Poems and Tales of Middle-Earth:

(illustration by Alan Lee) (The Lore of Living Creatures, Ent song)

" L earn now the lore of Living Creatures!

First name the four, the free peoples:

Eldest of all, the elf-children;

Dwarf the delver, dark are his houses;

Ent the earthborn, old as mountains;

Man the mortal, master of horses:



Beaver the builder, buck the leaper,

Bear bee-hunter, boar the fighter;

Hound is hungry, hare is fearful...



Eagle in eyrie, ox in pasture,

Hart horn-crownéd; hawk is swiftest,

Swan the whitest, serpent coldest..." (Treebeard's added lines to the 'Long List')

" E nts the earthborn, old as mountains,

the wide-walkers, water drinking;

and hungry as hunters, the Hobbit children,

the laughing-folk, the little people,"

The Lord of the Rings

Part II. The Two Towers



Quotes from Tolkien's Novel Rohan: Helm's Deep. " ' I t is said that the Hornburg has never fallen to assault,' said Théoden; but now my heart is doubtful. The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure. How shall any tower withstand such numbers and such reckless hate?" " ' W hat of the dawn?' they jeered. 'We are the fighting Uruk-hai: we do not stop the fight for night or day, for fair wheather or for storm. We come to kill, by sun or moon. What of the dawn?' " " T he work of burial was then but beginning; and Théoden mourned for the loss of Háma, his captain, and cast the first earth upon his grave. 'Great injury indeed has Saruman done to me and all this land,' he said; 'and I will remember it, when we meet.' " " ' M y good Legolas, do you know that the caverns of Helm's Deep are vast and beautiful? [...] immeasurable halls, filled with an everlasting music of water that tinkles into pools, as fair as Kheled-z´ram in the starlight.

'And, Legolas, when the torches are kindled and men walk on the sandy floors under the echoing domes, ah! then, Legolas, gems and crystals and veins of precious ore glint in the polished walls; and the light glows through folded marbles, shell-like, translucent as the living hands of Queen Galadriel. There are columns of white and saffron and dawnrose, Legolas, fluted and twisted into dreamlike forms; they spring up from many-coloured floors to meet the glistening pendants of the roof: wings, ropes, curtains fine as frozen clouds; spears, banners, pinnacles of suspended palaces! Still lakes mirror them: a glimmering world looks up from dark pools covered with clear glass...' " " ' E nts [...] to them you are but the passing tale.' " (Gandalf) " B orne upon the wind, they heard the howling of wolves. Their hearts were heavy, remembering the many men that had fallen in battles in this place." " B ut late in the night the watchmen cried out, and all awoke. The moon was gone. Stars were shining above; but over the ground there crept a darkness blacker than the night. On both sides of the river it rolled towards them, going northward."