“That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”
Samwise Gamgee, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Samwise Gamgee spoke these lines in The Two Towers (2002), part of the film and book trilogy that has been influential throughout my life. I recall we watched the Fellowship of the Ring at least twice in theaters and later when I attended university.
It’s been over fifteen years since Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring premiered in theaters worldwide. After watching the first movie, I was hooked on the series and quickly (relatively speaking) read the books before the subsequent films came out in 2002 and 2003, respectively.
It captured my imagination.
I could travel back in time (so to speak), to an age long forgotten, to a land overtaken with a destructively evil force much like Europe was during World War II, when Tolkien began writing the epic trilogy.
I could discover the cultures and landscapes of a mythical universe. From the carefree secluded world of the hobbits to the peaceful seclusion of the elves in Rivendell and Lothlorien and the complicated world of Men whose territories expanded from plains of Edoras to the keep of Minas Tirith in the south.
It guided me to pursue studies into the environment and history. The environment because he implicitly advocates for the agrarian societies, those who care for their surrounding landscapes, rather than those who have turned to more industrial means to achieve their goals, such as the wizard Saruman or the primary villain, Sauron. And history because his meticulous creation of Middle-Earth: from the diverse languages he created to the culturally diversity of the peoples populating the fictional lands. There’s a part of me that believes that maybe I resemble the caricatures of hobbits, elves and men – sadly not the dwarves nor the wizards.
Admittedly, I even took an English class focusing on Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings at university. And while I can likely quote much of the trilogy, I am by no means a Tolkien scholar myself.
Question: What is your favorite quote from the trilogy?
March 25, 2018 at 11:27 am
Best trilogy ever
March 25, 2018 at 11:28 am
Agreed!
April 10, 2018 at 8:04 pm
Finally films that live up to the books, it’s a rare thing. The Fellowship was the best film of the three, in my opinion. I think the memories of seeing that film for the first time will always stay with me.
April 10, 2018 at 8:10 pm
In my opinion, the Two Towers is the best (at least my favorite quotes appear in it). I was disappointed in The Hobbit, and couldn’t finish it because it did not do just what you’re saying.
April 10, 2018 at 8:13 pm
The Hobbit was pretty terrible, I never finished the second movie, it was a struggle to even finish the first. I felt that The Two Towers and The Return of the King struggled with pacing but that was largely down to how the book(s) was written.