GREAT GANDALF QUOTE
Gence Soysal
There was this discussion about best quotes from LOTR on this newsgroup a while
back. One quote struck me. It was Gandalf talking about who are we to take
lives since we weren't the ones who gave life initially. Can anyone email me
that quote word for word please? I really would like to put it on my sig
file:)
Gence
ekor...@academic.csubak.edu
Here you go, "Fellowship of the Ring," chapter 2 (The Shadow of the Past), in
my 1965 edition that is page 69:
"I am sorry," said Frodo. "But I am frightened; and I do not feel any
pity for Gollum."
"You have not seen him," Gandalf broke in.
"No, and I don't want to," said Frodo. "I can't understand you. Do
you mean to say that you, and the Elves, have let him live on after all those
horrible deeds? Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He
deserves death."
"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And
some that die deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then do not be too
eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all
ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there
is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart
tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end;
and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many -- yours not
least. In any case we did not kill him: he is very old and very wrethced. The
Woodelves have him in prison, but they treat him with such kindness as they can
find in their wise hearts."
From here it goes on to the bit about how "These Rings have a way of being
found."
*p.s., in the American audio-drama production (I don't know about the BBC
version), this great quote gets edited a bit, like "Deserves it!" being changed
to "Deserves death!" and "Then do not be too eager to deal out death in
judgement" to "Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice,
fearing for your own life." I don't know that these are improvements or not.
Erik
Margaret R. Dean
The interesting thing is that later on, in the chapter "The Taming of
Smeagol" (in THE TWO TOWERS), Frodo recalls this conversation but the
wording is somewhat different (and closer to the version in your P.S.):
there it runs:
(all in italics)
"I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death."
"Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death.
And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not
too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own
safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends."
I suspect that Tolkien revised one of these passages at some point and
didn't reconcile them afterward. But take your pick, they're both
authentic! ;)
--Margaret Dean
<marg...@access.digex.net>
Bill Seurer
In article <4m71oc$g...@nuke.csu.net>, ekor...@academic.csubak.edu writes:
|> My heart
|> tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end;
|> and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many -- yours not
|> least.
I like the version of this in Bored of the Rings:
...Pity stayed his hand. "It's a pity I've run out of bullets."
:-)
--
- Bill Seurer ID Tools and Compiler Development IBM Rochester, MN
Business: BillS...@vnet.ibm.com Home: BillS...@aol.com