Human stories are practically always about one thing, really, aren’t they? Death. The inevitability of death. . .. . . (quoting an obituary) ‘There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that ever...

You could fire a machine gun randomly through the pages of Lord of the Rings and never hit any women.

Far, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.

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

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 yourself keep it....

But of all the women, Éowyn is the strongest, quite frankly, because of her weakness: she’s only human. She has no special powers, no immortality, only her innate grit and drive to be something more...

Hobbits always so polite, yes! O nice hobbits! Smeagol brings them up secret ways that nobody else could find. Tired he is, thirsty he is, yes thirsty; and he guides them and he searches for...

off my mind”: the labour has been colossal: and it must stand or fall, practically as it is. [1951]

Far over the Great River, and the Brown Lands, leagues upon grey leagues away, the dawn came, red as flame. Loud rang the hunting horns to greet it. The Riders of Rohan sprang suddenly to...

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes,...

Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real. But it is true.

The two things that came out clearly were the sense of reality in the background and the mythical value: the essence of myth being that it should have no taint of allegory to the maker...

But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.

A great dread fell on him, as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelming longing to rest...

How shall a man judge what to do in such times?”As he ever has judged,’ said Aragorn. ‘Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear…It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in...

None of you got laid in high school, did you?

…With a religious book it is less what we see in it than what we see through it that matters. J. R. R. Tolkien’s fairy-tale epic the Lord of the Rings helps draw the distinction...

Then holding the star aloft and the bright sword advanced, Frodo, hobbit of the Shire, walked steadily down to meet the eyes.

Ceux qui errent ne sont pas toujours perdus.

J.R.R.Tolkien has confessed that about a third of the way through The Fellowship of the Ring, some ruffian named Strider confronted the hobbits in an inn, and Tolkien was in despair. He didn’t know who...

Alright, we put it away. We keep it hidden. We never speak of it again. No one knows it’s here, do they? Do they, Gandalf?

I want to be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.

Sam: I wonder if we’ll ever be put into songs or tales. Frodo: [turns around] What? Sam: I wonder if people will ever say, ‘Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring.’ And they’ll say ‘Yes,...

There are many forms of tyrants, but there are none so terrible as those stifling their own people in the name of freedom.

I am the foremost collector of velvet Elvii in the city of Chicago,” I said at once. “Elvii?” Marcone inquired.”The plural would be Elvises, I guess,” I said. “But if I say that too often,...

Not all those who wander are lost…

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

Heaven is not a republic.

Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they [white people] think we’re taking over.

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

Well, you have now, Sam, dear Sam,’ said Frodo, and he lay back in Sam’s gentle arms, closing his eyes, like a child at rest when night-fears are driven away by some loved voice or...

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out...

The thing about Tolkien, about The Lord of the Rings, is that it’s perfect. It’s this whole world, this whole process of immersion, this journey. It’s not, I’m pretty sure, actually true, but that makes...

Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!

Goodbye, master, my dear! Forgive your Sam. He’ll come back to this spot when the job’s done – if he manages it. And then he’ll not leave you again. Rest you quiet till I come;...

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...

I am reading The Lord of the Rings. I suddenly wanted to. I almost know it by heart, but I can still sink right into it. I know no other book that is so much...

For you do not yet know the strengths of your hearts, and you cannot foresee what each may meet on the road.

No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth, alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above...

And no one was ill, and everyone was pleased, except those who had to mow the grass.

And there’s no sex, hardly any love stuff at all, in Middle Earth, which always made me think, yes, the world would be better off without it.

Against delay. Against the way that seems easier. Against refusal of the burden that is laid on me. Against – well, if it must be said, against trust in the strength and truth of Men.

I must indeed abide the Doom of Men whether I will or nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Numenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale...