25 Days of LotR Christmas

[Niniel]

Day one...



Bilbo Baggins! (as played by Ian Holm!)

Bilbo begins... "My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots!"

Bilbo says... "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

(Is that a compliment? )

Bilbo continues... "I'm Mr. Bilbo Baggins, I've lost my dwarves, my wizard and my way."

and continues... "No hat, no stick, no pipe, not even a pocket handkerchief. How can one survive?"

and continues..."It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

and concludes... "I've thought of an ending for my book - 'And he lived happily ever after... to the end of his days.'"

Happy Christmas, Bilbo.

[Niniel]

Day two.



Frodo in book & film, respectively:

"I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again."

"I have become very fond of Strider. Well, fond is not the right word. I mean he is dear to me; though he is strange, and grim at times. In fact, he reminds me often of you. I didn't know that any of the Big People were like that. I thought, well, that they were just big, and rather stupid."

Bilbo: Any chance of me seeing that old ring again? Hmm? The one I gave you?
Frodo: I'm sorry, Bilbo... I'm afraid I lost it.

"My dear Sam, you can not always be torn in two: you will have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy, and to be, and to do. Your part in this story will go on."

[Niniel]

"Let me risk a little more cheer."

Gandalf in book:

"Yes, I am here. And you are lucky to be here too after all the absurd things you've done since you left home."

"It is not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world. We should seek a final end of this menace, even if we do not hope to make one."

""Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy!"

Pip: "There must be someone with intelligence in the party."
Gandalf: "Then you certainly will not be chosen."

"'If there are any to see, then I at least am revealed to them,' he said. 'I have written 'Gandalf is here' in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.'"

"'Gandalf,' the old man repeated, as if recalling from old memory a long disused word. 'Yes, that was the name. I was Gandalf.'"

"I come seldom but when my help is needed."

"'I am with you at present,' said Gandalf, 'but soon I shall not be. I am not coming to the Shire. You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for. Do you not yet understand? My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you.'"

[Niniel]

Day four...



Samwise in Book...

"A nice pickle we have landed ourselves in, Mr. Frodo!"

"But handsome is as handsome does we say. Now's a chance to show your quality." ~ Sam to Faramir

"Don't leave me here alone! It's your Sam calling. Don't go where I can't follow! Wake up, Mr. Frodo!"

"I wish old Gandalf was here or somebody. Why am I left all alone to make up my mind? I'm sure to go wrong. And it's not for me to go taking the Ring, putting myself forward."

"'I'll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind,' said Sam. 'And I'll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart.'"

"I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. But you are my heir: all that I had and might have had I leave to you. "

Sam in movie...

Sam (to Frodo): I made a promise, Mr Frodo! A promise! "Don't you leave him, Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to! I don't mean to... !

Sam: 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? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you… that meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going… because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

Sam: (Both are overcome by exhaustion) Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It'll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields... and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?
Frodo: No, Sam. I can't recall the taste of food... nor the sound of water... nor the touch of grass. I'm... naked in the dark. There's... There's nothing. No veil between me and the ring of fire. I see him... with my waking eyes.
Sam: Then let us be rid of it... once and for all. Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can't carry it for you... but I can carry you!

"Well, I'm back."

Happy holidays, Sam!

[Niniel]

Merry in book:

"You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin — to the bitter end. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours — closer than you keep it yourself. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word."

"Hullo Pippin!" he said. "So you've come on this little expedition, too? Where do we get bed and breakfast?"

[Niniel]

Pip, book-style:

"Man! Man! Indeed not! I am a hobbit and no more valiant than I am a man, save perhaps now and again by necessity..."

(Frodo) "I don't want to answer a string of questions while I am eating. I want to think!"
"Good Heavens!" said Pippin. "At breakfast?"

"Do you think you killed him with that apple Sam?"

Pip, film-style:

"Well, I'm taller than you were then. Though I'm not likely to grow anymore... except sideways."

"And anyway, you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission... quest... thing."

Merry: "I knew you'd find me. Are you going to leave me?"
Pippin: "No, Merry. I'm going to look after you."

[Niniel]

THIS ^^ is how Strider spent the time that could have otherwise been used for second breakfast... It just goes to show even the Dunedain need a bit of fun: "I am older than I look. I might prove useful." After all, "A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship."

