There are so many beautiful, moving, sad, uplifting, powerful passages in Tolkien.
I've often read the Lothlórien chapters because they are so beautiful. Their beauty comforts me.
Come share your favourite quotes in this thread.
The ones that move you the most ... for whatever reason.Here is one of my favourite passages from The Silmarillion. The majestic, almost biblical, beauty of Tolkien's prose is as clear and pure as crystal.
He walked in the deserted ways of Tirion, and the dust upon his raiment and his shoes was a dust of diamonds, and he shone and glistened as he climbed the long white stairs. And he called aloud in many tongues, both of Elves and Men, but there were none to answer him. Therefore he turned back at last towards the sea; but even as he took the shoreward road one stood upon the hill and called to him in a great voice, crying:
'Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope! Hail Eärendil, bearer of light before the Sun and Moon! Splendour of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!'
And here are the opening lines of the Anglo-Saxon poem that was Tolkien's original inspiration, so long ago:
Eala Earendel engla beorhtost
ofter middangeard monnum sended!
Translation:
Hail, heavenly beam, brightest of angels thou,
sent unto men upon this middle-earth!
