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‘But after that we must guess the riddles, if we are to choose our course rightly,’ answered Aragorn. ‘Maybe there is no right choice,’ said Gimli.
‘I would have guided Frodo to Mordor and gone with him to the end;
For a moment it seemed to the eyes of Legolas that a white flame flickered on the brows of Aragorn like a shining crown.
Hobbits?’ said Éomer. ‘And what may they be? It is a strange name.’ ‘A strange name for a strange folk,’ said Gimli. ‘But these were very dear to us.
Do we walk in legends or on the green earth in the daylight?’ ‘A man may do both,’ said Aragorn.
I cannot desert my friends while hope remains.’
‘The counsel of Gandalf was not founded on foreknowledge of safety, for himself or for others,’ said Aragorn. ‘There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.
Yet Fangorn holds some secret of its own. What it is I do not know.’
‘We always seem to have got left out of the old lists, and the old stories,’ said Merry. ‘Yet we’ve been about for quite a long time. We’re hobbits.’
Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.
There is something very big going on, that I can see, and what it is maybe I shall learn in good time, or in bad time.
‘For one thing,’ said Théoden, ‘I had not heard that they spouted smoke from their mouths.’ ‘That is not surprising,’ answered Merry; ‘for it is an art which we have not practised for more than a few generations.
‘You do not know your danger, Théoden,’ interrupted Gandalf. ‘These hobbits will sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table, or the small doings of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and remoter cousins to the ninth degree, if you encourage them with undue patience. Some other time would be more fitting for the history of smoking.
‘I am Strider and Dúnadan too, and I belong both to Gondor and the North.’
‘Leave it to the Ents!’ said Treebeard.
Gandalf laughed. ‘A most unquenchable hobbit! All Wizards should have a hobbit or two in their care – to teach them the meaning of the word, and to correct them.
Now, Pippin my lad, don’t forget Gildor’s saying – the one Sam used to quote: Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.’ ‘But our whole life for months has been one long meddling in the affairs of Wizards,’
A fool, but an honest fool, you remain, Peregrin Took.
‘Strange powers have our enemies, and strange weaknesses!’ said Théoden. ‘But it has long been said: oft evil will shall evil mar.’
No, the burned hand teaches best.
‘I wonder,’ said Frodo. ‘It’s my doom, I think, to go to that Shadow yonder, so that a way will be found. But will good or evil show it to me?
In fact with every step towards the gates of Mordor Frodo felt the Ring on its chain about his neck grow more burdensome. He was now beginning to feel it as an actual weight dragging him earthwards.
‘I am commanded to go to the land of Mordor, and therefore I shall go,’ said Frodo. ‘If there is only one way, then I must take it. What comes after must come.’
He shook his head, as if finding words useless, and murmured: ‘I love him. He’s like that, and sometimes it shines through, somehow. But I love him, whether or no.’
brokeback mountain got nothing on these two
Sméagol won’t grub for roots and carrotses and – taters. What’s taters, precious, eh, what’s taters?’ ‘Po – ta – toes,’ said Sam. ‘The Gaffer’s delight, and rare good ballast for an empty belly.
I too would long for potatoes on the way to Mordor
‘Why so, and not Boromir, prince of the City that the sons of Elendil founded?’ ‘Because Aragorn is descended in direct lineage, father to father, from Isildur Elendil’s son himself. And the sword that he bears was Elendil’s sword.’
Though surely there are many perils in the world.’ ‘Many indeed,’ said Faramir, ‘and treachery not the least.’
‘I wonder,’ said Frodo. ‘But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.’
Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. 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.’
Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: “Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring!” And they’ll say: “Yes, that’s one of my favourite stories.
‘Why, Sam,’ he said, ‘to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted.
Why, even Gollum might be good in a tale, better than he is to have by you, anyway. And he used to like tales himself once, by his own account. I wonder if he thinks he’s the hero or the villain?
A spasm of pain seemed to twist him, and he turned away, peering back up towards the pass, shaking his head, as if engaged in some interior debate.
the internal struggle of Gollum is so fascinating
‘Frodo, Mr. Frodo!’ he called. ‘Don’t leave me here alone! It’s your Sam calling. Don’t go where I can’t follow! Wake up, Mr. Frodo! O wake up, Frodo, me dear, me dear. Wake up!’
crying in the clurb
