The Hobbit
"As a bear, he ranges far and wide. I once saw him sitting
all alone on the top of the Carrock at night watching the
moon sinking towards the Misty Mountains, and I heard him
growl in the tongue of bears; 'The day will come when they
perish and I shall go back!' That is why I believe he once
came from the mountains himself."
--p 119
The Fellowship of the Ring
Three Elf-towers of immemorial age were still to be seen
beyond the western marches. They shone far off in the
moonlight . . . and as the days of the Shire lengthened they
spoke less and less with the Elves, and grew afraid of them,
and distrustful of those who had dealings with them; and the
Sea became a word of fear among them and a token of death,
and they turned their faces away from the hills in the
west.
--p 27
The wizards face remained grave and attentive, and only a
flicker in his deep eyes showed that he was startled and
indeed alarmed.
--p 59
"You had better take it and deliver it for me. That will be
the safest."
"No, don't give the ring to me," said Gandalf. "Put it on
the mantelpiece."
--p 61
"He unfastened it [the ring] and handed it slowly to the
wizard. It felt suddenly very heavy, as if either it or Frodo
himself was in some way reluctant for Gandalf to touch
it.
--p 80
"I can't believe that Gollum was connected with hobbits,
however distantly. What an abominable notion!"
--p 86
"All the 'great secrets' under the mountain had turned out to
be just empty night and there was nothing more to find out,
nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and
remembering. He was altogether wretched. He hated and dark,
and he hated the light more: he hated everything, and the
Ring most of all."
--p 87
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 judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all
ends.
--p 93
"You are wise and powerful. Will you not take the Ring?"
"No!" cried Gandalf, springing to his feet. "With that power
I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the
Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly." His
eyes flashed and his face was lit as by a fire within. "Do
not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord
himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity
for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not
tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it save,
unused. The wish to wield it would be too great for my
strength. I shall have such need of it. Great perils lie
before me."
--p 95
"I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness;
but I know I can't turn back. It isn't to see Elves, nor
dragons, nor mountains that I want - I don't rightly know
what I want: but I have to do something before the end, and
it lies ahead, not in the Shire."
--p 127, Sam to Frodo
'Few now remember them, yet still some go wandering, sons of
forgotten kings walking in loneliness, guarding from evil
things folk that are heedless.'
The hobbits did not understand his words, but as he spoke
they had a vision as it were of a great expanse of years
behind them, like a vast shadowy plain over which there
strode shapes of Men, tall and grim with bright swords, and
last came one with a star on his brow.
--p 201
"that is just what the Rangers are: the last remnant in the
North of the great people, the Men of the West. They have
helped me before and I shall need their help in the days to
come. . ."
--p 201
a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows
near the wall, was also listening intently to the
hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was
smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs were
stretched out before him, showing high boots of supple
leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were
now caked with mud. A travel-stained cloak of heavy
dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of
the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his
face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched
the hobbits . . . he threw back his hood, showing a shaggy
head of dark hair flecked with grey, and in a pale stern face
a pair of keen grey eyes.
--p 214
"Well, I have rather a rascally look, have I not?" said
Strider with a curl of his lip and a queer gleam in his
eye.
--p 224
"I think you are not really as you choose to look . . ."
--p 226
>
"As soon as I had made up my mind, I was ready to tell you
whatever you asked. But I must admit," he added with a queer
laugh, "that I hoped you would take to me for my own sake. A
hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for
friendship. But there, I believe, my looks are against
me."
--p 232
"But I am the real Strider, fortunately," he said, looking
down at them with his face softened by a sudden smile. "I am
Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save
you I will."
--p 233
To Frodo it appeared that a white light was shining through
the form and raiment of the rider [Glorfindel], as if through
a thin veil.
--p 279
"For I have become very fond of Strider. Well, fond is not
the right word. I mean he is dear to me; though he is strange
and grim at times. In fact, he reminds me often of you."
--p 291
"He thinks less than he talks, and slower; yet he can see
through a brick wall in time (as they say in Bree)."
--p 291
But to the wizard's eye there was a faint change, just a hint
as it were of transparency, about him, and especially about
the left hand that lay outside upon the coverlet.
