Die schönsten Zitate von J.R.R. Tolkien

Das Licht war fort, doch das Dunkel, das folgte, war mehr als nur Verlust des Lichts.

The Light failed; but the Darkness that followed was more than loss of light.

The Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it.

And for a great deal it seemed good to him, for in the music there were no flaws.

All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others.

Mit dieser Gabe der Freiheit ist es eins, dass die Menschenkinder nur für eine kurze Zeit in der lebendigen Welt wohnen und nicht an sie gebunden sind, sondern bald scheiden, wohin, das wissen die Elben nicht.

"Many are the strange chances of the world," said Mithrandir, "and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter."

Doch vom Glück und vom frohen Leben gibt es wenig zu sagen, bevor es ein Ende hat; so sind große und herrliche Werke ihr eigener Nachruhm, solange sie dauern und Augen sie sehen können, und erst wenn sie in Gefahr sind oder für immer zerbrochen, gehen sie in die Lieder ein.

"Take now this Ring," he said; "for thy labours and thy cares will be heavy, but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weariness. For this is the Ring of Fire, and herewith, maybe, thou shalt rekindle hearts to the valour of old in a world that grows chill."

But those who saw the things that were done in that time, deeds of valour and wonder, have elsewhere told the tale of the War of the Ring, and how it ended both in victory unlooked for and in sorrow long foreseen.

To him that is pitiless the deeds of pity are ever strange and beyond comprehension.

These folk are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends, and if they will not depart we shall afflict them in all ways that we can.

War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.

But her beauty was more than their beauty, and her sorrow deeper than their sorrows; and she knelt before Mandos and sang to him.

So starb Beleg Langbogen, der getreueste Freund und der Findigste unter allen, die in der Ältesten Zeit in den Wäldern von Beleriand lebten, von der Hand dessen, den er am meisten geliebt.

We renounce no friendship. But it may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend's folly.

Their "magic" is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations.

For if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomable at the foundations of the Earth.

A sister they had, Galadriel, most beautiful of all the house of Finwë; her hair was lit with gold as though it had caught in a mesh the radiance of Laurelin.

But he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.

And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.

Farewell sweet earth and northern sky,
for ever blest, since here did lie
and here with lissom limbs did run
beneath the Moon, beneath the Sun,
Lúthien Tinúviel
more fair than Mortal tongue can tell.
Though all to ruin fell the world
and were dissolved and backward hurled;
unmade into the old abyss,
yet were its making good, for this -
the dusk, the dawn, the earth, the sea -
that Lúthien for a time should be.

Er ritt über Dor-nu-Fauglith, wie der Wind durch den Staub fährt, und alle, die ihn sahen, flohen voller Entsetzen, glaubten sie doch, Orome selbst käme geritten, denn der Wahnsinn des großen Zorns war in ihm, so dass seine Augen leuchteten wie die Augen der Valar.

He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking that Orome himself was come: for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar.

Truly, Water is become now fairer than my heart imagined, neither had my secret thought conceived the snowflake, nor in all my music was contained the falling of the rain.

Dann starb er; doch gab er man ihm weder Grab noch Stein, denn so heißt brannte sein Geist, als er aus ihm wich, daß sein Leib zu Asche verfiel und wie Rauch davongeweht wurde; und nie wieder ist seinesgleichen in Arda erschienen, noch hat sein Geist Mandos' Hallen verlassen. So endete der mächtigste der Noldor, aus dessen Taten ihr höchster Ruhm und tiefstes Leid erwuchs.

Hass vertrieb da Feanors Furcht, und er verwünschte Melkor und jagte ihn fort mit den Worten: "Schere dich weg von meiner Tür, du Krähe aus Mandos' Kerker!" Und vor dem mächtigsten aller Bewohner von Ea schlug er die Tür seines Hauses zu.

Then hate overcame Feanor"s fear, and he cursed Melkor and bade him be gone, saying: "Get thee gone from my gate, thou jail-crow of Mandos!" And he shut the doors of his house in the face of the mightiest of all dwellers in Ea.

The doom of the Elves is to be immortal, to love the beauty of the world, to bring it to full flower with their gifts of delicacy and perfection, to last while it lasts, never leaving it even when ‘slain', but returning – and yet, when the Followers come, to teach them, and make way for them, to ‘fade' as the Followers grow and absorb the life from which both proceed. The Doom of Men is mortality, freedom from the circles of the world.

Nicht alles, was Gold ist, funkelt,
Nicht jeder, der wandert, verlorn,
Das Alte wird nicht verdunkelt,
Noch Wurzeln der Tiefe erfrorn.
Aus Asche wird Feuer geschlagen,
Aus Schatten geht Licht hervor;
Heil wird geborstenes Schwert,
Und König, der die Krone verlor.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken
The crownless again shall be king.

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Drei Ringe den Elbenkönigen hoch im Licht,
Sieben den Zwergenherrschern in ihren Hallen aus Stein,
Den Sterblichen, ewig dem Tode verfallen, neun,
Ein dem Dunklem Herrn auf dunklen Thron
Im Lande Mordor, wo die Schatten drohn.
Ein Ring, sie zu knechten, sie alle zu finden,
Ins Dunkel zu treiben und ewig zu binden
Im Lande Mordor, wo die Schatten drohn.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Von den zwölf Gefährten Thorins blieben zehn. Fili und Kili waren gefallen, als sie Thorin mit ihren Schilden und ihrem Körper verteidigten.

It is not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same points.

All that is gold does not glitter
Not all who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed shall be blade that was broken
The crownless again shall be king

Die Straße gleitet fort und fort,
Weg von der Tür, wo sie begann,
Weit überland, von Ort zu Ort,
Ich folge ihr, so gut ich kann.
Ihr lauf ich raschen Fußes nach,
Bis sie sich groß und breit verflicht
Mit Weg und Wagnis tausendfach.
Und wohin dann? Ich weiß es nicht.

Die Straße gleitet fort und fort
Durch Berg und Schlucht, durch Feld und Tann,
Bald säumend hier, bald eilend dort,
Hin zu der Tür, wo sie begann.
Das Aug, das Feuer sah und Schwert,
Gefahr und Greuel ohne End,
Nun schaut es wieder, heimgekehrt,
Baum, Bach und Hügel, die es kennt.

Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.

Im Gesicht des Zauberers aber sah er nur Kummer- und Sorgenfalten, und erst als er es näher musterte, erkannte er, dass sich hinter alldem eine große Freude verbarg, ein Quell der Heiterkeit, der ein ganzes Königreich zum Lachen bringen könnte, wenn er einmal hervorbräche.

Short cuts make for long delays.

I am personally immensely amused by Hobbits as such, and can contemplate them eating and making their rather fatuous remarks indefinitely; but I find that is not the case with even my most devoted "fans".

Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the walls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they have long known.

In einer Höhle in der Erde, da lebte ein Hobbit. Nicht in einem schmutzigen, nassen Loch, in das die Enden von irgendwelchen Würmern herabbaumelten und das nach Schlamm und Moder roch. Auch nicht etwa in einer trockenen Kieshöhle, die so kahl war, daß man sich nicht einmal niedersetzen oder gemütlich frühstücken konnte. Es war eine Hobbithöhle, und das bedeutet Behaglichkeit.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow,
Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.
None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master:
His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.

Fantasie bleibt ein Menschenrecht:
Wir schaffen in unserem Maß und in unserer abgeleiteten Art, weil wir erschaffen wurden; und nicht nur erschaffen, sondern erschaffen im Abbild und Ähnlichkeit mit dem Schöpfer.