Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

For each of the hobbits he chose a dagger, long, leaf-shaped, and keen, of marvellous workmanship,
damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold. They gleamed as he drew them from their black sheaths,
wrought of some strange metal, light and strong, and set with many fiery stones.
Whether by some virtue in these sheaths or because of the spell that lay on the mound,
the blades seemed untouched by time, unrusted, sharp, glittering in the sun.
'Old knives are long enough as swords for hobbit-people,' he said.
'Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go walking, east, south, or far away into dark and danger.'
Then he told them that these blades were forged many long years ago by Men of Westernesse: they were foes of the Dark Lord,
So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse.
But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the
Dúnedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king.
No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter,
cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.
― The Return of the King, Chapter 6
It was hard to say of what colour they were: grey with the hue of twilight under the trees they seemed to be;
and yet if they were moved, or set in another light, they were green as shadowed leaves, or brown as fallow fields by night,
dusk-silver as water under the stars.
– Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 8
"I don't know," said Frodo quietly, "but I think not. It is hard even for friendly eyes to see these elven-cloaks:
I cannot see you in the shadow even at a few paces."
The Two Towers, The Taming of Smeagol
"But they should serve you well: they are light to wear, and warm enough or cool enough at need.
And you will find them a great aid in keeping out of the sight of unfriendly eyes,
whether you walk among the stones or the trees."
– Fellowship of the Ring, Farewell to Lothlórien
"A pity I didn't think of bringing another length," said Frodo; "but I left the Company in such a hurry and confusion.
If only we had enough we could use it to get down. How long is your rope, I wonder?"
Sam paid it out slowly, measuring it with his arms: 'Five, ten, twenty, thirty ells, more or less,' he said.
"Who'd have thought it!" Frodo exclaimed.
"Ah! Who would?" said Sam. "Elves are wonderful folk. It looks a bit thin, but it's tough; and soft as milk to the hand.
Packs close too, and as light as light. Wonderful folk to be sure!"
- The Two Towers, The Taming of Smeagol
He looked up and gave one last pull to the rope as if in farewell.
To the complete surprise of both the hobbits it came loose.
- Two Towers, The Taming of Smeagol
Now he drew it out. It shone pale and dim before his eyes. “So it is an elvish blade, too,” he thought;
“and goblins are not very near, and yet not far enough.”
- The Hobbit, Riddles in the Dark
Even as Sam himself crouched, looking at her, seeing his death in her eyes, a thought came to him,
as if some remote voice had spoken. and he fumbled in his breast with his left hand, and found what he sought:
cold and hard and solid it seemed to his touch in a phantom world of horror, the Phial of Galadriel.
'Galadriel! ' he said faintly, and then he heard voices far off but clear:
the crying of the Elves as they walked under the stars in the beloved shadows of the Shire,
and the music of the Elves as it came through his sleep in the Hall of Fire in the house of Elrond.
"Gilthoniel A Elbereth!"
Sam looked from bank to bank uneasily. The trees had seemed hostile before, as if they harboured
secret eyes and lurking dangers; now he wished that the trees were still there.
He felt that the Company was too naked, afloat in little open boats in the midst of shelterless lands,
and on a river that was the frontier of war.
- The Fellowship of the Ring, The Great River