Quote #25

After a time Niggle turned towards the Forest. Not because he was tired of the Tree, but he seemed to have got it all clear in his mind now, and was aware of it, and of its growth, even when he was not looking at it. As he walked away, he discovered an odd thing: the Forest, of course, was a distant Forest, yet he could approach it, even enter it, without its losing that particular charm. He had never before been able to walk into the distance without turning it into mere surroundings.

More from J. R. R. Tolkien

  1. He went on looking at the Tree. All the leaves he had ever laboured at were there, as he had imagined them rather than as he had made them;…
  2. There were the Mountains in the background. They did get nearer, very slowly. They did not seem to belong to the picture, or only as a link…
  3. Before long he found that the path on which he had started had disappeared, and the bicycle was rolling along over a marvellous turf. It wa…
  4. The Tree was finished, though not finished with - 'Just the other way about to what it used to be,' he thought - but in the Forest there we…
  5. Niggle thought that he had never heard anything so generous as that Voice. It made Gentle Treatment sound like a load of rich gifts, and th…
  6. As they worked together, it became plain that Niggle was now the better of the two at ordering his time and getting things done. Oddly enou…
  7. It is your task, of course, to put the best interpretation on the facts. Sometimes they will bear it. What do you propose?
  8. They found the Spring in the heart of the Forest; only once long ago had Niggle imagined it, but he had never drawn it. Now he perceived th…

All J. R. R. Tolkien quotes