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‘The Lord of the Rings’
has been read by many people
since it finally appeared in print;
and I should like to say something here
with reference to the many opinions or guesses
that I have received or have read
concerning the motives and meaning of the tale. […]
‘… Always after a defeat and a respite,
the Shadow takes another shape and grows again.’
«I wish it need not have happened in my time,»
said Frodo.
«So do I,» said Gandalf,
«and so do all who live to see such times.
But that is not for them to decide.
All we have to decide is
what to do with the time […]
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The wise speak only of what they know,
Gríma son of Gálmód.
A witless worm have you become.
Therefore be silent,
and keep your forked tongue behind your teeth.
I have not passed through fire and death
to bandy crooked words with a serving-man
till the lightning falls.
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Slowly Aragorn
unbuckled his belt
and himself set his sword
upright against the wall.
‘Here I set it,’ he said;
‘but I command you
not to touch it,
nor to permit any other
to lay hand on it.
In this elvish heath dwells
the Blade that was Broken
and has been made again.
Telchar first wrought it
in the deeps of time.
Death shall come
to any man that draws
Elendil’s […]
‘… You are a new people
and a new world to me.
Are all your kin of like sort?
Your land must be
a realm of peace and content,
and there must gardeners
be in high honour.’
‘Not all is well there,’
said Frodo,
‘but certainly
gardeners are honoured.’
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He stood a moment as a man
who is pierced in the midst of a cry
by an arrow through the heart;
and then his face went deathly white;
and a cold fury rose in him,
so that all speech failed him for a while.
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The genealogical trees
at the end of
the Red Book of Westmarch are
a small book in themselves,
and all but Hobbits
would find them
exceedingly dull.
Hobbits delighted in such things,
if they were accurate:
they liked to have books filled
with things that they already knew,
set out fair and square
with no contradictions.
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