Lord of the Rings Question - Need Help, Please!

[ConservativeDude]

I have a question on a particular passage in Lord of the Rings and I need to find it. Can someone help?

[yellow rubber ducky]

I love those books. I read them at least twice a year in my teen years; they were like a breath of fresh air from the dreck on tv that I was watching...can’t remember any of the stupid sitcoms, but I know those books.

On a sober note, I wonder when they’ll be banned from school libraries? The trilogy shows people doing what is right in the face of insurmountable odds, which I suppose is very subversive in a world in which you’d be wise to just do what you’re told by your betters.

[ConservativeDude]

which I suppose is very subversive in a world in which you’d be wise to just do what you’re told by your betters.”

When there are too many right-doing Hobbits in the world, that makes life hard for would-be totalitarians. Which is, as you note, why the books must be banned from schools....

[mware]

One of my favorite parts in ROTK, was when the men were about to confront the enemy in the final battle. They all stood there standing, looking at the enemy they knew would defeat them without a miracle. They little Merry and Pippin stepped out and lead the charge against the enemy.

Damn, that sent shivers up my spine.

[ConservativeDude]

ok, now that we’re on a roll...how about when the doors to the city (Minas Tirith?) are being pounded down, and Gandalf is there with the troops, and says, “Men of Gondor, whatever comes through that door, you will stand and fight!”. And then those Mountain Trolls burst through, and they do stand and fight.

Man, I loved that also!

I think, incidentally, that Return of the King might be the best movie of all time.

[mware]

Okay, how about this line. Can't recall the book it was in but when Sam Wise tells Frodo,

"Mr. Frodo there are some things worth fighting for."

[mware]

It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. . .Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something. . .There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

[ConservativeDude]

I add only this: how much poorer would we be had Tolkien not lived, not finished LOTR, had he gone lazy on us, had he not witnessed to Lewis, had he not singlehandedly rescued Beowulf from the trash heap of academia, etc., etc., etc.

Truly, that was a life well-lived.

[Sockdologer]

NO. No it isn’t. That is the WORST part in the movie trilogy. It makes me want to put my head through a wall. Was that dialogue really so much better than Tolkien’s, Peter Jackson? WAS IT? </rant>

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Well it has been a while (over a year) but to go back to the argument, most of Jackson’s changes were part of the necessity to simplify the construction of the story, but some of it was due to his reimagining parts of the characterization, often to simplify. In my mind the worst of this is what he did to Denethor, turning him from a tormented individual damaged by trying to fight Sauron directly, through Palantirs, and defeated as anyone would be in that struggle. He turned him into a demented and gross cowardly fool! Reprehensible!

[Sockdologer]

True. That was a little worse than Frodo GIVING the ring to the Nazgul. At any rate, simplification is all well and good, but if you provide proper visual imagery, it shouldn’t be necessary. There’s just no excuse for cutting out Tolkien’s beautiful language.

[thefactor]

i know exactly what you are talking about. give me a minute...

[thefactor]

"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand. There is no going back. There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep. That have taken hold.

My dear. You cannot always be torn in two. You have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be and to do. Because, your part in the journey goes on."

is this it? it's from the end of the Return of the King.

[Ramius]

Agree... I get shivers at those rousing battle speeches. I think Aragorn's speech at the black gates ranks among the best ever. Brings a tear to my eye, every time:

Hold your ground! Hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come when the courage of men fails. When we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day! An hour of wolves, and shattered shields when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear... on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!

[snif] :-)

[ConservativeDude]

thanks all of you for bumping this old thread back to the top!!!!

[hoagy62]

My personal favorite (besides Aragorn's speech) was when Frodo and Sam were up on Mount Doom and Sam was trying to get Frodo to remember the Shire, but the Ring was so powerful at that point that Frodo couldn't get past the Ring. Sam then makes this declaration...

"Let us be rid of it then...once and for all! Come on Mr. Frodo...I can't carry it for you...but I can carry you! Come on!"

...and then lifts Frodo onto his shoulders and caries him up the mountain. I've always thought of that point as when Samwise the Brave turned into Samwise the Mighty. That scene never ceases to choke me up.

[kaylar]

I loved the scene where Pippin signs in the hall of Denethor...The way the scene fades out to the slow motion ride against the orc-occupied fortress...Made the hair on the back of my neck rise first time I saw that scene, and I still think it’s brilliant.