- “Moria… You fear to go into those mines. The Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum… shadow and flame”
- “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.”
- "At last all such things must end but I would have you wait a little while longer: for the end of the deeds that you have shared in has not yet come.“
- “Nay, time does not tarry ever, 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.”
Oh god Aragorn says his last farewell to Boromir in the manner of the men of Gondor
Still thinking about this. I don’t think Tolkien means anything by this, but you bet I’m taking it and running with it.
Boromir’s death might not be gruesome but it’s horrible - in his mind, he’s attacked a innocent companion, and also failed to save two young hobbits who relied on him for protection, and on top of that he very nearly dies alone with perhaps no hope that his family will ever even get his body.
But instead Aragorn comes in and says he’s redeemed himself, and he says farewell as Faramir might have, sends his body back to his brother and his horn back to his father, saves the young hobbits, risks everything to help Frodo, and saves Gondor which Boromir loved so much.
And of course, Boromir knows none of this, but he does get the comfort of a familiar goodbye even so far away from home, and that’s just so good! It would be touching if this was just a generic farewell, but if it’s not, then he does get a little bit of home as he dies and that’s making me super emotional
And seated a little apart was a tall man with a fair and noble face, dark-haired and grey-eyed, proud and stern of glance.
He was cloaked and booted as if for a journey on horseback; and indeed though his garments were rich, and his cloak was lined with fur, they were stained with long travel. He had a collar of silver in which a single white stone was set; his locks were shorn about his shoulders. On a baldric he wore a great horn tipped with silver that now was laid upon his knees. He gazed at Frodo and Bilbo with sudden wonder.
‘Here,’ said Elrond, turning to Gandalf, 'is Boromir, a man from the South. He arrived in the grey morning, and seeks for counsel. I have bidden him to be present, for here his questions will be answered.’
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, “The Council of Elrond”Artist’s description
Chapter 53: Of White Trees and Dates. Kat and Legolas both have something to say to each other, which leads to an unexpected solution.
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Story Summary: Unexpectedly turned into a cat, Kat falls into Middle-earth with the mission to prevent a death. In a feline form she can only communicate with Legolas, and that he is a very handsome elf is certainly not helpful… A humorous adventure that follows the book version of the Lord of the Rings.
Chapter 52: Love Is in the Air. Someone decides it is time to propose and gets an unexpected answer. Meanwhile, Aragorn’s coronation draws near, but what to do about Lord Denethor?
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Story Summary: Unexpectedly turned into a cat, Kat falls into Middle-earth with the mission to prevent a death. In a feline form she can only communicate with Legolas, and that he is a very handsome elf is certainly not helpful… A humorous adventure that follows the book version of the Lord of the Rings.
Chapter 51: Inappropriate Thoughts. Legolas has a hard time controlling his thoughts around Kat in her new body.
Image credits: Afshan Azad’s Instagram (actress in Harry Potter)
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Story Summary: Unexpectedly turned into a cat, Kat falls into Middle-earth with the mission to prevent a death. In a feline form she can only communicate with Legolas, and that he is a very handsome elf is certainly not helpful… A humorous adventure that follows the book version of the Lord of the Rings.
Chapter 50: Adanig Nín. Feeling overwhelmed, Kat must adapt to her new (old?) body in a new world. Speaking turns out to be surprisingly difficult.
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Story Summary: Unexpectedly turned into a cat, Kat falls into Middle-earth with the mission to prevent a death. In a feline form she can only communicate with Legolas, and that he is a very handsome elf is certainly not helpful… A humorous adventure that follows the book version of the Lord of the Rings.
Legolas tries and fails to give Nellas advice, and Kat’s soul arrives in its final destination.
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Story Summary: Unexpectedly turned into a cat, Kat falls into Middle-earth with the mission to prevent a death. In a feline form she can only communicate with Legolas, and that he is a very handsome elf is certainly not helpful… A humorous adventure that follows the book version of the Lord of the Rings.
Chapter 48: Plain Answers. The eagles come to save the day, and Kat finally gets some answers! Why she? Why a cat? What happens now?
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Story Summary: Unexpectedly turned into a cat, Kat falls into Middle-earth with the mission to prevent a death. In a feline form she can only communicate with Legolas, and that he is a very handsome elf is certainly not helpful… A humorous adventure that follows the book version of the Lord of the Rings.
I was thinking about Tolkien and accents today, and I really like this idea that even within the Fellowship, you’ve got this happy cacophony of different accents. Boromir speaking Sindarin with a distinctly Gondorian lilt, his Westron a functional thing cobbled-together from the slang of his men and what he learned in order to speak with traders, messengers, foreigners.
Aragorn, so widely-traveled, being an excellent mimic—he can speak Dalish like a man of Laketown or a Haradrim like trader from South Gondor, but in moments of sincerity or seriousness, he slips into the tones of Rivendell, with all the careful articulation of someone who was scoffed at for every slip into the harsher pronunciation of Arnor.
Legolas who speaks Sindarin as his mother-tongue cool and green and fine, but whose Westron is harshly-accented, borrowed from fishermen and dwarves.
Gimli who speaks Khuzdul with that particular Longbeard cadence, which not even growing up in the Iron Hills as part of the Erebor diaspora could shake from him. Exile from Erebor forced many of the dwarves to become, if not fluent, then at least conversant in the languages of Men, in order to trade and travel on soil not their own—Gimli is no exception. (It amuses him to no end to speak to Aragorn in Dalish, and have Legolas puff up, offended not to be part of the conversation.)
Merry and Frodo and Pippin and Sam speaking Westron like the country bumpkins they are, all rounded vowels and drawls, but happy to learn all the languages that fly about them, laughing with their fellows when they mangle even the simplest of Sindarin words.
All of them sitting around the fire, telling stories, laughing at Gandalf when he can’t remember the Westron word for the Sindarin word for the Quendian word for the Valarin, who protests that he is an old man and has known too many tongues, so stop laughing, Peregrin Took, you are spraying crumbs everywhere.
HC: The Fellowship played a game on their journey to pass the time called “how old is it.” The game goes like this: someone throws out a number, and then everyone else has to rate that age in terms of maturity, life stage, etc. Gandalf rates every number “child.” Aragorn threw out “430” at one point and Boromir, way out of his depth and with a confused glance towards Legolas, cautiously rated it “Venerable and wise.” The hobbits promptly rated it “Dead.”
During Boromir’s death scene in the Fellowship of the Ring film, you a hear a choir in the soundtrack. The choir isn’t singing random vowel sounds; they’re actually singing in Elvish.
The English translation of the lyrics? It’s a line from the books: “I do not love the sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only what they defend.”
For bonus hurt points– in the book, those lines were said by his little brother Faramir.
(to request a soundtrack to be analyzed/translated, reblog this linked post. All these soundtrack-related posts will be tagged #lotrsoundtrackfacts)
