Today, January 3rd, is J.R.R Tolkien's 122nd birthday. He is remembered primarily for his Legendarium and, like C.S/ Lewis, the wise and witty quotations people have taken from his work over the years. For those who don't know, Legendarium is in fact a word. It is used primarily to identify Tolkien's work concerning Middle Earth, even the books and writings that are not considered "canon" (meaning some of the stories he wrote contradict the events of other stories because it was all a work in progress up until the day he died. His son, Christopher, has had the difficult job of deciding what to publish as "canon" (The Silmarillion) and what to publish (or not publish) as additional works (The Book of Lost Tales, for example).
You can read more about that here:
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Legendarium
In November I posted a list of 50 C.S. Lewis quotes in honor of the 50th anniversary of Jack's death. (He would have been 116 on Nov 29th. He died in 1963 a week before his 65th birthday.) Professor Tolkien died in September 1973 (age 81), so the 40th anniversary of his death was 4 months ago. It can get confusing celebrating one man on the day of his death and another on the day his life began, but bear with me. The purpose of this post is to highlight the things Tolkien wrote that are still so relevant today, and personal favorites, not necessarily a certain number. There are, of course, many many more I haven't included. I hope you enjoy it, add your own favorites in the comments, and raise a glass today in honor of "The Professor".
“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.”
―The Fellowship of the Ring
“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 that is given us.”
―The Fellowship of the Ring
“Never laugh at live dragons.” --The Hobbit
“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”
―The Fellowship of the Ring
Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.”
― The Lord of the Rings
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” --The Hobbit
There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.”
― The Two Towers
“I will not say, do not weep, for not all tears are an evil.” --The Return of the King
“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
― The Two Towers
“The Road goes ever on and on
Down 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 way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say”
―The Fellowship of the Ring
“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
― Fellowship of the Ring
“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
“Little by little, one travels far”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
― The Hobbit
It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.”
― The Lord of the Rings
“For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― The Return of the King
“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
― The Hobbit
“A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.”
― The Children of Húrin
“We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming 'sub-creator' and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic 'progress' leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
― The Hobbit
“The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
“He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
“It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
“Fairy tale does not deny the existence of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance. It denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat...giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy; Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”
― The Lord of the Rings
“Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
“Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
“But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.”
― The Return of the King
“The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
―The Fellowship of the Ring
“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 end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.”
― The Two Towers
“In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.”
― Lord of the Rings (Appendices)
“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 of Bombadil, 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.”
― The Return of the King
Pippin's Song (written by Tolkien, music by Billy Boyd and Howard Shore, sung by Billy in LOTR: The Return of the King)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WskRAEggqkQ
Misty Mountains (written by Tolkien, music by Howard Shore, sung by the dwarven company in The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyy_FIYE7EE
