Excerpts from books I’m reading. (Trigger Warning)

[Greatshield17]

I thought I’d start a thread in which post interesting and thought-provoking things I’m coming across in the books I’m reading. Most of it will be from Lord of the Rings, but one of the books I’m reading is The Gulag Archipelago, hence the Trigger Warning, though I’ll try to avoid anything too disturbing.

 

[Skittlebisquit]

Looking forward to it. Maybe I should acquire some Tolkien. I have the similarion if you need a referenc . Just that one tho none of the rest

 

[Greatshield17]

Looking forward to it. Maybe I should acquire some Tolkien. I have the similarion if you need a referenc . Just that one tho none of the rest

I have read the Silmarilion but never finished it; in addition to the Lord of the Rings, I have also read the Children of Hurin, quite a dark tale. I also have Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales but unfortunately, haven’t read much of that either; one story I want read in there now that I want to read in there now that I’ve heard of it is The Mariner’s Wife, a tragic story about the strained relationship between a King of Numenor and his wife, due the fact the King is more interested in sailing around the world with his fleet of mighty ships than paying attention to his wife and raising their daughter.

 

[Skittlebisquit]

I didn't realize there were so many. Did you know that C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were good friends?

 

[Greatshield17]

I didn't realize there were so many. Did you know that C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were good friends?

Yeah, Tolkien actually played a huge role in C. S. Lewis’s conversion from Atheism to Anglicanism.

 

[Greatshield17]

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

‘That sounds like a bit of old Bilbo’s rhyming,’ said Pipin. ‘Or is it one of your imitations? It does not sound altogether encouraging.’
I don’t know, said Frodo. ‘It came to me then, as if I was making it up; but I may have heard it long ago. Certainly it reminds me very much of Bilbo in the last years, before he went away. He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to. Do you realize that this is the very path that goes through Mirkwood, and that if you it, it might take you to the Lonely Mountain or even further and to worse places?” He used to say that on the path outside the front door at Bag End, especially after he had been out for a long walk.’”

 

[Wulven]

Never actually read Tolkien's books. Saw the movies and his biography.

 

[Greatshield17]

Never actually read Tolkien's books. Saw the movies and his biography.

You should consider checking the books out if you can; there’s much more to them that the movies obviously leave out (as the excerpt above demonstrates) as well as a few differences in characters and themes.

 

[Greatshield17]

“‘And it is also said’ answered Frodo: ‘Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.’
‘Is it indeed?’ laughed Gildor. ‘Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.’

 

[Greatshield17]

Here’s my first excerpt from The Gulag Archipelago, don’t worry, nothing disturbing here:

“Sometimes we try to lie but our tongue will not allow us to. These people were labeled traitors, but a remarkable slip of the tongue occurred- on the part of the judges, prosecutors, and interrogators. And the convicted prisoners, the entire nation, and the newspapers repeated and reinforced this mistake, involuntarily letting the truth out of the bag. They intended to declare them “traitors to the Motherland.” But they were universally referred to, in speech and in writing, even in the court documents, as “traitors of the Motherland.”
You said it! They were not traitors to her. They were her traitors. It was not they, the unfortunates, who had betrayed the Motherland, but their calculating Motherland who had betrayed them, and not just once but thrice.”