But when he wasn't building snowmen he was being exceptionally brave, and inspiring men even before taking up the mantle of king:

"I am a servant of the Secret Fire, Wielder of the Flame of Anor; you cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun! Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass!"; he said. With a bound, the Balrog leaped full upon the bridge. Its whip whirled and hissed. "He cannot stand alone!"; cried Aragorn suddenly and ran back along the bridge. "Elendil!"; he shouted. "I am with you Gandalf!"; "Gondor!"; cried Boromir and leaped after him. from 'The Bridge of Khazad-dum'

"Men of Gondor and 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 all hope comes crashing down, but it is NOT this day! This day, we fight! For all that you hold dear, stand, Men of the West!"

And yearning for the place of his people...

"Gondor! Gondor!" cried Aragorn. "Would that I looked on you again in happier hour! Not yet does my road lie southward to your bright streams."

Quotes from Tolkien books and NL films.

[Niniel]

About Arwen...

"The braids of her dark hair were touched by no frost; her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth, and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night; yet queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring."

"Such loveliness in living thing Frodo had never seen before nor imagined in his mind."

"And Frodo when he saw her come glimmering in the evening, with stars on her brow and a sweet frangrance about her, was moved with great wonder, and he said to Gandalf, 'At last i understand why we have waited! Now not day only shall be beloved, but night shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away!'"

Arwen in film...

"Your time will come. You will face the same evil and you will defeat it. A si i-Dhúath ú-orthor, Aragorn. Ú or le a ú or nin." (listen to a sound clip here: www.geocities.com/immortallove_ee/uorle.wav)

"Ae ú-esteliach nad, estelio han, estelio ammen." (listen to a sound clip here: www.geocities.com/immortallove_ee/estelio.wav)

Quotes from Tolkien & NL films.

[Niniel]

In lieu of the usual quotes and such, here are some actual caps from bad English translations/subtitles of FotR in an Asian release.

[Niniel]

Orlando rather famously described Legolas as possessing the "grace and menace of a giant cat". I suppose a reindeer is not the first animal that pops into mind when one thinks of Legolas. But, Orlando's waxed more poetic about Legolas, as seen here:

"To have been given the opportunity to portray someone like Legolas was exciting and terrifying at the same time, because he is so far beyond any being that you could imagine. Elves have super-human strength, reflex speed, and sensory awareness. They're these incredible angelic spirits, who create and appreciate great beauty."

Legolas in book:

Legolas stirred in his boat. “Nay, time does not tarry ever,” he said; “but change and growth is not in all things and places alike. For the Elves the world moves, and it moves both very swift and very slow. Swift, because they themselves change little, and all else fleets by: it is a grief to them. Slow, because they do not count the running years, not for themselves. The passing seasons are but ripples ever repeated in the long long stream. Yet beneath the Sun all things must wear to an end at last.”

"Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come to its end."

Quotes from Tolkien.

[lynnjepsen]

Niniel, these are the most fantastic things I've seen yet from you. I'm giggling and drawing strange looks, but it's worth it. Especially the bad translations.... and santa's little helper.... and Aragorn's snowman.... okay, so it's all wonderful - don't make me pick

[Niniel]

Hehe, thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying them! They're a lot of fun to make. I've got the rest mapped out, so it's just a matter of making them.

[Niniel]

In lieu of the usual quotes, check out "FotR in 2 Hours", which is very amusing! Gimli, of course, plays a crucial role: www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/02/Jan/lotr.html

[Niniel]

"Do you know how the Wooden Soldiers first came into being?"

Listen to Saruman(Lee) say the actual line here: www.myfavmovies.com/cgi-bin/DownloadMP3.cgi?01200035&Lord%20of%20the%20Rings%20The%20Fellowship%20of%20the%20Ring&0069

Sauron plays with Saruman as a child might a a new toy:
"A strong place and wonderful was Isengard, and long it had been beautiful; and there great lords had dwelt, the wardens of Gondor upon the West, and wise men that watched the stars. But Saruman had slowly shaped it to his shifting purposes, and made it better, as he thought, being deceived - for all those arts and subtle devices for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child's model or a slave's flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dûr, The Dark Tower, which suffered no rival, and laughed at flattery, biding it's time, secure in its pride and its immeasurable strength." (Tolkien)

[Niniel]

Enjoy some LotR humour... www.angelfire.com/sk/sharkens/

Including some memorable message board quotes:http://www.angelfire.com/sk/sharkens/short.html