In Tolkien’s Words

A black and white photo of an old Tolkien, with short white hair. He's sitting in his office, wearing a suit and glasses. He's smoking his pipe while reading a book that's sitting on his table. There are lots of books in the bookshelves and tables around him.

“What, we asked Dr [sic] Tolkien, makes you tick? Dr T., who teaches at Oxford when he isn’t writing novels, has this brisk reply: ‘I don’t tick. I am not a machine. (If I did tick, I should have no views on it, and you had better ask the winder.)’”

- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 165)

The cited passage is from The Nature of Middle-earth (Part One: Time and Ageing; IV. Time-scales).

A black and white photo of J.R.R. Tolkien. He is older, with white hair. He is sitting in an office, surrounded by shelves and desks overflowing with books. He is wearing a full suit and gesturing with his hands, as if speaking to someone not visible in the photo. He is white, has short hair neatly combed close to his head, and is clean-shaven.

"The act of procreation [...] was one of the acts of chief delight, in process and in memory, in an Elvish life, but its intensity alone provided its importance, not its time or length: it could not have been endured for a great length of time, without disastrous 'expense'."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

The cited passage is from Unfinished Tales (Part One: The First Age; II. Narn i Hîn Húrin; The Childhood of Túrin).

A colorized photo of an old Tolkien. He has white skin and a short white hair. He's wearing a grey suit, standing in a garden, with a lot of plants and flowers around him. His eyes are closed, he has a modest smile on his face and both his hand are on his back, under his suit.

“But the upclimbing is painful, and from high places it is easy to fall low.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

The cited passage is from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 306).

A black and white photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's wearing a suit, sitting in his office, smoking his pipe, with a thinking semblance.

“Primitiveness is no guarantee of value, and is in great part a reflection of ignorance. ‘My church’ was not intended by Our Lord to be static or remain in perpetual childhood; but to be a living organism, which develops and changes by the particular circumstances of the world into which it is set.”

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The cited passage is from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 66).

A colorized photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's sitting down on grass, leaning on a tree, blocking the sun with his hand. He's wearing a suit and smoking his pipe.

"However it is, humans being what they are, quite inevitable, and the only cure (short of universal Conversion) is not to have wars – nor planning, nor organization, nor regimentation."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

The cited passage is from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 329).

A black and white photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's sitting in his office, wearing a suit. He's holding a pencil and looking directly into the camera with a soft smile.

“When they have read it, some readers will (I suppose) wish to ‘criticize’ it, and even to analyze it, and if that is their mentality they are, of course, at liberty to do these things – so long as they have first read it with attention throughout.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

The cited passage is from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 78).

A colourized photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's standing up in his garden, wearing a suit. He's looking down to some yellow flowers planted in front of him.

“[...] man cannot live on stone and sand, but I at any rate cannot live on bread alone; and if there was not bare rock and pathless sand and the unharvested sea, I should grow to hate all green things as a fungoid growth.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

Watercolour showing (in the foreground) Bilbo wearing a green cloak and hood riding a pony with a road winding into the distance where wooded hills and futher behind snow-capped mountains can be seen.

“The Great East Road”

One of seven new watercolours inspired by The Hobbit for an upcoming publication by Legendaria Ediciones.

#TolkienTrewsday
#TolkienTuesday

The cited passage is from The Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King; Book V; 8. The Houses of Healing).

A black and white photo of an older J.R.R. Tolkien, with white hair. He’s standing outside, in a garden, dressed in a full suit, with his hands behind his back. He's looking straight to the camera with a soft smile.

"His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

The cited passage is from Unfinished Tales (Part Three: The Third Age; III. The Quest of Erebor; Appendix: Note on the texts of ‘The Quest of Erebor’).

A black and white photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's sitting in his office, wearing a suit and glasses. He's reading a book that's sitting on his table and smoking his pipe.

“It was not yet gone, but it was getting buried: the memory of the high and the perilous. But you cannot teach that sort of thing to a whole people quickly. There was not time. And anyway you must begin at some point, with some one person.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

The cited passage is from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 45).

Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, [...] which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

A black and white photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's outdoor, wearing a suit, looking directly into the camera with a neutral semblance.

“Yet I suppose I know better than most what is the truth about this ‘Nordic’ nonsense. Anyway, I have in this War a burning private grudge [...] against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler [...].

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The cited passage is from The Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers; Book III; 11. The Palantír).

A black and white photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's standing on his office, wearing a suite, lighting his pipe.

“You knew you were behaving wrongly and foolishly; and you told yourself so [...] But if I had spoken sooner, it would not have lessened your desire, or made it easier to resist. [...] No, the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

This passage is from The Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers; Book III; 4. Treebeard).

A photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's standing in a garden, wearing a suit, and looking to the horizon with a slightly tense semblance.

“[...] likely enough that we are going to our doom [...] But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later. [...] Now at least [...] we may help the other peoples before we pass away.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

This quote is from The Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King; Book V; 9. The Last Debate).

A black and white photo of an old Tolkien, with white hair. He's wearing a suit, smoking his pipe, with a light smile on his face.

“Other evils [...] may come; [...] Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

Uma arte retratando um Elfo sentado numa cadeira de madeira. Ele tem longos cabelos negros com algumas tranças. Suas roupas são simples, branca e vermelho. Sua pele é clara e seus olhos, cinzas.

Minha primeira arte encomendada ficou pronta!

Conheçam Rúmil de Tirion, o Elfo noldorin que inventou o primeiro alfabeto élfico (mais tarde aperfeiçoado por Fëanor) e que escreveu o Ainulindalë, a Música dos Ainur!

Arte pela @dragaofada.bsky.social

This quote is from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Letter 328).