You cannot pass! I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun! Go back to the shadow. You shall not pass!

Fellowship of the Ring (movie)

cybermanolo asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “17, the Rings trilogy?”, #17 being the quote I can’t get out of my head. I know this is from the movies, but hearing it out-loud means it’s stuck in my head more than the book’s “You cannot pass” version.

For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. Eowyn, do you not love me?’

Then the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.

‘I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,’ she said; ‘and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.’ And again she looked at Faramir. ‘No longer do I desire to be a queen,’ she said.

Then Faramir laughed merrily. ‘That is well,’ he said; ‘for I am not a king. Yet I will wed with the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will.

The Return of the King (”The Steward and the King”)

Anonymous asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “9 for LotR (ask meme)”, #9 being the most romantic quote.

Now truth to tell, observing Gandalf’s love of the herb that he called “pipe-weed” (for which, he said, if for nothing else, the Little People should be honoured), Saruman had affected to scoff at it, but in private he made trial of it, and soon began to use it; and for tins reason the Shire remained important to him. Yet he dreaded lest this should be discovered, and his own mockery turned against him, so that he would be laughed at for imitating Gandalf, and scorned for doing so by stealth.

The Unfinished Tales (”The Hunt for the Ring”)

imaginatvytitle asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “11 – Unfinished Tales”, #11 being the funniest quote.

Then Feanor swore a terrible oath. Straightway his seven sons leaped to his side and each took the selfsame oath; and red as blood shone their drawn swords in the glare of the torches.
   Be he foe or friend, be he foul or clean,
   brood of Morgoth or bright Vala,
   Elda or Maia or Aftercomer,
   Man yet unborn upon Middle-earth,
   neither law, nor love, nor league of swords,
   dread nor danger, not Doom itself,
   shall defend him from Feanor, and Feanor’s kin,
   whoso hideth or hoardeth, or in hand taketh,
   finding keepeth or afar casteth
   a Silmaril. This swear we all:
   death we will deal him ere Day’s ending,
   woe unto world’s end! Our word hear thou,
   Eru Allfather! To the everlasting
   Darkness doom us if our deed faileth.
   On the holy mountain hear in witness
   and our vow remember, Manwe and Varda!

The Histories of Middle Earth vol. 10 (”The Annals of Aman”)

Anonymous asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “14. The quote that’s just worded perfectly – About the Feanorians?”

Frodo was chilled to the marrow. After a while the song became clearer, and with dread in his heart he perceived that it had changed into an incantation:
    Cold be hand and heart and bone,
    and cold be sleep under stone:
    never more to wake on stony bed,
    never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
    In the black wind the stars shall die,
    and still on gold here let them lie,
    till the dark lord lifts his hand
    over dead sea and withered land.
He heard behind his head a creaking and scraping sound. Raising himself on one arm he looked, and saw now in the pale light that they were in a kind of passage which behind them turned a corner. Round the corner a long arm was groping, walking on its fingers towards Sam, who was lying nearest, and towards the hilt of the sword that lay upon him.

The Fellowship of the Ring (”Fog on the Barrow Downs”)

mikhailvalhidris asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “10. Scariest Quote”

The world is changed
I feel it in the water
I feel it in the earth
I smell it in the air
Much that once was is lost
For none now live who remember it

Fellowship of the Ring movie, Galadriel’s prologue

vaulthunterexe asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “1 for the movies!”, #1 being my favorite quote

Bilbo knelt on one knee filled with sorrow. “Farewell, King under the Mountain!” he said. "This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it. Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils – that has been more than any Baggins deserves.“
   "No!” said Thorin. “There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!”
   Then Bilbo turned away, and he went by himself, and sat alone wrapped in a blanket, and, whether you believe it or not, he wept until his eyes were red and his voice was hoarse.

The Hobbit

nordicshaman asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “6 – The Hobbit”, #6 being the saddest quote.

If the Children of Eru beheld him they were filled with a great dread; for the arising of the King of the Sea was terrible, as a mounting wave that strides to the land, with dark helm foam-crested and raiment of mail shimmering from silver down into shadows of green. The trumpets of Manwe are loud, but Ulmo’s voice is deep as the deeps of the ocean which he only has seen.

The Silmarillion, “The Valaquenta”

thranduilthings asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “The Silmarillion, 8 pref Valaquenta”, #8 being the most badass quote.

Melkor’s final impotence and despair lay in this: that whereas the Valar (and in their degree Elves and Men) could still love ‘Arda Marred’, that is Arda with a Melkor-ingredient, and could still heal this or that hurt, or produce from its very marring, from its state as it was, things beautiful and lovely, Melkor could do nothing with Arda, which was not from his own mind and was interwoven with the work and thoughts of others: even left alone he could only have gone raging on till all was leveled again in a formless chaos. And yet even so he would have been defeated, because it would still have ‘existed’, independent of his own mind, and a world in potential.

The Histories of Middle Earth vol. 10 “Myths Transformed”

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Anonymous asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme: “What is the saddest thing/quote you read about Melkor/Morgoth?”

But seriously: I do find this America-cosmopolitanism very terrifying.

J.R.R. Tolkien, written 9 December 1943 in a letter (#53) to his son Christopher Tolkien

Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans! And, to celebrate the occasion, my favorite out-of-context America-related quote of Tolkien’s. (Read the full letter in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, he’s actually talking about WWII and what expects the outcomes of the war to be, it’s all very interesting. But, out of context, pretty fantastic.)