There and Back Again...

I FINALLY finished the ENTIRE Lord of the Rings Trilogy! It only took me since the middle of June. I think my favorite out of the three was The Two Towers. It was really the heart of the adventure. Then again, it's virtually impossible to beat the Battle at Pelennor Fields.

Quotes that I love:
From The Fellowship,
"'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo. 'So do I' said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Timeless. Frodo's lamentation and Gandalf's advice seems fit for all eras. There are advantages and disadvantages to every time in history, but we were placed in our time for a reason. God knew the exact second that we drew our first breath, and the exact second when we will draw our last and everything in between. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 But I digress....

From the Return of the King,

Gandalf - “‘Yet 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.’”

“So that those who live after may have clean earth to till”. Gives you something to think about.

Hmmm…I said The Two Towers was my favorite, and yet I don’t have a quote from it. Oh well. I cried a lot during these books…When Gandalf is reading Balin’s journal in the Chamber of Mazarbul, when Aragorn and Legolas are singing the lamentations of Boromir, when Sam thought Frodo was dead at Shelob’s Lair, when Theoden died, and, yes, even when Sam had to cast away his pots and pans in Mordor.

I would recommend reading the books before watching the movies (though you’ve probably already done both), because it’s more exciting that way. I, unfortunately watched the movies first, but the books were still adventurous and surprising. After all, Tolkien wrote things that Peter Jackson failed to capture; The Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, That exciting surprise in “The Pyre of Denethor”, “Ghan-Buri-Ghan”, the Scouring of the Shire, and much more. And aside from that, all the cinematography in the world can’t take the place of your imagination.

Anyway, I read them, and enjoyed them, and want to read them all over again; alas for school….