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.
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf speaking to himself about Frodo,
Chapter 'Many Meetings'. |
I am sorry: sorry you have come in for this burden: sorry
about everything. Don't adventures ever have an end? I suppose
not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.
The Lord of the Rings
Bilbo, Chapter 'Many Meetings'. |
Seek for the Sword that was broken:
In Imladris it dwells;
There shall be counsels taken
Stronger than Morgul-spells.
There shall be shown a token
That Doom is near at hand,
For Isildur's Bane shall waken,
And the Halfling forth shall stand.
The Lord of the Rings
Boromir's Riddle, Chapter 'The Council
of Elrond'. |
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.
The Lord of the Rings
Aragorn, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'.
|
And yet less thanks have we than you. Travellers scowl at
us, and countrymen give us scornful names. "Strider"
I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that
would freeze his heart or lay his little town in ruin, if he
were not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise.
If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will
be, and we must be kept secret to keep them so.
The Lord of the Rings
Aragorn, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the
path of wisdom.
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf to Saruman, Chapter 'The Council
of Elrond'. |
It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy,
for good or for ill. But such falls and betrayals, alas, have
happened before.
The Lord of the Rings
Elrond referring to Saruman, Chapter 'The
Council of Elrond'. |
I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil
will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come.
The Lord of the Rings
Glorfindel, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
It is not our part here to take thought only for a season,
or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world.
We should seek a final end of this menace, even if we do not
hope to make one.
The Lord of the Rings
Glorfindel, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
We must take a hard road, a road unforeseen. There lies our
hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril to Mordor. We
must send the Ring to the Fire.
The Lord of the Rings
Elrond, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
We cannot use the Ruling Ring. That we now know too well.
It belongs to Sauron and was made by him alone, and is altogether
evil. Its strength, Boromir, is too great for anyone to wield
at will, save only those who have already a great power of their
own. But for them it holds an even deadlier peril. The very
desire of it corrupts the heart.
The Lord of the Rings
Elrond, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
If any of the Wise should with this Ring overthrow the Lord
of Mordor, using his own arts, he would then set himself on
Sauron's throne, and yet another Dark Lord would appear. And
that is another reason why the Ring should be destroyed: as
long as it is in the world it will be a danger even to the Wise.
For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so.
I fear to take the Ring to hide it. I will not take the Ring
to wield it.
The Lord of the Rings
Elrond, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.
We do not.
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
Let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy!
For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the
scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is
desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into
his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it,
that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this,
we shall put him out of reckoning.
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither
strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may
be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet
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.
The Lord of the Rings
Elrond, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
I had thought of putting: and he lived happily ever afterwards
to the end of his days. It is a good ending, and none the
worse for having been used before. Now I shall have to alter
that: it does not look like coming true.
The Lord of the Rings
Bilbo, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
"I will take the Ring," he said, "though I
do not know the way."
The Lord of the Rings
Frodo, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their
quiet fields to shake the towers and counsels of the Great.
Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it? Or, if they are
wise, why should they expect to know it, until the hour has
struck?
The Lord of the Rings
Elrond, Chapter 'The Council of Elrond'. |
When winter first begins to bite
and stones crack in the frosty night,
when pools are black and trees are bare,
'tis evil in the Wild to fare.
But that I am afraid will be just your luck.
The Lord of the Rings
Bilbo's verse warning of winter, Chapter
'The Ring Goes South'. |
"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,"
said Gimli.
"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.
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Ring Goes South'. |
"You cannot pass," he said. The orcs stood still,
and a dead silence fell. "I am a servant of the Secret
Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark
fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the
Shadow! You cannot pass."
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf faces the Balrog, Chapter 'The
Bridge of Khazad-dûm'. |
With a terrible cry the Balrog fell forward, and its shadow
plunged down and vanished. But even as it fell it swung its
whip, and the thongs lashed and curled about the wizard's knees,
dragging him to the brink. He staggered, and fell, grasped vainly
at the stone, and slid into the abyss. "Fly you fools!"
he cried, and was gone.
