July 29, 1954: The Fellowship of the Ring is first published.

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'I cannot read the fiery letters,' said Frodo in a quavering voice.
'No,' said Gandalf, 'but I can. The letters are Elvish, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here. But this in the Common Tongue is what is said, close enough:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

It is only two lines of a verse long known in Elven-lore:

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.'

He paused, and then said slowly in a deep voice: 'This is the Master-Ring, the One Ring to rule them all. This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago, to the great weakening of his power. He greatly desires it-- but he must not get it.'

-

We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers-- thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle

Meanwhile, something that would make the Professor roll in his grave. Fools should not meddle with language.

This made my bad day kind of better. (Yesterday was a bad day, & things recently have just been... yeah.)

And i still have Polaroid sheet film available; those interested should refer to the past post. I can't use it, so if you or someone you know can, please let me know.

And i know i already asked "what from LotR didn't make it into the movies," but where there any specific scenes/moments/passages you wished had gotten in?

12:04 a.m. | July 29, 2008

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