Chapter by Chapter: The Two Towers Part I

Remember this: Chapter By Chapter Challenge: https://theredbooknews.blogspot.com/2016/12/chapter-by-chapter-challenge-fellowship.html? Well I FINALLY finished re-reading Two Towers. I'm not a very fast reader. By which I mean, while I am reading, I go fast, but I have a lot of things to read so I don't actually get that much time for an individual book. I don't know why I turned it into a challenge. Um. If you want to use this idea, you could do it whether or not it said "challenge" or "tag" on it somewhere. But if you like rules, I put them on the Fellowship ones so check out the link above. 

And yes, I am purposefully picking lesser known quotes. 

Here goes. 

Book Three

Chapter I: The Departure of Boromir

"'They will look for him from the White Tower,' he said, 'but he will not return from mountain or from sea.' Then slowly he began to sing:"

   The way that Viggo Mortensen delivers this line in the movie breaks my heart. I feel like even Tolkien would appreciate that scene. 

Chapter II: The Riders of Rohan

"How shall a man judge what to do in such times?' 'As he has ever judged,' said Aragorn. 'Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much n the Golden Wood as in his own house.'"

Chapter III: The Uruk-hai

"Out of the shadows the hobbits peeped, gazing back down the slope: little furtive figures that in that dim light looked like elf-children in the deeps of time peering out of the Wild Wood in wonder at their first Dawn."

Chapter IV: Treebeard

"'One felt as if there was an enormous well behind them, filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thinking; but their surface was sparkling with the present; like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples of a very deep lake.'"

   Pippin describing Treebeard's eyes.

Chapter V: The White Rider

"Well, here is the strangest riddle that we have yet found!' exclaimed Legolas. 'A bound prisoner escapes both from the Orcs and from the surrounding horsemen. He then stops, while still in the open, and cuts his bonds with an orc-knife. [...] Being pleased with his skill, he then sat down and quietly ate some waybread! That at least is enough to show that he was a hobbit".

   The part where the hobbits sit down to eat in sight of a battle is one of the best parts of the whole book.

Chapter VI: The King of the Golden Hall

"Curtains of wind-blown rain were slanting down. The sky above and to the west was still dark with thunder, and lightning far away flickered among the tops of hidden hills. But the wind had shifted to the north, and already the storm that had come out of the East was receding, rolling away southward to the sea. Suddenly through a rent in the clouds behind them a shaft of sun stabbed down. The falling showers gleamed like silver, and far away the river glittered like shimmering glass."

I've experienced rainy days with the sun shining, and it's gorgeous. This is also reminiscent of the grey rain curtain turning to silver glass. You must know your weirdly connected maybe foreshadowing quotes. 

Chapter VII: Helm's Deep

"'Yet dawn is ever the hope of men".

Chapter VIII: The Road to Isengard

"'There are columns of white and saffron and dawn-rose, Legolas, fluted and twisted into dreamlike forms; they spring up from many-coloured floors to meet the glistening pendants of the roof: wings, ropes, curtains fine as frozen clouds; spears, banners, pinnacles of suspended palaces. Still lakes mirror them: a glimmering world looks up from dark pools covered with clear glass".

Gimli gushing after returning from the 'caves' of Helm's Deep.

Chapter IX: Flotsam and Jetsam

"'One who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters."

Aragorn is a fountain of wise sayings.

Chapter X: The Voice of Saruman

"Ents the earthborn, old as mountains,
the wide-walkers, water drinking;
and hungry as hunters, the Hobbit children,
the laughing-folk, the little people."

Chapter XI: The Palantír

"A most unquenchable hobbit! All Wizards should have a hobbit or two in their care – to teach them the meaning of the word, and to correct them."

Do NOT give Saruman a hobbit. Although, perhaps if he had had one in his care, he would not have turned.

 

(Lest there should be any confusion or matter of rights and whatnot, all quotes in this post are from the works of JRR Tolkien, unless otherwise mentioned. There may be slight errors, misspellings, or alternate punctuation in the quotes, and if you notice such, please inform me so that I can speedily remedy them.