Quote #32

The blossom on the Great Tree was shining like flame. All the birds were flying in the air and singing. Then he smiled, and nodded to Parish, and went off with the shepherd. He was going to learn about sheep, and the high pasturages, and look at a wider sky, and walk ever further and further towards the Mountains, always uphill. Beyond that I cannot guess what became of him. Even little Niggle in his old home could glimpse the Mountains far away, and they got into the borders of his picture; but what they are really like, and what lies beyond them, only those can say who have climbed them.

More from J. R. R. Tolkien

  1. 'Niggle's Picture!' said Parish in astonishment. 'Did you think of all this, Niggle? I never knew you were so clever. Why didn't you tell m…
  2. 'I think we shall have to give the region a name. What do you propose?' 'The Porter settled that some time ago,' said the Second Voice. 'Tr…
  3. As their work drew to an end they allowed themselves more and more time for walking about, looking at the trees, and the flowers, and the l…
  4. To many, perhaps to most people outside the small company of the great scholars, past and present, 'Celtic' of any sort is, nonetheless, a …
  5. 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…
  6. No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, …
  7. 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…
  8. For myself I would say that more than the interest and uses of the study of Welsh as an adminicle of English philology, more than the pract…

All J. R. R. Tolkien quotes