The Lord of the Rings - A General Discussion Thread

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:38 pm

I agree, Riv, a Quotes thread would be great. Perhaps after we've amassed a list of favorite quotes, it might be fun to have a poll and see if a single most favorite quote emerges. We could even split it up as follows:

Favorite quote from LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
Favorite quote from LOTR: The Two Towers
Favorite quote from LOTR: The Return of the King
Favorite quote from The Hobbit
Favorite quote from The Silmarillion

What do you think?

Riv Res · Post by **Riv Res** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:41 pm

Yes. I do like where this is going.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:57 pm

I also think it's a fantastic idea, All the quotes we've had so far are passages that really move me.

Lindariel wrote:Oh Riv, I do love that line, but I think I can top it:

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 city of the Men of Numenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.

Interestingly that quote is in the film, but in a roundabout way. The singing you hear over Boromir's death is a setting of those very words.

Philipa · Post by **Philipa** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 10:10 pm

I like the quote idea but I don't think there is enough of us to have a proper poll.

What if we just have a Tolkien quote thread (which includes his lesser read books too) just for our member to post them as they come along during our reading.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:12 pm

Do you mean extending the LotR Quote thread to cover all the books? Or maybe one for LotR and a second one for other works maybe

.

Philipa · Post by **Philipa** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:54 pm

You won't believe this (or maybe you would

), I just found the Lotr quote thread.

I had thought we would have a place for non-Lotr quotes too. I'm currently reading the Hobbit again and have read over some lovelies.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 5:18 pm

I believe it

.

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:22 pm

I'm surprised to be the one to remind us of it this year, but today is Aragorn's birthday. Hail to the King!

Philipa · Post by **Philipa** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:45 pm

Yes, Happy Birthday Ranger.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:06 pm

I'm a day late but..... Happy Birthday Arargorn.

"An image of the splendour if the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.'

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:09 pm

I'm late to the party, too -- sidetracked by excited children playing in the 6-8 inches of snow that fell on the Metro Washington DC area. We haven't had any decent snow to speak of so far this winter, and now, FINALLY, something worth playing in!

Happy Birthday to our forever King!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:24 am

Here's a good quote:

We remember the excitement of discovery. Here was a world that was real--in fact, more real, more solid than the one we left when we opened the covers of that book. Those covers were magic doors, and we really walked through them into Tolkien's world. They were not just windows to peer through, like cages at a zoo. We were not tourists but natives. We knew this world. It was our own world, seen more clearly than we had ever seen it before.

Exploring Tolkien's world was not just interesting (that all-purpose meaningless euphemism). It was not even just fascinating. It was sheer joy. For we knew that here we had touched truth. This book was a homecoming. This book broke our hearts.

from Peter Kreeft's The Philosophy of Tolkien

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:54 am

Wow! That really does sum it up, doesn't it? That is exactly how I feel when I read Tolkien! 'Not tourists but natives'.... that's something that people that dismiss Tolkien will never understand. I think that to hate Tolkien the way some clearly do you have to be very small of heart and low in imagination.

marbretherese · Post by **marbretherese** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:07 pm

Iolanthe wrote:Wow! That really does sum it up, doesn't it?

Completely! great quote, Merry. Puts it in a nutshell: sheer joy!! the first time I read LoTR it was as though someone had given me a huge present . . . and it still feels that way!

Lindariel · Post by **Lindariel** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 8:55 pm

That is a marvelous quote Merry, and I have found another one by Peter S. Beagle from his essay "Tolkien's Magic Ring":

Tolkien believes in his world, and in all those who inhabit it. This is, of course, no guarantee of greatness -- if Tolkien weren't a fine writer, it could not make him one -- but it is something without which there is no greatness, in art or in anything else, and I find very little of it in the fiction that purports to tell me about this world we all live in. This failure of belief on the authors' part is, I think, what turns so many books that mean to deal with the real things that really happen to the real souls and bodies of real people in the real world into the cramped little stages where varyingly fashionable marionettes jiggle and sing. But I believe that Tolkien has wandered in Middle-earth, which exists nowhere but in himself, and I understand the sadness of the Elves, and I have seen Mordor . . . . So I have read the tales of the Ring and some other books many times, and I envy my children, who have not yet read any of them, and I envy you if you have not, and wish you joy.