Quotes

books ~ movies

the books by J.R.R. Tolkien

Then one rode forward, a tall man, taller than the rest; from his helm as a crest a white horsetail flowed.
- The Two Towers

Grave and thoughtful was her glance, as she looked on the king with cool pity in her eyes. Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings.
-The Two Towers

'...He is bold and cunning. Even now he plays a game of peril and wins a throw. Hours of my precious time he has wasted already. Down snake!" he said suddenly in a terrible voice. 'Down on your belly! How long is it since Saruman bought you? what was the promised price? When all the men were dead, you were to pick your share of the treasyre, and take the woman you desire? Too long have you watched her under your eyelids and haunted her steps.'
    Éomer grasped his sword. 'That I knew already,' he muttered. 'For that reason I would have slain him before, forgetting the law of the hall.'
-The Two Towers

'Alas! For she was pitted against a foe beyond the strength of her mind or body. And those who will take a weapon to such an enemy must be sterner than steel, if the very shock shall not destroy them. It was an evil doom that set her in his path. For she is a fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing straight and proud, shapely as a lily, and yet knew that it was hard, as if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel. Or was it, maybe, a frost that had turned its sap to ice, and so it stood, bitter-sweet, still fair to see, but stricken, soon to fall and die? Her malady begins far back before this day, does it not, Éomer?'
    'I marvel that you should ask me, lord,' he answered. 'For I hold you blameless in this matter, as all else; yet I knew not that Éowyn, my sister, was touched by any frost, until she first looked on you. Care and dread she had, and shared with me, in the days of Wormtongue and the king's bewitchment; and she tended the king in growing fear. But that did not bring her to this pass!'
    'My friend,' said Gandalf, 'you had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free fields; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon and old man, whom she loved as a father, and watch him falling into a mean dishonoured dotage; and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff he leaned on.
    'Think you that Wormtongue had poison only for Théoden's ears? Dotard! What is the house of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among their dogs? Have you not heard those words before? Saruman spoke them, the teacher of Wormtongue. Though I do not doubt that Wormtongue at home wrapped their meaning in terms more cunning. My lord, if your sister's love for you, and her will still bent to her dury, had not restrained her lips; you might have heard even such things as these escape them. But who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?'
- The Return of the King'

the Wingnut trilogy, screenplay by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens

Gríma: "Oh, but you are alone! Who knows what you have spoken to the darkness. In bitter watches of the night, when all your life seems to shrink, the walls of your bower closing in about you, like a hutch to trammel some wild thing in. So fair, so cold, like a morning pale spring still clinging to winter's chill."
- 'The Two Towers'

Eomer: "How long is it since Saruman bought you? What was the promised price, Grima? When all the men are dead you will take your share of the treasure? Too long have you watched my sister, too long have you haunted her steps."
Grima: "You see much Eomer, Son of Eomund. Too much. You are banished forthwith from the kingdom of Rohan. Under pain of death!"
- 'The Two Towers'