"Still that must be expected," said Gandalf to himself. "He
is not half through yet, and to what he will come in the end
not even Elrond can foretell. Not to evil, I think. He may
become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see
that can."
--p 295
"Elves here, and Elves there! Some like kings, terrible and
splendid; and some as merry as children."
--p 297
Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his
long white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad
shoulders made him look like some wise king of ancient
legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his dark
eyes were set like coals that could leap suddenly into
fire."
--p 299
... for they [Elladan and Elrohir], were out upon errantry: for
they rode often far afield with the Rangers of the North,
forgetting never their mother's torment in the dens of the
orcs."
--p 300
"Indeed ... if it were not for the Beornings, the passage
from Dale to Rivendell would long ago have become
impossible."
--p 301
"Elladan and Elrohir have returned out of the Wild
unlooked-for, and they had tidings that I wished to hear at
once."
--p 307
"To sheep other sheep no doubt appear different," laughed
Lindir. "Or to shepherds."
--p 311
and with him was Galdor, an Elf from the Grey Havens who had
come on an errand from Cirdan the Shipwright. . . 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.
-- p 315
"But few marked what Isildur did. He alone stood by his
father in that last mortal contest; and by Gil-Galad only
Cirdan stood, and I."
--p 317
"If Gondor, Boromir, has been a stalwart tower, we have
played another part. Many evil things there are that your
strong walls and bright swords do not stay. You know little
of the lands beyond your bounds. Peace and freedom, do you
say? The North would have known them little but for us. Fear
would have destroyed them. But when dark things come from the
houseless hills, or creep from sunless woods, they fly from
us. What roads would any dare to tread, what safety would
there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at
night, if the Dunedain were asleep or were all gone into the
grave?"
--p 326
"I fear to take the Ring to hide it. I will not take the ring
to wield it." [Elrond]
"Nor I," said Gandalf.
--p 351
And Aragon has gone with Elronds sons."
--p 357
The sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir, were the last to
return; they had made a great journey, passing down the
Silverlode in a strange country, but of their errand they
would not speak to any save Elrond.
--p 359
"But always have I let my horn cry at setting forth, and
though thereafter we may walk in the shadows, I will not set
forth as a thief in the night." [Boromir]
--p 365
Aragorn sat with his head bowed to his knees; only Elrond
knew fully what this hour meant to him.
--p 366
note: The preceding passages about Aragorn and the sons of
Elrond give a depth to the work. There are many more things
happening in the world and to the characters than are
presented in these pages.
"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.
--p 367
"Only I hear the stones lament them: deep they delved us,
fair they wrought us, high they builded us; but they are
gone. They are gone. They sought the Havens long ago."
--p 371
"The road that I speak of leads to the mines of Moria," said
Gandalf. Only Gimli lifted up his head; a smoldering fire was
in his eyes.
--p 386
The bow of Legolas was singing.
--p 390
In the wavering firelight Gandalf seemed suddenly to grow: he
rose up, a great menacing shape like the monument of some
ancient king of stone set upon a hill.
--p 390
They stooped over the dark water. At first they could see
nothing. Then slowly they saw the forms of the encircling
mountains mirrored in a profound blue, and the peaks were
like plumes of white flame above them; beyond there was a
space of sky. There like jewels sunk in the deep shone
glinting stars, though sunlight was in the sky above. Of
their own stooping forms no shadow could be seen.
"O Kheled-zaram fair and wonderful!" said Gimli. "There lies
the crown of Durin till he wakes. Farewell!"
--p 433
"We seldom use any tongue but our own; for we dwell now in
the heart of the forest, and do not willingly have dealings
will any other fold. Even our own kindred in the North are
sundered from us. But there are some of us still who go
abroad for the gathering of news and the watching of our
enemies, and they speak the languages of other lands."
--p 444
...a strange feeling had come upon him, and it deepened as he
walked on into the Naith: it seemed to him that he had
stepped over a bridge of time into a corner of the Elder
Days, and was now walking in a world that was no more. In
Rivendell there was memory of ancient things; in Lorien the
ancient things still lived on the waking world.
