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date: 20 April 2025

J. R. R. Tolkien 1892–1973
British philologist and writer 

  1. There and back again.
    subtitle of The Hobbit (1937)
  2. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
    The Hobbit (1937)
  3. What has it got in its pocketses?
    Gollum trying to solve Bilbo's riddle
    The Hobbit (1937) ch. 5
  4. Never laugh at live dragons.
    The Hobbit (1937) ch. 12
  5. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them
    One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
     
    The Lord of the Rings pt. 1 The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) epigraph
  6. Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
    The Lord of the Rings pt. 1 The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) bk. 1, ch. 3
  7. In every wood, in every spring,
    there is a different green.
     
    The Lord of the Rings pt. 1 The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) bk. 2, ch. 3
  8. Precious…My Precious!
    Gollum, referring to the Ring
    The Lord of the Rings pt. 3 The Return of the King (1955) bk. 6, ch. 3
  9. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it.
    Tree and Leaf (1964) ‘On Fairy-Stories’, essay first published 1947; see Le Guin