| |
|
Poems and Tales of Middle-Earth:
(illustrations by Alan Lee) |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The Lord of the Rings
Part III. The Return of the King
Quotes from Tolkien's Novel
|
|
| |
| |
| Minas Tirith: Denethor |
"A sweet fountain played there in in the morning sun, and a sward of bright
green lay about it; but in the midst, drooping over the pool, stood a dead tree, and the falling drops dripped
sadly from its barren and broken branches back into the clear water." |
| |
|
" 'Dark indeed is the hour,' said the old man [Denethor], 'and at such times
you are wont to come, Mithrandir. But though all signs forebode that the doom of Gondor is nigh, less now to me
is that darkness than my own darkness. It has been told that you bring with you one who saw my son die." |
| |
" 'Yet a Halfling still,' said Denethor grimly, 'and little love do I bear
the name, since those accursed words came to trouble our counsels and drew away my son on the wild errand to his
death. My Boromir! Now we have need of you. Faramir should have gone in his stead.'
'He would have gone,' said Gandalf. 'Be not unjust in your grief! Boromir claimed the errand
and would not suffer any others to have it.' " |
| |
"Then Pippin looked the old man in the eye, for pride stirred strangely
within him, still stung by the scorn and suspicion in that cold voice. 'Little service, no doubt, will so great
a lord of Men think to find in a hobbit, a halfling from the northern Shire; yet such as it is, I will offer it,
in payment of my debt.' Twitching aside his grey cloak, Pippin drew forth his small sword and laid it at
Denethor's feet.
A pale smile, like a gleam of cold sun on a winter's evening, passed over the old man's
face." |
| |
"He turned his dark eyes on Gandalf, and now Pippin saw a likeness between
the two, and he felt the strain between them, almmost as if he saw a line of smouldering fire, drawn from eye to
eye, that might suddenly burst into flame.
Denethor looked indeed much more like a great wizard than Gandalf did, more kingly, beautiful,
and powerful; and older. Yet by a sense other than sight Pippin perceived that Gandalf had the greater power and the
deeper wisdom, and a majesty that was veiled. And he was older, far older. [...] And then his musings broke off, and he
saw that Denethor and Gandalf still looked each other in the eye, as if reading the other's mind. But it was
Denethor who first withdrew his gaze." |
| |
" 'You can use even your grief as a cloak. Do you think that I do not understand
your purpose in questioning for an hour one who knows the least, while I sit by?' [Gandalf]
'If you understand it, then be content,' returned Denethor. 'Pride would be folly that disdained
help and counsel at need; but you deal out such gifts according to your own designs. Yet the Lord of Gondor is not
to be made the tool of other men's purposes, however worthy. And to him, there is no purpose higher in the world as it
now stands than the good of Gondor; and the rule of Gondor, my lord, is mine and no other man's, unless the king should
come again.'
'Unless the king should come again?' said Gandalf. '[...] I will say this: the rule of no
realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world
now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if
anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I am
also a steward. Did you not know?' And with that he turned and strode from the hall with Pippin running at his side." |
| |
|
|
|