--p 453
And taking Frodo's hand in his, he left the hill of Cerin
Amroth and came there never again as living man.
--p 456
"Dark is the water of Kheled-zaram, and cold are the springs
of Kibil-nala, and fair were the many-pillard halls of
Khazad-dum in Elder Days before the fall of mighty kings
beneath the stone."
--p 461
"Whether they've made the land, or the land's made them, it's
hard to say, if you take my meaning."
--p 467
"Some never come to be, unless those that behold the visions
turn aside from their path to prevent them."
--p 470
"The love of the Elves for their land and their works is
deeper than the deeps of the Sea, and their regret is undying
and cannot wholly be assuaged.
--p 473
You have perceived my thought more clearly than many who are
accounted wise.
--p 474
Note: Galadriel has long wanted the ring, and Elrond and
Gandalf never knew.
The Two Towers
They are proud and willful, and but they are true-hearted,
generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but
unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the
manner of the children of men before the Dark Years.
--p 40
He seemed to have grown in stature while Eomer had shrunk;
and in his living face they caught a brief vision of the
power and majesty of the kings of stone. For a moment it
seemed to the eyes of Legolas that a white flame flickered on
the brows of Aragorn like a shining crown.
--p 44
"Yes, it [Fangorn] is old," said Aragorn, "as old as the
forest by the Barrow-downs, and it is far greater. Elrond
says the two are one, the last strongholds of the mighty
woods of the Elder Days, in which the Firstborn roamed while
Men still slept."
--p 55
"It is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness
that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman's Orcs can endure
it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? Are they
Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of Orcs and
Men? That would be a black evil!" Treebeard rumbled for a
moment, as if he were pronouncing some deep, subterranean
Entish malediction.
--p 96
The hobbits fell asleep to the sound of the soft singing of
Bregalad, that seemed to lament in many tongues the fall of
trees that he had loved.
--p 110
"Of course, it is likely enough, my friends," he said slowly,
"likely enough that we are going to our doom: the last march
of the Ents. But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom
would find us anyway, sooner or later. That thought has long
been growing in our hearts; and that is why we are marching
now. It was not a hasty resolve. Now at least the last march
of the Ents may be worth a song. Aye," he sighed, "we may
help the other peoples before we pass away."
--p 114
The Return of the King
Denethor looked indeed much more like a great wizard than
Gandalf did, more kingly, beautiful, and powerful; and older.
Yet by a sense other than sight Pippin perceived that Gandalf
had the greater power and the deeper wisdom, and a majesty
that was veiled. And he was older, far older.
--p 32
"But I will say this: the rule of no realm is mine, neither
of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy
things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are
my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task,
though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this
night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again
in days to come. For I also am a steward. Did you not
know?"
--p 33, Gandalf to Denethor
...and behind them seven hundreds of men-at-arms, tall as
lords, grey-eyed, dark-haired, singing as they came.
--p 50
"The Darkness has begun. There will be no dawn."
--p 52
..and two tall men, neither young nor old. So much alike were
they, the sons of Elrond, that few could tell them apart:
dark-haired, grey-eyed, and their faces elven-fair, clad
alike in bright mail beneath cloaks of silver-grey.
--p 60
A young man, Merry thought as he returned the glance, less in
height and girth than most. He caught the glint of clear grey
eyes, and then he shivered, for it came suddenly to him that
it was the face of one without hope who goes in search of
death.
--p 91
They were grim to look on; for though some were crushed and
shapeless, and some had been cruelly hewn, yet many had
features that could be told, and it seemed that they had died
in pain; and all were branded with the token of the Lidless
Eyes. But marred and dishonored as they were, it often
chanced that thus a man would see again the face of someone
that he had known, who had walked proudly once in arms, or
tilled the fields, or ridden in upon a holiday from the green
vales in the hills.
--p 117
But lo! suddenly in the midst of the glory of the king his
golden shield was dimmed.
--p 140
"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."
--p 141
So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse.
But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it
slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dunedain were
young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of
Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though
mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a
wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the
spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.
--p 146
