Proverbs of Middle Earth

On The World

The wide world is all about you:
you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.
GILDOR

All’s well as ends well;
though perhaps we should not say that 'till we reach our own doors.
FARMER MAGGOT

September 25: The hobbits, now in Crickhollow, unmask their conspiracy and prepare to leave the Shire - their oasis is no longer any protection, and the only course of action available is the most dangerous.

Gildor's words from the previous night ring true, as, unwittingly, do those of Farmer Maggot, who was not to know just how long it would be before the hobbits finally would reach their own doors.

On Sun & Shadow

Make haste while the Sun shines!
GOLDBERRY

Some things are ill to hear when the world's in shadow.
TOM BOMBADIL

The emphasis on light and darkness in Middle Earth is more than symbolism; to the characters, the physical world reflects a reality deeper than mere colour:

The Dark Lord, the Black Land, the Black Riders, the Mountains of Shadow.
The White Council, the White Rider, the White Tree, the White Lady.
The Star-Glass, the Evenstar, Gilgalad ('Starlight'), Elanor (the 'Sun-Star').

At Bree

September 29, and the hobbits have arrived in Bree-land.

One thing drives out another.
BUTTERBUR

It never rains but it pours.
BUTTERBUR

Bree is a crossing point, where the Greenway (joining Arnor to Gondor, via Tharbad, Dunland, and Rohan) met the Great East Road (traversed by the Elves of Lindon, Rivendell and Mirkwood, as well as the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains and the East).

It had been under the authority of the Numenorean kings of Arnor, but retained little of that high culture, having been settled by lesser men and by hobbits.

It might have been expected that such an ethnic and geographical meeting place would provide the perfect opportunity for the accumulated wisdoms of Middle Earth to combine and meld into something High, but almost the opposite is the case.

What’s done can’t be undone.
BUTTERBUR

There’s no accounting for East or West.
BUTTERBUR

The wisdom and consequent sayings of the Breelanders are almost entirely practical, functional, and run-of-the-mill, and the general attitude to the Outside World is one of bemusement and shoulder-shrugging wonder, mixed with distrust of what their ears pick up.  News is plentiful, but the men and hobbits of Bree are more concerned with day-to-day functionality than with great things, even though they can 'see through a wall, in time'.

If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be.

ARAGORN

The Good Life

Apples for walking, and a pipe for smoking.
SAM

At Weathertop

September 30 - October 6: From Bree-land through the Midgewater Marshes to Weathertop; no time for proverbs, adages or maxims of guidance.  When a wisdom-saying next emerges, it is clearly Strider the Ranger, rather than Aragorn the Royal Heir or Estel of Rivendell, who is speaking.

Fire is our friend in the wilderness.
ARAGORN

The Rangers were the Numenorean remnant in the North: landless and powerless, their majesty veiled, yet the custodians of Middle Earth's great tasks.  'Only a Ranger?'  Their wisdom was High (as Elf-friends as well as inheritors of the legacy of Westernesse) but had gained an earthy practicality, due to their lives in the Wild.

The Coming Of The Nazgûl

Under siege in Bree, and now pursued in the Wild; the hobbits' decision to engage Strider as their guide is still in the balance.  What power can this Ranger possibly have against the Black Riders?

Do not be afraid.
ARAGORN

But the hobbits do not know what the Rangers really are, nor are they aware of Aragorn's heritage: he is the foster-child of Elrond ('wisest of lore-masters'), descendent of Beren & Luthien; he has dwelt long in the company of the High; has been within sight of the Black Gate and Minas Morgul; and has served in war in the North and elsewhere (including as Thorongil in Rohan and Gondor).

Caution is one thing and wavering is another.
ARAGORN

Watch every shadow.
ARAGORN

Even beset by the Nazgul, he is not afraid, is in full control of himself, and may even have been able to avert disaster had Frodo not put on the Ring and tried to defend himself.

All blades perish that pierce the dreadful king.
ARAGORN

The Counsel of the Council

Elves may thrive on speech alone, and Dwarves endure great weariness;
but I am only an old hobbit, and I miss my meal at noon.

BILBO

 The Council of Elrond provides a fascinating opportunity to see proverbs in action.  The peoples represented all have their own wisdom traditions, some of which coincide and complement each other, and some of which don't.

Proverbs pop up regularly, used naturally and in context, illustrating the ease with which Tolkien fitted his characters within recognisable traditions.

Oft in lies truth is hidden.

GLORFINDEL

Nothing is evil in the beginning.

ELROND

The question at hand - what is this ring and what are we to do with it? - occupies those present for a whole morning.  All hear the same histories and the same reasoning, yet respond differently, according to their kind.

