#tolkien

Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer. ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#bad-reviews #boring #complain #literary-criticism #lotr

I'd never heard of the 'Lord of the Rings', actually. So I went to the bookstore and there it was, three shelves of books about Tolkien and Middle-earth, and I was like, 'Holy cow, what else am I missing out on?' ↗

— Sean Astin

#actually #am #books #bookstore #cow

And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined. ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#tolkien #imagination

Well, you have now, Sam, dear Sam,’ said Frodo, and he lay back in Sam’s gentle arms, closing his eyes, like a child at rest when night-fears are driven away by some loved voice or hand. Sam felt that he could sit like that in endless happiness... ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#hobbits #lord-of-the-rings #middle-earth #sam-gamgee #tolkien

This is surely the most significant of the elements that Tolkien brought to fantasy.... his arranged marriage between the Elder Edda and "The Wind in the Willows"--big Icelandic romance and small-scale, cozy English children's book. The story told by "The Lord of the Rings" is essentially what would happen if Mole and Ratty got drafted into the Nibelungenlied. ↗

— Adam Gopnik

#fantasy #j-r-r-tolkien #literature #romance #the-wind-in-the-willows

Goodbye, master, my dear! Forgive your Sam. He'll come back to this spot when the job's done - if he manages it. And then he'll not leave you again. Rest you quiet till I come; and may no foul creature come anigh you! And if the Lady could hear me and give me one wish, I would wish to come back and find you again. Good bye! ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#lord-of-the-rings #middle-earth #sam #tolkien #true-love

I've always looked upon the Ducks as caricature human beings. Perhaps I've been years writing in that middle world that J.R.R. Tolkien describes, and never knew it. ↗

— Carl Barks

#been #beings #caricature #describes #ducks

The cry that 'fantasy is escapist' compared to the novel is only an echo of the older cry that novels are 'escapist' compared with biography, and to both cries one should make the same answer: that freedom to invent outweighs loyalty to mere happenstance, the accidents of history; and good readers should know how to filter a general applicability from a particular story. ↗

— Tom Shippey

#fiction #tolkien #tom-shippey #writing #freedom

It is a lovely language,but it takes a very long time to say anything in it,unless it is worth taking a long time to say,and to listen to. -Treebeard/Fangorn ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#towers #treebeard #two #love

A great dread fell on him, as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo's side in Rivendell filled all his heart. At last with an effort he spoke, and wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will was using his small voice. "I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way. ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#inspirational #lord-of-the-rings #middle-earth #motivational #tolkien