Happy Tolkien Reading Day!

[Silky Gooseness]

March 25th is celebrated as Tolkien Reading Day!

Does anyone have a favourite quotation to share? One of mine is this:

And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns, in dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.

Never fails to give me the chills.

(Pics of what you are reading also welcome)

[Drífa]

I have many favourites. This one I discovered lately and find it quite profound.

'Maybe,' said Gimli, 'and I thank you for your words. True words doubtless; yet all such comfort is cold. Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it clear as Kheled-zâram. Or so says the heart of Gimli the Dwarf. Elves may see things otherwise. Indeed I have heard that for them memory is more like to the waking world than to a dream. Not so for Dwarves. TFoTR, Farewll To Lórien

[Silky Gooseness]

I might have to pick a favourite quotation from each book… And count all the various parts of the Silmarillion as separate

So Quenta Silmarillion, I think one of my favourites might be this:

He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking that Oromë himself was come: for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar. Thus he came alone to Angband’s gates, and he sounded his horn, and smote once more upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat. And Morgoth came.

this is why Fingolfin is the best

[edit because autocorrect changed Quenta Silmarillion to Quentin Silmarillion!!]

[Chrysophylax Dives]

I have many favourites. This one I discovered lately and find it quite profound.

'Maybe,' said Gimli, 'and I thank you for your words. True words doubtless; yet all such comfort is cold. Memory is not what the heart desires. That is only a mirror, be it clear as Kheled-zâram. Or so says the heart of Gimli the Dwarf. Elves may see things otherwise. Indeed I have heard that for them memory is more like to the waking world than to a dream. Not so for Dwarves. TFoTR, Farewll To Lórien

Along with a related one about Legolas dreaming, that line was at the core of discussions I had several years ago. I saw a call for contributions for a proposed book in honour of Verlyn Flieger and persuaded three others in a Google+ Middle-earth group to write a joint paper. We then spent about half a year reading LotR together with one of Flieger's books about LotR, which gave me a whole new understanding of Tolkien's story. Flieger focuses especially on the dream-like enchantment of Bombadil's realm and Lorien and we went off into endless discussions of Elves and dreams. If I recall rightly, our eventual contribution was titled 'Do Eldar Dream of Immortal Sheep?'

Dwarves here seem like Hobbits and Men, while what Gimli says about Elves and dreams seems to go to the heart of their imagination in The Lord of the Rings (though not I think The Silmarillion).

[Chrysophylax Dives]

But funnily enough he need not have been alarmed. For one thing Gollum had learned long long ago was never, never, to cheat at the riddle-game, which is a sacred one and of immense antiquity. Also there was the sword.

'Riddles in the Dark', The Hobbit (1st edition)

[Saranna]

Chrysophylax Dives has reminded me it's Reading Day - ageing having caused me to forget. He suggested I should post some of my favourite quotations, some of which are out of Middle-earth and some in. I shall probably end up dripping tears of deep emotion on the keyboard.
It would be nice to quote from the Complete Poetical Works that I was given for my birthday 2 days ago, but I haven't had time to read them!

1) Hobbit
"Where else should I be?" said the wizard. "All the same I am pleased to find you remember something about me.You seem to remember my fireworks kindly, at any rate. ....."In fact I will go so far as to send you on this adventure. Very amusing for me, very good for you--and profitable too, very likely, if you ever get over it."
"Sorry! I don't want any adventures thank you. Not today. Good morning! But please come to tea-any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Come tomorrow! Goodbye!"

A fine example of how, in fiction, tall oaks from little acorns grow. A scared and scampering Hobbit hates the thought of adventures they 'make you late for tea.'

Three hundred pages later, we find 'Bilbo knelt on one knee, filled with sorrow. "Farewell, King Under the mountain!" he said. "This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad I have shared in your perils- that has been more than any Baggins deserves." '

From comedy to High Tragedy. and the reader may well laugh at the early Bilbo; at the end, it's definitely a pocket-handkerchief scene for me as Bilbo shows how far he has travelled, in so many more ways than one.

[Saranna]

2 - Smith

He (Nokes) took it down and blew the dust off the lid; but when he opened it he found that very little of the spices was left, and they were dry and musty. But in one compartment in the comer he discovered a small star, hardly as big as one of our sixpences, black-looking as if it was made of silver but was tarnished. "That's funny!" he said as he held it up to the light.
"No, it isn't!" said a voice behind him, so suddenly that he jumped. It was the voice of Prentice, and he had never spoken to the Master in that tone before. Indeed he seldom spoke to Nokes at all unless he was spoken to first. Very right and proper in a youngster; he might be clever with icing but he had a lot to learn yet: that was Nokes's opinion.
"What do you mean, young fellow?" he said, not much pleased. "If it isn't funny what is it?"
"It is fay," said Prentice. "It comes from Faery."
Then the Cook laughed. "All right; all right," he said. "It means much the same; but call it that if you like. You'll grow up some day. Now you can get on with stoning the raisins. If you notice any funny fairy ones, tell me."
"What are you going to do with the star, Master?" said Prentice.
"Put it into the Cake, of course," said the Cook. "Just the thing, especially if it's fairy," he sniggered. "I daresay you've been to children's parties yourself, and not so long ago either, where little trinkets like this were stirred into the mixture, and little coins and what not. Anyway we do that in this village: it amuses the children."
"But this isn't a trinket, Master, it's a fay-star," said Prentice.
"So you've said already," snapped the Cook. "Very well, I'll tell the children. It'll make them laugh."
"I don't think it will, Master," said Prentice. "But it's the right thing to do, quite right."

I just love this exchange - hard to explain why.

[Saranna]

3 The children of Hurin

Then they lifted up Túrin, and saw that his sword was broken asunder. So passed all that he possessed.
With toil of many hands they gathered wood and piled it high and made a great burning and destroyed the body of the Dragon, until he was but black ash and his bones beaten to dust, and the place of that burning was ever bare and barren thereafter. But Túrin they laid in a high mound where he had fallen, and the shards of Gurthang were set beside him. And when all was done, and the minstrels of Elves and Men had made lament, telling of the valour of Turambar and the beauty of Níniel, a great grey stone was brought and set upon the mound; and thereon the Elves carved in the Runes of Doriath:
TÚRIN TURAMBAR DAGNIR GLAURUNGA
and beneath they wrote also:
NIËNOR NÍNIEL

Many boxes of tissues used when reading this tale.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Thanks @Saranna! The 'Smith of Wootton Major' exchange does capture the heart of something, though it is hard to say just what. It sent me off to OFS, and as 'Tolkien reading' need not be confined to fantasy here is one of several quotes from that impossible essay the meaning of which I find peculiarly hard to fathom.

The definition of a fairy-story—what it is, or what it should be—does not, then, depend on any definition or historical account of elf or fairy, but upon the nature of Faërie: the Perilous Realm itself, and the air that blows in that country. I will not attempt to define that, nor to describe it directly. It cannot be done. Faërie cannot be caught in a net of words; for it is one of its qualities to be indescribable, though not imperceptible.

What can it mean that Faërie may be perceived but not described? I often feel that if I could answer this I would have little more to learn from Tolkien.

[Saranna]

The more I come back to this paragraph - and believe me I come back to it often - the more I begin to feel that the tone of it makes more sense if you just accept that Faërie is real and Tolkien went there a lot and knew everything about it.

[Saranna]

@Drífa I have, and have read with pleasure the book you speak of; 'A wilderness of Dragons.' Proud to know of your part in it.

I actually enjoy her fiction too.

[Drífa]

Hi, @Saranna! I am unsure what book you speak of, but I am glad you enjoyed it!