Wise men speak only of what they know

All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by the frost.From the ashes a fire shall be woken,A light from the shadows shall spring;Renewed shall be blade that was broken,The crownless again shall be king.

And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house...

Roads go ever ever on,Over rock and under tree,By caves where never sun has shone,By streams that never find the sea;Over snow by winter sown,And through the merry flowers of June,Over grass and over stone,And under mountains of the moon.Roads go ever ever onUnder cloud and under star,Yet feet that wandering have goneTurn at last...

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.

She walks in starlight in another world

They themselves do not see the world of light as we do, but our shapes cast shadows in their minds, which only the noon sun destroys.

At length the Lady Galadriel released them from her eyes, and she smiled. ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled,’ she said. ‘Tonight you shall sleep in peace.’ Then they sighed and felt suddenly weary, as those who have been questioned long and deeply, though no words had been spoken openly.

His love for Frodo rose above all other thoughts, and forgetting his peril he cried aloud: ‘I’m coming Mr. Frodo!

I have not been nourished by English Literature. . . for the simple reason that I have never found much there in which to rest my heart (or heart and head together). I was brought up in the Classics, and first discovered the sensation of literary pleasure in Homer…I do know Celtic things (many in...

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam. Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the...

! Elbereth Gilthoniel!silivren penna m ”­rielo menel aglar elenath!We still remember, we who dwellIn this far land beneath the trees,Thy starlight on the Western Seas.

Then suddenly out of the gloom came a sharp hiss. ‘What has it got in its pocketses?’

Fealty with love, Valor with honor, oathbreaking with vengeance.

Your time may come. Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot be always torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do.

To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising very slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came...

Pippin glanced in some wonder at the face now close beside his own, for the sound of that laugh had been gay and merry. Yet in the wizard’s face he saw at first only lines of care and sorrow; though as he looked more intently he perceived that under all there was a great joy:...

Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.

We are plain quiet folk and I have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!

I will take the ring,” he said,” though I do not know the way.” –Frodo Baggins

Not all those who wander are lost.

Don’t the great tales never end?””No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.

This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.

And he smote the Balrog upon the mountainside.

The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.

If you’re going to have a complicated story, you must work to a map; otherwise you can never make a map of it afterwards.

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkenss.” ~

But that ‘ s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning...

There at last when the mallorn leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no...

know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. (stands, leans against a wall, looking out into the distance) It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how...

The day will bring hope for me,” said Aragorn. “Is it not said that no foe has ever taken the Hornburg, if men defended it?””So the minstrels say,” said Éomer.”Then let us defend it, and hope!

At that moment there was a knock on the door, and Sam came in. He ran to Frodo and took his left hand, awkwardly and shyly. He stroked it gently and then he blushed and turned hastily away.

A man inherited a field in which was an accumulation of old stone, part of an older hall. Of the old stone some had already been used in building the house in which he actually lived, not far from the old house of his fathers. Of the rest he took some and built a tower....

Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!

Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world...

As they sang the hobbit felt in love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and a jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.

Why O why did I ever leave my hobbit-hole?” said poor Mr. Baggins, bumping up and down on Bombur’s back.

For it is now to us itself ancient; and yet its maker was telling of things already old and weighted with regret, and he expended his art in making keen that touch upon the heart which sorrows have that are both poignant and remote.

The Road goes ever on and onDown from the door where it began.Now far ahead the Road has gone,And I must follow, if I can,Pursuing it with eager feet,Until it joins some larger wayWhere many paths and errands meet.And whither then? I cannot say

The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm.[Pippin, The Two Towers]

Of the twelve companions of Thorin, ten remained. Fili and Kili had fallen defending him with shield and body, for he was their mother’s elder brother.

Lord Denethor is Boromir’s father. To bring him news of his beloved son’s death would be most unwise. And don’t mention Frodo or the ring. And say nothing of Aragorn either. In fact, it’s best if you don’t speak at all, Peregrin Took.

…to crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face.

There are many things in the deep waters; and seas and lands may change. And 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...

Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gateAnd though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when IShall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

The grey-rain curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Tre Anelli ai Re degli Elfi sotto il cielo che risplende,Sette ai Principi dei Nani nelle lor rocche di pietra,Nove agli Uomini Mortali che la triste morte attende,Uno per l’Oscuro Sire chiuso nella reggia tetra,Nella Terra di Mordor, dove l’Ombra nera scende.Un Anello per domarli, un Anello per trovarli,Un Anello per ghermirli e nel buio...

Literature shrivels in a universal language, and an uprooted language rots before it dies. And it should be possible to lift the eyes above the cant of the ‘language of Shakespeare’… sufficiently to realise the magnitude of the loss to humanity that the world-dominance of any one language now spoken would entail: no language has...

Well here we are, just the four of us that started out together,’ said Merry. ‘We have left all the rest behind, one after another. It seems almost like a dream that has slowly faded.”Not to me,’ said Frodo. ‘To me it feels more like falling asleep again.

Now when Túrin learnt from Finduilas of what had passed, he was wrathful, and he said to Gwindor: ‘In love I hold you for your rescue and sake-keeping. But now you have done ill to me, friend, to betray my right name, and call my doom upon me, from which I would lie hid.’But Gwindor...