Inkling Explorations {November}

Here I am to share my selection for Heidi's November edition of Inkling Explorations!  The theme for this month:

~ a giving of thanks in prose or poetry ~

And my choice comes from The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien!  (Natalie, DON'T READ THIS!  If you don't already know what happens in RotK, that is, and don't wish to know.)

…Is Natalie/whoever else doesn't want LotR spoilers gone?

Okay, then.  We can proceed;)

This passage comes after the Ring has been cast into the fires of Orodruin, and Sam and Frodo awake to find themselves rescued and in the camp of Aragorn in…Ithilien, I think.  Sam is disoriented at first, but at being reunited with Gandalf, all the toils and sorrows of his heavy journey begin to fall away, and his out-gushing of relief and exhilaration reach a robust crescendo throughout the whole latter part of the chapter.  It's all joyous and exuberant and wonderful, but for the sake of brevity I must limit it to this.  

Full memory flooded back, and Sam cried aloud:  "It wasn't a dream!  Then where are we?"

And a voice spoke softly behind him:  "In the land of Ithilien, and in the keeping of the King; and he awaits you."  With that Gandalf stood before him, robed in white, his beard now gleaming like pure snow in the twinkling of the leafy sunlight. "Well, Master Samwise, how do you feel?" he said.

But Sam lay back, and stared with open mouth, and for a moment, between bewilderment and great joy, he could not answer. At last he gasped:  "Gandalf!  I thought you were dead!  But then I thought I was dead myself.  Is everything sad going to come untrue?  What's happened to the world?"

"A great Shadow has departed," said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.  It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known.  But he himself burst into tears.  Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed.

"How do I feel?" he cried.  "Well, I don't know how to say it.  I feel, I feel"--and he waved his arms in the air--"I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!"


Comments

  1. OH, it's such a wonderful section! Dear, dear Sam. Wonderful Gandalf. Love it!

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    1. Isn't it?! Those whole latter chapters of RotK almost make me tear up, they're just that beautiful. I'm so glad you liked it, Hamlette!:D

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  2. Wahoo! You actually used 'Mount Doom's' proper name!
    Love Sam...and Tolkien...and Gandalf...and the Lord of the Rings. ;)

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    1. Haha! Indeed! (That moment when the Internet meme about his creating an entire language yet naming the mountain Mt. Doom becomes obsolete...)

      YES! Tolkien...and LotR...and his characters...*sniffle*

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  3. FEEL ALL THE FEEEEEEEEELS.
    I just love story moments like that one, don't you? :)

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    1. RIIIIIIIIGHT?!?! You underSTAND, Jessica! :D Yes, I love those kinds of parts--when the night has passed and the morning has come. T'is beautiful:)

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    2. I KNOW. That's the kind of stuff I want to write someday. Here's hoping . . . ;)

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    3. I'm sure you will, Jessica! I have faith in you;)

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  4. Oooohhh this has officially DONE THINGS to me, I feel like crying and laughing and running and jumping and dancing all at once :)

    Wow. Just wow.

    That's all I can say.

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    1. Rosie, I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!

      It's just amazing :)

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  5. HAHAHA you personally warned me not to read this. hahahaha I laughed aloud. Thanks for the warning. ;) I basically know what happens (yes, I know Frodo destroys the ring...) but you're right, I want to read it in the context of the book. If there's even a tiny little detail I don't know yet...I don't want to know. So thank you. :D

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    1. Hahaha :D I'm glad you enjoyed the warning, Natalie! Hee, you're welcome;)

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  6. Beautiful selection, Olivia. Tolkien's writing truly does stir something within you, doesn't it?

    ~Miss March

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    1. Thank you, Miss March! Yes, it certainly does.

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  7. YAYSIES! Nothing beats LoTR. ;D I LOVE the trilogy so much! I read them last year (for the second, or possibly third, time) and if I didn't have so many other pressing books to read, I'd totally read them again now. I recently read the Hobbit (for the 3rd or 4th time, haha) and I enjoyed that immensely. The trilogy is still better, IMO. (Probably because the Hobbit was written as a children's story, whereas the Lord of the Rings was written for those a bit older.....teenagers I guess. Isn't it adorable how J. R. R. Tolkien wrote them for his children? Nawwww....)
    *Ahem* I went on a bit of a rabbit trail there.....this was splendid. Nuff said. ;)
    ~Miss Meg

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    1. YESYESYES!! Miss Meg, YESH. I love LotR vastly more than The Hobbit, I'll admit. The Hobbit's GOOD, of course, but...LotR just DOES things to me:D

      I loved your rabbit trail. Thank you for it;)

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  8. Ohhhh, one of the biggest teary-eyed-spilling-over-with-uncontainable-joy moments in the entire story. :) I always feel exactly like Sam and can never decide whether to laugh or cry. The FEELS. Splendiferous selection, Olivia -- I'm so glad you did it!!! ;D

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