his 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. 'And anyway all these notions are only a trick, he said to himself.”
-Return of the King

[Reikon Suchi-ru]

@Oro Such a great, great passage and great moment in the story of the Ring! Sam was such a crucial part of it all and this is, like you said, his moment!

[Eldy Dunami]

My favorite quote from the books is--and has been for a very long time--

‘Yet also I should be sad,’ said Théoden. ‘For however the fortune of war shall go, may it not so end that much that was fair and wonderful shall pass for ever out of Middle-earth?’

I'm not sure if I can pick a single favorite from the Letters, but "I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size)" (no. 213) always makes me smile.

[Lirimaer]

So many to choose from. One of my perennial favourites is this moment from FotR, where this unexpected kindness from Galadriel changes everything.

‘Needless were none of the deeds of Gandalf in life. Those that followed him knew not his mind and cannot report his full purpose. But however it may be with the guide, the followers are blameless. Do not repent of your welcome to the Dwarf. If our folk had been exiled long and far from Lothlorien, who of the Galadhrim, even Celeborn the Wise, would pass nigh and would not wish to look upon their ancient home, though it had become an abode of dragons? Dark is the water of Kheled-zaram, and cold are the springs of Kibil-nala, and fair were the many-pillared halls of Khazad-dum in Elder Days before the fall of mighty kings beneath the stone.’
She looked upon Gimli, who sat glowering and sad, and she smiled. And the Dwarf, hearing the names given in his own ancient tongue, looked up and met her eyes; and it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and understanding.

I even made it into a bookmark, once upon a time!



Because it's one of my favourite things in the books, it was one of the things I looked for in the movie - so inevitably I was disappointed because it didn't play out as I'd pictured it. It was a little too twinkly and not enough gravity for me.

[Reikon Suchi-ru]

Also remember, this will be one of the readings at the ceremony for my wedding, which was originally set for May 2nd, but we were forced to postpone due to COVID:

Lo! Young we are and yet have stood
like planted hearts in the great Sun
of Love so long (as two fair trees
in woodland or in open dale
stand utterly entwined and breathe
the airs and suck the very light
together) that we have become
as one, deep rooted in the soil
of Life and tangled in the sweet growth.

JRR Tolkien in Humphrey Carpenter's JRR Tolkien: A Biography (1977)

[Lúthien Tinúviel]

From The Silmarillion, in the section on The Third Age:
"Help oft will come from the hands of the weak when the wise falter." I remember Gandalf says this, but I forget to whom.

[geordie]

This is Tolkien in a BBC radio interview -

''I've always been impressed that we are here surviving because of the indomitable courage of quite small people against impossible odds - jungles, volcanoes, wild beasts. They struggle on, almost blindly in a way.''

.

[Flame Fried Ent]

From one of his letters:

“If I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject—which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.”

Anybody who tees off at the Nazis like this is someone I like.

[FireroseArien]

@Flame Fried Ent , that's probably my favorite story of Tolkien as a person for a whole host of reasons. At the very least, anyone who can so forthrightly speak against evil gets a lot of respect from me. I can't begin to think of the number of writers today who would just say "yeah, I'm not Jewish" and not make a fuss and get the moneys. Integrity will always cause me to respect someone a lot.

[Reikon Suchi-ru]

Wow. I had no idea this letter existed! Even more reason to love Tolkien: not just as a literary and world-building genius, but as a man of demonstrable and vocal integrity. Thank you for sharing that, @Flame Fried Ent. I feel like I should crack Letters back open and do some reading!

[Mojo]

I'll say I think as a collection of works, Morgoth's Ring (specifically the Myths Transformed chapters are my favorite pieces of Tolkien's work.

As for an individual quote, I've always loved this one:

Last of all Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew Húrin cried: 'Aurë entuluva! Day shall come again!'

[Flame Fried Ent]

@FireroseArien Agreed. A lot would just say 'yes' or 'no' and go from there. For him to take such a stand makes him more praise-worthy.
@Reikon Suchi-ru Cool! It was in response to a letter from a German publishing house in the 1930s, asking for a statement of Aryan descent/if he was Jewish, in preparation for printing the German translation of The Hobbit.

[Winddancer]

I used "Not all those who wander are lost" as my senior quote in high school. I love that entire poem, but that particular line struck a chord for me. I was a bit of a loner in middle school and high school, but I never really felt alone (unless we were forced to do dreaded group/partner assignments). And I've always had a respect for people who have been able to chart their own course.

If I were to reread now I might pick another line, but I don't think I'll ever not love that line...

Love that one too :) Though do say that “Never laugh at live dragons” is a wise motto to live by..

[KingODuckingham]

I don't know if favorite is the right word, but the one I think about most often, since I make something of a career as a literature teacher, is this:

"The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical reasoning. It is at its best when it is presented by a poet who feels rather than makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in the world of history and geography, as our poet has done. Its defender is thus at a disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in parables, he will kill what he is studying by vivisection, and he will be left with a formal or mechanical allegory, and what is more, probably with one that will not work. For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected."

This quote is from a lecture he gave on Beowulf, but naturally applies equally well to Tolkien's work and many other stories as well, and I return to it every time we prepare to study a book in my class.

[Arothir]

For mine, it was something i used in a farewell address in college, the classic final words of Thorin Oakenshield: "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But, sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell."

