Yesterday was J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday. Fellow Middle Earthers, let’s honor him in this thread. Post a toast, a thank you, a link to your favorite parody, or mention your favorite scene or quote from his books; or mention your favorite fantasy novel that wouldn’t exist if he hadn’t re-invigorated the genre. Have at it!
Alassëa nosta!
I don’t know him half as well as I should have liked, and I like him less than half as much as he deserves.
Happy eleventy-tenth birthday!!
“…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.” This is the most beautiful quotation about death and dying I’ve ever read. I was thrilled that in one of the movies Gandalf said it to Pippin (or was it Merry) with a twinkle in his eye, and “that doesn’t sound so bad, does it?” No, it doesn’t sound so bad!
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. 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 above is a good thing to remember some times. I can’t quite find words to describe how it makes me feel, but I’m a better person for having read it.
A star shines upon the hour of meeting your books!
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.