What was is less dark than what is to come.
DENETHOR

Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.
GANDALF

 Valour needs first strength, and then a weapon.
BOROMIR 

Only a small part is played in great deeds by any hero. 
GANDALF 

Elrond - emblematic of the combined wisdom of Elves & Men - has a key role; allowing voices to be heard and perspectives to be honoured, whilst guiding the Council toward deciding a definite course of action that seems wise, or at least necessary, to all.

The might of Elrond is in wisdom not in weapons.
BOROMIR

It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.

ELROND

 It is wisdom to recognise necessity, when all other courses have been weighed,
though folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope.
GANDALF

Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world:
small hands do them because they must,
while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

ELROND

On Caradhras

When heads are at a loss, bodies must serve.

BOROMIR

Let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming,
and for running light over grass and leaf, or snow - an Elf.

LEGOLAS

Sam quotes his Gaffer

Through every stage of the Quest, Sam Gamgee is in an almost perpetual state of culture shock - everything he encounters is apparently so far outside of his experience or expectation that he is often left gaping.

Appropriately, when far from home and every kind of 'normality' - as now, in Lorien - Sam finds solidity by remembering the proverbs he learned as a child, gardening alongside his Dad.

Live and learn! as my gaffer used to say.

It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.
SAM

The wisdom of Middle Earth is never seen as the unique domain of the Great or the Wise - if it worked for taters in the Shire, it is applicable everywhere.

On the Rapids

No boat can live in Sarn Gebir, be it night or day.
BOROMIR

Some of the proverbs of Middle Earth are strikingly specific, to a particular context or location.  So it is that when the Fellowship, having floated down Anduin for the best part of a week, enter the Rapids earlier than expected, and by night, it takes no more than a one-line maxim from the member with most local knowledge to see them beating an immediate, hasty retreat.

On the Hunt

After the successive disasters of losing Boromir, the kidnap of Merry & Pippin, and the absconding of Frodo with Sam, the Fellowship's remaining three are for a time lost in a mire of self-condemnation and despair.  They do not know what course of action to choose - or indeed, as Gimli says, if there even is a right choice - and their leader keeps repeating that 'all he has done has gone amiss'.

It is in such circumstances that the Three Hunters - and particularly Legolas and Aragorn - fall back on received wisdom to keep them moving.  The proverbs they quote are nearly all straightforward and practical, aimed to advise while protecting them from depression and self-defeat.

Let us first do what we must do.
LEGOLAS

When the great fall, the less must lead.
ARAGORN

There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse,
even though the end may be dark.
ARAGORN

Endure the East Wind, but do not ask it for tidings.
ARAGORN

Having dealt with and mourned Boromir, and set out upon the hopeless pursuit of Merry & Pippin's captors, these proverbs become an encouragement (ie. reminding the Three that they are indeed equipped for their difficult task) and a source of hope that all is not lost.

Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall.
ARAGORN

Where sight fails the earth may bring us rumour.
ARAGORN

Keen are the eyes of the elves.
ARAGORN

Rede oft is found at the rising of the Sun.
LEGOLAS

Treebeard

Do not be hasty.
TREEBEARD

The fact that Ents (apparently) have proverbs at all is perhaps surprising.  The whole purpose of a maxim is to concisely express the wisdom of years in a few short words, and this seems anathema to the Onodrim, both in terms of their slow, steady natures and their language, which rumbles and unfolds in waves, taking a long time to say anything.

Maybe they have only appropriated the words of others - particularly of the Elves, one might surmise - but even then, it is a strange thing to find Treebeard quoting obviously 'Entish' proverbs in the Common Speech, in which language they appear at home but surely could not have been birthed.

It is easier to shout stop! than to do it.
TREEBEARD

It may be that to the Ents, no spoken language is truly their mother tongue; that the organic acts of living and growing are their 'first language', originating in the days before the Elves taught them to speak.  In that way, all other tongues, including their own, are merely means of outward expression; a translation tool, used to reflect their inner speech when outsiders find their way into Fangorn.

Sheep get like shepherd, and shepherds like sheep.
TREEBEARD

Songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and their own way:
and sometimes they are withered untimely.
TREEBEARD

Third Time

 

From the three Elven Rings to Three's Company, a triumvirate motif repeats itself throughout the history of Middle Earth.  There are the three kindreds of the Eldar, three Silmarils, and three hidden Kingdoms (of Doriath, Nargothrond and Gondolin); three houses of the Edain, three northern Kingdoms after the breakup of Arnor, and three lines of the Kings of Rohan; three Hobbit tribes, three Farthings in the Shire, and three Ages of Middle Earth.

 

On the borders of Mordor, three weary travellers also seek significance in the number, firstly when a winged Nazgul repeatedly passes overhead, then at later times when considering an extra favour to be granted along the lines of 'one good turn deserves another'.

