Quote of the Month! | February Edition

 It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than a month since I started this blog. It feels like yesterday, sometimes! Well, it’s February now, and time for the second edition of the Quote of the Month. 

    My highlighted quote of today comes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved epic The Lord of the Rings. (Are you surprised?) At any rate, this is not just because of my undying love for this book, but also because I just spent a week reading it in the middle of nowhere. A wondrous experience. But during this particular re-read, a few things stood out to me that hadn’t before. I won’t go into all of them here, but one in particular was how deep and wonderful the characters really are. They have true depth (at least most of them!), and I really enjoyed reading about their adventures. 

    A beautiful and beloved passage in particular was in The Return of the King, book 2, in which Faramir meets Éowyn for the first time. Their love is a true and beautiful thing, and Faramir in particular is strong and noble, while also being sweet and gentle. 

    What I really love about this entire chapter is the strength with which they both bear the oncoming Shadow, and both of their desire to forego things of war and destruction, and instead tend to beauty and light and things that grow. Such a desire glorifies God, I believe, and in the words of Thorin Oakenshield, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” There’s light and beauty that no shadow can touch!

“And Éowyn looked at Faramir long and steadily; and Faramir said: ‘Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Éowyn! But I do not offer you my pity. For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. Éowyn, do you not love me?’

Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.

‘I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,’ she said; ‘and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.’ And again she looked at Faramir. ‘No longer do I desire to be a queen,’ she said. 

Then Faramir laughed merrily. ‘That is well,’ he said; ‘for I am not a king.’…

And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many. And many indeed saw them and the light that shone about them as they came down from the walls and went hand in hand to the houses of Healing. 

And to the Warden of the Houses Faramir said: ‘Here is the Lady Éowyn of Rohan, and now she is healed.’”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Chapter 5

    

    Is that not truly beautiful? We all need a Faramir in our lives, I think, to remind us that we are loved, that no darkness can hold at bay the things that truly matter—not war, but beauty, and things that grow. 

———

    What’s your opinion of Faramir and Êowyn? Do you have any other favourite moments from The Lord of the Rings? (I do, by the way). Let me know what you think!

Glory be to God!

Namarië,

 Astrya