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Poems and Tales of Middle-Earth:
(illustrations by Alan Lee) |
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(Treebeard's song about ancient times)
"In the willow-meads of Tasarinan
I walked in the Spring.
Ah! the sight and the smell
of the Spring in Nantasarion!
And I said that was good.
I wandered in Summer
in the elm-woods of Ossiriand.
Ah! the light and the music in the Summer
by the Seven Rivers of Ossir!
And I thought that was best.
To the beeches of Neldoreth
I came in the Autumn.
Ah! the gold and the red and the sighing of
leaves in the Autumn in Taur-na-neldor!
It was more than my desire.
To the pine-trees upon the highland of Dorthonion
I climbed in the Winter.
Ah! the wind and the whiteness and the black
branches of Winter upon Orod-na-Thôn!
My voice went up and sang in the sky.
And now all those lands lie under the wave,
And I walk in Ambaróna, in Tauremorna,
in Adalómë,
In my own lands in the country of Fangorn,
Where the roots are long,
And the year lie thicker than the leaves
In Tauremornalómë
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The Lord of the Rings
Part II. The Two Towers
Quotes from Tolkien's Novel
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| Fangorn Forest: Mithrandir. |
" 'I do not think the wood feels evil, whatever tales may say,' said Legolas. '[...] I
catch only the faintest echoes of dark places where the hearts of trees are black. There is no malice near us; but there
is watchfulness and anger. [...] Do you not feel the tenseness? It takes my breath. [...] It is old, very old', said
the Elf. 'So old that almost I feel young again, as I have not felt since I journeyed with you children. It is old
and full of memory. I could have been happy here, if I had come in days of peace.' "
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" 'If we do not find them soon, we shall be of no use to them, except to sit down
beside them and show our friendship by starving together.' (Gimli)
'If that is indeed all we can do, then we must do that,' said Aragorn. 'Let us go on.' "
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"Aragorn looked and beheld a bent figure moving slowly. It was not far away. It looked like
an old beggar-man, walking wearily, leaning on a rough staff. His head was bowed, and he did not look towards them.
In other lands, they would have greeted him with kind words; but now they stood silent, each feeling a strange expectancy:
something was approaching that held a hidden power - or menace. [...] He broke off, laughing long and softly.
Aragorn felt a shudder run through him at the sound, a strange cold thrill; and yet it was not fear or terror that he
felt: rather it was like the sudden bite of a keen air, or the slap of a cold rain that wakes an uneasy sleeper."
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"His hair was white as snow in the sunshine; and gleaming white was his robe; the
eyes under his deep brows were bright, piercing as the rays of the sun; power was in his hand. Between wonder, joy, and
fear they stood and found no word to say.
At last Aragorn stirred. 'Gandalf!' he said. [...]
'Gandalf,' the old man repeated, as if recalling from old memory a long disused word. 'Yes,
that was the name. I was Gandalf. [...] Yes, you may still call me Gandalf. [...] Indeed I am Saruman, one
might also say, Saruman as he should have been.' "
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"The Ring now has passed beyond my help, or the help of any of
the Company that set out from Rivendell. Very nearly it was revealed to the Enemy, but it escaped. I had some part in
that: for I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark Tower; and the Shadow passed. Then I was weary, very weary;
and I walked long in dark thought.' " (Gandalf)
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" 'In one thing, you have not changed, dear friend,' said Aragorn: 'you still
speak in riddles.'
'What? In riddles?' said Gandalf. 'No! For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they
choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying.' He laughed, but
the sound now seemed warm and kindly as a gleam of sunshine."
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" 'But let us not darken our hearts by imagining the trial of their gentle loyalty
in the Dark Tower. For the Enemy has failed - so far. Thanks to Saruman.' (Gandalf)
'Then is Saruman not a traitor?' said Gimli.
'Indeed yes,' said Gandalf. 'Doubly. And is not that strange? Nothing that we have endured of
late seemed so grievous as the treason of Isengard. [...] Yet a treacherous weapon is ever a danger to the hand.
Saruman also had a mind to capture the Ring, for himself.' "
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"War is upon us and all our friends, a war in which only the use of the Ring
could give us surety of victory. It fills me with great sorrow and great
fear: for much shall be destroyed and all may be lost. I am Gandalf, Gandalf the White, but Black is mightier still.'
He rose and gazed out eastwards, shading his eyes, as if he saw things far away that none of them
could see."
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" 'Then tell us what you will, and time allows!' said Gimli. 'Come, Gandalf, tell
us how you fared with the Balrog!'
'Name him not!' said Gandalf, and for a moment it seemed a cloud of pain passed over his face,
and he sat silent, looking old as death. 'Long time I fell,' he said at last, slowly, as if thinking back with difficulty.
'Long I fell, and he fell with me. His fire was about me. I was burned. Then we plunged into deep water and all was dark.
Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart. [...] Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves,
the world is gnawed by nameless things.' "
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" 'Ice fell like rain. I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and
broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin. Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time,
and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.
'Naked I was sent back - for a brief time, until my task is done. And naked I lay upon the
mountain-top. [...] I was alone, forgotten,
without escape upon the hard horn of the world. There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each
day was as long as a life-age of the earth. Faint to my ears came the gathered rumour of all lands: the springing and
the dying, the song and the weeping, and the slow everlasting groan of overburdened stone.' "
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