This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
I want to be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.
Aims | Authenticity | People |
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
I don?t like anything here at all. said Frodo, step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid. Yes, that?s so, said Sam, And we shouldn?t be here at all, if we?d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it?s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo, adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that?s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn?t. And if they had, we shouldn?t know, because they?d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on, and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same; like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren?t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we?ve fallen into? I wonder, said Frodo, But I don?t know. And that?s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you?re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don?t know. And you don?t want them to.
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
I perceived or thought of the Light of God and in it suspended one small mote (or millions of motes to only one of which was my small mind directed), glittering white because of the individual ray from the Light which both held and lit it...And the ray was the Guardian Angel of the mote: not a thing interposed between God and the creature, but God's very attention itself, personalized...This is a finite parallel to the Infinite. As the love of the Father and Son (who are infinite and equal) is a Person, so the love and attention of the Light to the Mote is a person (that is both with us and in Heaven): finite but divine, i.e. angelic.
Men |
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
GANDALF: Often does hatred hurt itself!
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
If thou hadst thy will what wouldst thou reserve? said Manwe. Of all thy realm what dost thou hold dearest? All have their worth, said Yavanna, and each contributes to the worth of the others. But the kelvar can flee or defend themselves, whereas the olvar that grow cannot. And among these I hold trees dear. Long in the growing, swift shall they be in the felling, and unless they pay toll with fruit upon their bough little mourned in their passing. So I see in my thought, would that the trees might speak on behalf of all things that have roots, and punish those that wrong them!
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
He loved mountains, or he had loved the thought of them marching on the edge of stories brought from far away; but now he was borne down by the insupportable weight of Middle-earth. He longed to shut out the immensity in a quiet room by a fire.
Innovation | Means | Need |
J. R. R. Tolkien, fully John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
His old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front.
People |