Favourite excerpts from The Fellowship of the Ring
seldom seen so fair a summer,
or so rich an autumn:
the trees were laden with apples,
honey was dripping in the combs,
and the corn was tall and full.
there was only one Road;
It was like a great river:
its springs were at every doorstep,
and every path was its tributary.
Twilight was about them
The West wind was sighing in the branches.
Leaves were whispering.
Soon the road began to fall gently but steadily into the dusk
there was bread, surpassing the savour of a fair white loaf to one who is starving;
fruits sweet as wildberries and richer than the tended fruits of gardens;
he drained a cup that was filled with a fragrant draught, cool as a clear fountain, golden as a summer afternoon.
lying in a bower made by a living tree with branches laced and drooping to the ground;
his bed was of fern and grass, deep and soft and strangely fragrant.
the Elves had filled their bottles with a clear drink, pale golden in colour:
it had the scent of a honey made of many flowers, and was wonderfully refreshing
The leaves of trees were glistening,
and every twig was dripping;
the grass was grey with cold dew.
Shadows had fallen in the valley below,
but there was still a light on the faces of the mountains far above.
The air was warm.
The sound of running and falling water was loud,
and the evening was filled with a faint scent of trees and flowers,
as if summer still lingered in Elrond’s gardens.
the firelit hall became like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world.
an endless river of swelling gold and silver was flowing over him.
there he wandered long in a dream of music that turned into running water.
Elrond was in his chair and the fire was on his face like summer-light upon the trees.
Near him sat the Lady Arwen.
Aragorn stood beside her, clad in elven-mail, and a
star shone on his breast.
Arwen turned towards him, and the light of her eyes fell on him from afar and pierced his heart.
Bilbo took a walk and looked at the stars of Elbereth in the garden.
the pale, cool sun rose above the far mountains,
and shone down, slanting through the thin silver
mist;
the dew upon the yellow leaves glimmered and the woven nets of gossamer twinkled on every bush.
The light of the clear autumn morning was now glowing in the valley.
The noise of bubbling waters came up from the foaming river-bed.
Birds were singing, and a wholesome peace lay on the land.
Frodo's dangerous flight, and the rumours of the darkness growing in the world outside, seemed only the memories of a troubled dream.
when summer waned,
there came a night of moon,
and Gwaihir the Windlord, swiftest of the Great Eagles, came unlooked-for to Orthanc;
and he found Gandalf standing on the pinnacle.
he bore Gandalf away many leagues from Isengard.
we cannot destroy it by any craft that we here possess,
and they who dwell beyond the Sea would not receive it:
for good or ill it belongs to Middle-earth;
it is for us who still dwell here to deal with it.
we must take a hard road,
a road unforeseen.
There lies our hope, if hope it be.
To walk into peril – to Mordor.
We mustsend the Ring to the Fire.
We cannot use the Ruling Ring.
It belongs to Sauron and was made by him alone, and is altogether evil.
Its strength is too great for anyone to wield at will.
The very desire of it corrupts the heart.
I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.
this task is appointed for you, Frodo;
if you do not find a way, no one will.
The Company of the Ring shall be Nine;
and the Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil.
they shall represent the Free Peoples of the World.
a small shirt of Dwarf-mail.
close-woven of many rings,
as supple almost as linen,
cold as ice, and harder than steel.
It shone like moonlit silver,
and was studded with white gems.
With it was a belt of pearl and crystal.
Gimli: Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
Elrond: Maybe, but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.
Gimli: Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart. Elrond: Or break it.
The weather changed.
The wind suddenly fell and then veered round to the south.
The swift-flowing clouds lifted and melted away,
and the sun came out, pale and bright.
There came a cold clear dawn at the end of a long stumbling night-march.
The travellers reached a low ridge crowned with ancient holly-trees whose grey-green trunks seemed to have been built out of the very stone of the hills.
Their dark leaves shone and their berries glowed red in the light of the rising sun.
Dark is the water of Kheled-zâram,
and cold are the springs of Kibil-nâla.
My heart trembles at the thought that I may see them soon.
the stones lamented:
deep they delved us,
fair they wrought us,
high they builded us;
but they are gone.
They sought the Havens long ago.
Leathern flask of miruvor,
very precious - the cordial of Imladris.
Just one mouthful of the warm and fragrant liquor
made Frodo feel a new strength of heart,
and the heavy drowsiness left his limbs.
Others revived and found fresh hope and vigour.
In the deep places of the world!
And thither we are going against my wish.
Who will lead us now in this deadly dark?
