Here do I swear fealty and service to Gondor, and to the Lord
and Steward of the realm, to speak and to be silent, to do and
to let be, to come and to go, in need or plenty, in peace or
war, in living or dying, from this hour henceforth, until my
lord release me, or death take me, or the world end.
The Lord of the Rings
Pippin's oath, Chapter 'Minas Tirith'. |
I will not forget it, nor fail to reward that which is given:
fealty with love, valour with honour, oath-breaking with vengeance.
The Lord of the Rings
Pippin's oath, Chapter 'Minas Tirith'. |
The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other,
great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the
world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall
not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if
anything passes through this night that can still grow fair
or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I also am
a steward. Did you not know?
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf, Chapter 'Minas Tirith'. |
Generous deed should not be checked by cold counsel.
The Lord of the Ring
Gandalf, Chapter 'Minas Tirith'. |
"Too often have I heard of duty," she cried. "But
am I not of the House of Eorl, a shield maiden and not a dry-nurse?
I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they falter
no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will."
The Lord of the Rings
Lady Éowyn to Aragorn, Chapter
'The Passing of the Grey Company'.
|
"What do you fear, lady?" he asked.
"A cage," she said. "To stay behind bars, until
use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great
deeds is gone beyond recall or desire."
The Lord of the Rings
Aragorn and Lady Éowyn, Chapter
'The Passing of the Grey Company'.
|
Such was the dark Dunharrow, the work of long-forgotten men.
Their name was lost and no song or legend remembered it. For
what purpose they had made this place, as a town or secret temple
or a tomb of kings, none in Rohan could say. Here they laboured
in the Dark Years. and now they had vanished, and only the old
Púkel-men were left, still sitting at the turnings of
the road.
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Muster of Rohan'. |
Where will wants not, a way opens.
The Lord of the Rings
Éowyn clothed as Dernhelm whispers
in Merry's ear, Chapter 'The Muster of Rohan'. |
Let us remember that a traitor may betray himself and do good
that he does not intend. It can be so, sometimes.
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf, Chapter 'The Siege of Gondor'. |
In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape
against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace
of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the
archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before
his face.
All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before
the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among
the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast
as a graven image in Rath Dínen.
"You cannot enter here," said Gandalf, and the huge
shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you!
Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your
Master. Go!"
The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a
kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The
red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast
and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.
"Old fool!" he said. "Old fool! This is my
hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse
in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and
flames ran down the blade.
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Siege of Gondor'.
|
And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of
the city, a cock crowed. shrill and clear he crowed, recking
nothing of war nor of wizardry, welcoming only the morning that
in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the
dawn.
And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns,
horns horns, in dark mindolluins sides they dimly echoed. great
horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.
The Lord of the Rings
Gondor is about to fall and the King of
Angmar and Gandalf are facing down at the gates, Chapter 'The
Siege of Gondor'. |
At that sound the bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect.
Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he
cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had ever heard
a mortal man achieve before:
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter!
spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
With that he seized a great horn from Guthláf his banner-bearer,
and he blew such a blast upon it that it burst asunder. And
straightway all the horns in the host were lifted up in music,
and the blowing of the horns of Rohan in that hour was like
a storm upon the plain and a thunder in the mountains.
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
The Lord of the Rings
Théoden's Battle Cry, Chapter 'The
Ride of the Rohirrim'. |
"Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the
dead in peace!"
A cold voice answered: 'Come not between the Nazgûl and
his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear
thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness,
where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be
left naked to the Lidless Eye."
A sword rang as it was drawn. "Do what you will; but I
will hinder it, if I may."
"Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!"
Then Merry heard the strangest of all sounds in that hour the
strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice
was like the ring of steel. "But no living man am I!"
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields'. |
Great heart will not be denied.
The Lord of the Rings
Théoden, Chapter 'The Battle of
the Pelennor Fields'. |
Mourn not overmuch! Mighty was the fallen,
meet was his ending. When his mound is raised,
women then shall weep. War now calls us!
The Lord of the Rings
Éomer on the death of King Théoden,
Chapter 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields'. |
Over the field rang his clear voice calling: "Death!
Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!"
The Lord of the Rings
Éomer, Chapter 'The Battle of the
Pelennor Fields'. |
So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse.
But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it
slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dúnedain
were young, and the chief among their foes was the dread realm
of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though
mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound
so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that
knit his unseen sinews to his will.
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields'. |
Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
The Lord of the Rings
Burial Song of Théoden, Chapter
'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields'. |
"Work of the Enemy!" said Gandalf. "Such deeds
he loves: friend at war with friend; loyalty divided in confusion
of hearts."
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Pyre of Denethor'. |
"Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to
order the hour of your death," answered Gandalf. "And
only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power,
did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering
their kin to ease their own death."
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Pyre of Denethor'. |
To me it would not seem that a Steward who faithfully surrenders
his charge is diminished in love or in honour.
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf, Chapter 'The Pyre of Denethor'. |
Few other griefs amid the ill chances of this world have more
bitterness and shame for a man's heart than to behold the love
of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned.
The Lord of the Rings
Aragorn, Chapter 'The Houses of Healing'. |
It is the way of my people to use light words at such times
and say less than they mean. We fear to say too much. It robs
us of the right words when a jest is out of place.
The Lord of the Rings
Mourning Théoden in the Houses of
Healing, Merry apologizes for his sarcasm, Chapter 'The Houses
of Healing'. |
It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose:
you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of
the Shire is deep. Still there are things deeper and higher;
and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace
but for them, whether he knows about them or not.
The Lord of the Rings
Merry, Chapter 'The Houses of Healing'. |
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but
to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we
are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that
those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather
they shall have is not ours to rule.
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf, Chapter 'The Last Debate'. |
The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr he was, and
his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten
it, and he said: "I am the Mouth of Sauron."
The Lord of the Rings
Chapter 'The Black Gate Opens'. |