[Dorwiniondil]

Westra lage wegas rehtas, wraikwas nu isti. (Sauron Defeated) :smiley10:

[Troelsfo]

Another favourite ... Ulmo to Tuor in Unfinished Tales, “Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin”:
‘But behold!’ said he, ‘in the armour of Fate (as the Children of Earth name it) there is ever a rift, and in the walls of Doom a breach, until the full-making, which ye call the End. So it shall be while I endure, a secret voice that gainsayeth, and a light where darkness was decreed. Therefore, though in the days of this darkness I seem to oppose the will of my brethren, the Lords of the West, that is my part among them, to which I was appointed ere the making of the World. Yet Doom is strong, and the shadow of the Enemy lengthens; and I am diminished, until in Middle-earth I am become now no more than a secret whisper.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea. (1936 Beowulf lecture)

[geordie]

Also from 'Beowulf: The Monsters and the Citics' -

''Beowulf is not, then, the hero of an heroic lay, precisely. He has no enmeshed loyalties, nor hapless love. He is a man, and that for him and many is sufficient tragedy.''

[Lúthien Tinúviel]

I'm also a big fan of the entirety of "Bilbo's Last Song", but this last verse in particular is a favourite of mine:

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar,
I'll find the heavens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-earth at last.
I see the Star above my mast!

[Boromir88]

There are several and a lot of the times it depends on my mood.

If I need a laugh, it's usually a quote from Bilbo, like:

"I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook, if you see what I mean" or
"Thag you very buch"

If I need emboldened it's Théoden's:
"The end will not be long," said the king. "But I will not end here taken like an old badger in a trap."

If I need some deep contemplative thinking my favorite is Treebeard's version of "think before you speak":

"Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to."

[Túrin]

I've always liked Eonwe's welcome of Earendil to Aman:

"Hail Earendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that comeh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope! Hail Earendil, bearer of light before the Sun and Moon! Splendou of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!"
-- Silmarillion, Of the Voyage of Earendil

[Almarëa Mordollwen]

Fingolfin's ride to Angband in The Silmarillion has always been up there for me:

"Now news came to Hithlum that Dorthonion was lost and the sons of Finarfin overthrown, and that the sons of Fëanor were driven from their lands. Then Fingolfin beheld (as it seemed to him) the utter ruin of the Noldor and the defeat beyond redress of their houses; and filled with wrath and despair he mounted upon Rochallor his great horse and rode forth alone, and none might restrain him. He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking that Oromë himself was come: for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar. Thus he came alone to Angband's gate, and he sounded his horn, and smote once more upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat. And Morgoth came."

[Aodh Hammerhelm]

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. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap.
He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said.

The last line of an epic tale - perfection

[Lail]

Some of my favourite quotes have already been presented!

I do feel The Hobbit is just full of gold even at its shorter length, and here is one of my favourites:
"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something…You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after."

Sort of speaks to me of accepting the unpredictability of life and staying open to possibilities even if you have a goal in mind.

[Eldy Dunami]

A quote that's grown on me a lot over the years--largely from repeatedly seeing it in the signature of Doug Kane (alias Voronwë the Faithful on many sites, including the OG Plaza)--is found in "Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin" (published in UT):

"But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside."

[Trotter]

"Once in a dining room he (Tolkien) had used his match box to capture a fly on a stranger's nose and how the man was suprised and a little indignant about it." - Tolkien & The Silmarillion - Clyde S. Kilby

[Dorwiniondil]

The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.

[Landy]

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,' said Gimli." I always loved this quote.

One that always appears in one of my first powerpoints of the year (English teacher here!) is:
“A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one's age group. It comes from reading books above one.”

[Dorwiniondil]

"Maybe," said Elrond, "but let him not vow to walk in the dark who has not seen the nightfall."(etc....) Of course, this comes back to bite Gimli.

[Androthelm]

Mine, not drawn from meaning but just from the sheer poetry of the thing, has to be the last line of the Ainulindalë--

And thus was the habitation of the Children of lllúvatar established at the last in the Deeps of Time and amidst the innumerable stars.

There's something about it (the last bit especially) that always just seems to leap out at me

[Chrysophylax Dives]

for Thame with an h is folly without warrant. (Farmer Giles, and invoked by @Dorwiniondil on another thread.)

[Eléowyn]

There are so many great ones, it is hard to choose. But I'm going to give two, and they are both influenced, i'm sure, by advancing age; the second by growing up female during a time where women had fewer choices.

"But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door."
--Bilbo, sung at Rivendell

"What do you fear, lady?" [Aragorn] asked.
"A cage . . . to stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire." [Eowyn]

[Androthelm]

@Eléowyn that Eowyn quote, especially is beautiful -- but I have to say I also love Bilbo's songs, even strange ones sung in a bath...

Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
that washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!

[Eléowyn]

@Bombadillo :smiley8: I have always loved the way Tolkien could write both the silliest of bath songs and the most epic serious poems.

[Lail]

During our read-along, I just discovered one of my new favorite quotes:

Haldir says in FotR Book II Ch 6. Lothlorien:
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is far, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

This resonated strongly with me given our current world affairs but also on another level. Even during non-pandemic times, I find it can be very easy to get lost in all the bad things happening in the world, but I find it so helpful, empowering and uplifting to remind myself there is still beauty and good works going on if I just make the effort to notice.