Let us sit and rest and have something to eat, here on the landing, since we can’t find a dining-room!
the dull stump of Gimli’s dwarf-boots;
the heavy tread of Boromir;
the light step of Legolas;
the soft, scarce-heard patter of hobbit-feet;
and in the rear the slow firm footfalls of Aragorn with his long stride.
the great cavernous hall,
there seemed to be a steady inflow of chill air through the eastern archway.
as they lay hung the darkness, hollow and immense, oppressed by the loneliness and vastness of the dolven halls and endlessly branching stairs and passages.
the actual dread and wonder of Moria
There must have been a mighty crowd of dwarves here at one time
These are not holes
This is the great realm and city of the Dwarrowdelf.
And of old it was not darksome, but full of light and splendour,
as is still remembered in our songs.
The wealth of Moria was not in gold and jewels, the toys of the Dwarves;
nor in iron, their servant.
all things that they desired they could obtain in traffic.
For here alone in the world was found Moria-silver, or true-silver as some have called it:
mithril is the Elvish name.
Its worth was ten times that of gold, and now it is beyond price;
for little is left above ground, and even the Orcs dare not delve here for it.
but even as mithril was the foundation of their wealth,
so also it was their destruction:
they delved too greedily and too deep,
and disturbed that from which they fled, Durin’s Bane.
Mithril! All folk desired it.
It could be beaten like copper, and polished like glass;
and the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel.
Its beauty was like to that of common silver,
but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim.
The Elves dearly loved it, and among many uses they made of it ithildin, starmoon,
which you saw upon the doors.
Bilbo had a corslet of mithril-rings that Thorin gave him, a kingly gift!
There lie the woods of Lothlórien!
the fairest of all the dwellings of the woodland elves.
There are no trees like the trees of that land.
In the autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold.
Not till the spring comes and the new green opens do they fall,
and then the boughs are laden with yellow flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden,
and golden is the roof,
and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of the trees is smooth and grey.
So still the songs in Mirkwood say.
Your heart would be glad if you were
beneath the eaves of that wood, and it were springtime!
Aragorn bathed the hurts with water in which athelas was steeped.
The pungent fragrance filled the dell,
and all those who stooped over the steaming water felt refreshed and strengthened.
Soon Frodo felt the pain leave him,
and his breath grew easy:
though he was stiff and sore to the touch for many days
mound of Amroth,
Here ever bloom the winter flowers in the unfading grass:
the yellow elanor,
and the pale niphredil.
though the world is now dark,
better days are at hand,
and friendships shall be renewed between our people
Favourite excerpts from The Two Towers
Dusk deepened.
Mist lay behind them among the trees below,
and broodedon the pale margins of the Anduin,
but the sky was clear.
Stars came out.
The waxing moon was riding in the West,
and the shadows of the rocks were black.
The dale ran like a stony trough between the ridged hills,
and a trickling stream flowed among the boulders at the bottom.
A cliff frowned upon their right;
to their left rose grey slopes,
dim and shadowy in the late night
The sun climbed to the noon and then rode slowly down the sky.
Light clouds came up out of the sea in the distant South and were blown away upon the breeze.
The sun sank.
Shadows rose behind and reached out long arms from the East.
Dawn came glimmering, and slowly a grey light grew about them.
The young moon was glimmering in a misty sky, but it gave small light, and the stars were veiled.
The sun sank and the shadows of evening fell like a curtain.
They were alone in a grey formless world without mark or measure.
Only far away north-west there was a deeper darkness against the dying light:
the Mountains of Mist and the forest at their feet.
the trees in the court had also begun to glow,
faintly at first, but steadily quickening,
until every leaf was edged with light:
some green, some gold, some red as copper;
while the tree-trunks looked like pillars moulded out of luminous stone.
Favourite excerpts from The Return of the King
Pippin looked out from the shelter of Gandalf’s cloak still in the swift-moving dream
The dark world was rushing by
the wind sang loudly in his ears
He could see nothing but the wheeling stars,
vast shadows against the sky where the mountains of the South marched past
The beacons of Gondor are alight,
calling for aid
War is kindled
the fire on Amon Dîn,
and flame on Eilenach;
there they go speeding west:
Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad,
and the Halifirien on the borders of Rohan.
Faithful servant yet master’s bane,
Lightfoot’s foal, swift Snowmane.
Green and long grew the grass on Snowmane’s Howe,
but ever black and bare
was the ground where the beast was burned.
And when the fragrance of athelas stole through the room,
like the scent of orchards,
and of heather in the sunshine full of bees,
suddenly Merry awoke, and he said:
I am hungry. What is the time?
When Sam awoke, he found that he was lying on some soft bed,
but over him gently swayed wide beechen boughs, and through their young leaves sunlight glimmered, green and gold.
All the air was full of a sweet mingled scent.
He remembered that smell: the fragrance of Ithilien.
Gandalf laughed, and the sound was like music,
or like water in a parched land;
and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter,
the pure sound of merriment,
for days upon days without count.
It fell upon his ears like the echo
of all the joys he had ever known.
But he himself burst into tears.
Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer,
his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed.
Sam: I feel like spring after winter,
and sun on the leaves;
and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!
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