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf falling into the chasm, Chapter
'The Bridge of Khazad-dûm'. |
An Elven-maid there was of old,
A shining star by day:
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,
Her shoes of silver-grey.
The Lord of the Rings
Song of Nimrodel sung by Legolas, Chapter
'Lothlórien'. |
In nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown
than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose
him.
The Lord of the Rings
Haldir, Chapter 'Lothlórien'. |
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many
dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though
in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps
the greater.
The Lord of the Rings
Haldir, Chapter 'Lothlórien'. |
I thought that Elves were all for moon and stars: but this
is more elvish than anything I ever heard tell of. I feel as
if I was inside a song, if you take my meaning.
The Lord of the Rings
Sam to Frodo, Chapter 'Lothlórien'. |
"Speak no evil of the Lady Galadriel!" said Aragorn
sternly. "You know not what you say. There is in her and
in this land no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself."
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Mirror of Galadriel'. |
He stood upon the bridge alone
and Fire and Shadow both defied;
his staff was broken on the stone,
in Khazad-dûm his wisdom died.
The Lord of the Rings
Frodo's Lament for Gandalf, Chapter 'The
Mirror of Galadriel'. |
It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish,
as my old gaffer used to say.
The Lord of the Rings
Sam, Chapter 'The Mirror of Galadriel'. |
And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely!
In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall
not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the
Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain!
Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations
of the earth. All shall love me and despair!
The Lord of the Rings
Galadriel, Chapter 'The Mirror of Galadriel'. |
"I pass the test," Galadriel said. "I will
diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel."
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Mirror of Galadriel'. |
Do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years;
for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of
things that once were needful for the wise to know.
The Lord of the Rings
Celeborn, Chapter 'Farewell to Lórien'. |
I do not foretell, for all foretelling is now vain: on the
one hand lies darkness, and on the other only hope. But if hope
should not fail, then I say to you, Gimli son of Glóin,
that your hands shall flow with gold, and yet over you gold
shall have no dominion.
The Lord of the Rings
Galadriel, Chapter 'Farewell to Lórien'. |
Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind, long years numberless
as the wings of trees! The long years have passed like swift
draughts of the sweet mead in lofty halls beyond the West, beneath
the blue vaults of Varda wherein the stars tremble in the song
of her voice, holy and queenly. Who now shall refill the cup
for me? For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the Stars,
from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds, and
all paths are drowned deep in shadow; and out of a grey country
darkness lies on the foaming waves between us, and mist covers
the jewels of Calacirya for ever. Now lost, lost to those from
the East is Valimar! Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar.
Maybe even thou shalt find it. Farewell!
The Lord of the Rings
Song of the Elves Beyond the Sea, Chapter
'Farewell to Lórien'. |
Tell me, Legolas, why did I come on this Quest? Little did
I know where the chief peril lay! Truly Elrond spoke, saying
that we could not foresee what we might meet upon our road.
Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did
not hold me back. But I would have never come, had I known the
danger of light and joy.
The Lord of the Rings
Gimli, Chapter 'Farewell to Lórien'. |
Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror,
be it clear as Kheled-zâram. Or so says the heart of Gimli
the Dwarf. Elves may see things otherwise. Indeed I have heard
that for them memory is more like to the waking world than to
a dream. Not so for Dwarves.
The Lord of the Rings
Gimli, Chapter 'Farewell to Lórien'. |
"Time does not tarry ever," he said; "but change
and growth is not in all things and places alike. For the Elves
the world moves, and it moves both very swift and very slow.
Swift, because they themselves change little, and all else fleets
by: it is a grief to them. Slow, because they do not count the
running years, not for themselves."
The Lord of the Rings
Legolas, Chapter 'The Great River'. |
It is no good trying to escape you. But I'm glad, Sam. I cannot
tell you how glad. Come along! It is plain that we were meant
to go together. We will go, and may the others find a safe road!
The Lord of the Rings
Frodo, Chapter 'The Breaking of the Fellowship'. |