#expressing such profound sorrow in simplicity
WHAT is it with Tolkien’s words and poems expressing such profound sorrow in their simplicity? Like “an end was come of the Eldar of story and of song” makes me go absolutely nuts with crying.
That gentle acknowledgement that grief and decline is natural, it’s ordained, and must be accepted… the beauty of autumn and winter is somehow encapsulated in that phrase… the beauty even in tragedy and eventuality because of all the love poured into what is fading away, and a gentle rebuke for the emptiness it is leaving behind… help…
“I will not say the day is done/ Nor bid the stars farewell”
okay this is the purest expression of courageous hope but then you have its nemesis
“Into darkness fell his star/In Mordor where the shadows are”
like sir you evoked sorrow and terror like I’ve never experienced before with two lines.
Just that undercurrent of High Fantasy, of nobility and dignity that does not bend though it breaks… it’s not just because of the antiquated language used, it’s about that appeal to the best in Men’s hearts to recognise this exquisite emotion without any overly flowery words? Idk man.
I’ve taken the quotes imprinted on my mind, there are probably hundreds more that capture what I’m trying to describe, tell me your favourite ones
This is LITERALLY so well said! YES YES YES!!! It’s something about the way Tolkien uses simple language that seems to sharpen the sadness to a razor point and makes it that much more painful. It reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ description of LOTR: “Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a book which will break your heart.”
Another example of this is Galadriel’s song of Eldamar:
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?
It’s phrased in such a simple way and it utterly breaks my heart.
The Song of Durin is also full of lines like this:
The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder Days before the fall
Of mighty kings in Nargothrond
And Gondolin, who now beyond
The Western Seas have passed away:
The world was fair in Durin’s Day.
The way he phrases this is literally SO POWERFUL. There’s this sense of longing for a time gone by, but also the inevitability of change and the passage of time and the fading away of older civilizations.
And this is one of the best ones:
But neither the Sun nor the Moon can recall the light that was of old, that came from the Trees before they were touched by the poison of Ungoliant. That light lives now in the Silmarils alone.
I literally get chills every time I read this! The sheer finality of that light lives now in the Silmarils alone. It breaks my heart because we know how beautiful the Sun and Moon are, but even they cannot recall the light that was of old! That’s devastating!
This was the Noontide of the Blessed Realm, the fullness of its glory and its bliss, long in tale of years, but in memory too brief.
This is heartbreaking. And he did it again with in memory too brief being a short phrase that adds such weight and finality.
And then there’s this quote, which gets me every time:
Long before, in the bliss of Valinor, before Melkor was unchained, or lies came between them, Fingon had been close in friendship with Maedhros; and though he knew not yet that Maedhros had not forgotten him at the burning of the ships, the thought of their ancient friendship stung his heart.
It’s such a beautiful quote and it’s been imprinted on my memory forever.
And:
Then in the plain of Anfauglith, on the fourth day of the war, there began Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Unnumbered Tears, for no song or tale can contain all its grief.
That’s literally SO painful to read.
And:
Then Thorondor bore up Glorfindel’s body out of the abyss, and they buried him in a mound of stones beside the pass; and a green turf came there, and yellow flowers bloomed upon it amid the barrenness of stone, until the world was changed.
I feel INCOMPREHENSIBLE EMOTIONS!
And this is one of the most painful things I have ever read:
But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven; and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow in the waters that was soon lost in the West. There he stood far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-earth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart.
WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME TOLKIEN?
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.