Three times is a threat.
GOLLUM  

The third turn may turn out the best.
FRODO

Third time pays for all.
SAM

On Stumbling

Do not stumble at the end of the road.
GANDALF

 

On discovering, through Pippin, the nature and identity of the palantir, Gandalf entrusts it to Aragorn.  His warning, to the most careful of men, is not intended as a rebuke but as recognition of the grave danger the Orthanc-stone presents.

As a direct link to Barad-dur itself, it had already caused the fall of Saruman as well as contributing to his desperation and the failure of his plans.  We later see the wisdom of this warning in the case of Denethor, whom a palantir also betrayed.

Sauron's influence through the Stones, however, carries no guarantee of success for him either: stumbling is not only the preserve of the weak.

Oft evil will shall evil mar.
THEODEN

One to One with Gandalf

Let not the swift wait for the slow.
GANDALF

And with that, he is gone; Shadowfax bearing Gandalf away to Gondor with Pippin, recovering, before him.  A perfect opportunity for an inquisitive hobbit to ask questions.

This is the first time since Rivendell where a hobbit has been alone with the Wizard, and Pippin clearly enjoys the privilege, for Gandalf is in the mood to talk.

There is nothing that Sauron cannot turn to evil uses.
GANDALF

The biter bit, the hawk under the eagle's foot, the spider in a steel web!
GANDALF

 

Saruman, the palantir, and the nature of evil are the main topics at hand, and we hear Gandalf speaking, almost to himself at times, as he processes the causes, impacts and implications of recent events.

Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
GANDALF

The burned hand teaches best.
After that advice about fire goes to the heart.
GANDALF

 

On Strider, pt 2?

The hobbits' new acquaintance harks back to September 29th, and the last mysterious hooded, cloaked Ranger they had met.

Faramir appears as a southern counterpart to Aragorn: a wise, compassionate warrior, in whom the blood of Numenor runs true.  The parallels between the two characters' entries into the plot are striking:

 - the weather-beaten green-clad Rangers, faces obscured;
 - intent questioning of Frodo without revealing identity or purpose;
 - the immediate links to Gandalf at a time of his unforeseen absence;
 - Sam's strong suspicions while his guarded master longs to open up and find a friend;
 - the opportunity to take the Ring, and strength to wield it, overcome.

It is fitting then that the wisdom proverbs that flash into the hobbits' minds when faced with Faramir in Ithilien are virtually identical to those they spoke before Strider in the Prancing Pony.

Better mistrust undeserved than rash words.
NARRATOR [Frodo's thoughts]

Fair speech may hide a foul heart.
SAM

Handsome is as handsome does.
SAM

The parallels between Faramir and Aragorn continue, both in character and in fate, until the end: one takes the Paths of the Dead, the 'walks in the shadows' under the Black Breath; one becomes King, the other, Steward and Prince; both are loved by Eowyn; both marry outside of their kin; both live happily ever after ...

Beregond of the Guard

Beregond is the first rank-and-file man of Gondor to come into the story, and an insight into 'normal' Numenoreans.  As others in the City, he looks upon Pippin with an honest curiosity, nodding to himself as his guest's words conform to the wisdom of his people that has been handed down to him.

Men who go warring afield look ever to the next hope of food and of drink.
BEREGOND

At the table small men may do the greater deeds.
BEREGOND

Having mainly hidden behind the other hobbits' seniority until this point, becoming the nearest thing to a passenger that the Fellowship could offer, Pippin no longer has that option.  He is seen as a prince and treated not unlike one, and for the first time we are able to see the future Thain act like one.

We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees.
PIPPIN

Strange accents do not mar fair speech.
BEREGOND

On Simple Wisdom

When Pippin, who at 29 has not yet come of age, is paired with the 10 year old Bergil son of Beregond, we have no need to expect from them any great insight or understanding of the world.  Yet even they have store enough of simple proverbs to pepper their conversation.

Every little is a gain.
BERGIL

Folk are not always as they seem.
PIPPIN

On and From the Drughu

Amongst the diverse races and nations of Middle Earth, there can be few cultures as wholly alien as the Woses of Druadan Forest.  A lingering remnant of an ancient house of Men, highly honoured in the past but now hunted, their unique nature gives them a distinctive perspective on the world.  Most of their proverbs, such as they are, describe themselves.

Wild men have long ears and long eyes; know all paths.
GHAN

Wild men are wild, free, but not children.
GHAN

Ghan-buri-Ghan wants no more than freedom for his people to live wild, and in his wisdom he recognises the Rohirrim as allies against the Darkness.  The short intervention of the Druedain saves Minas Tirith, but they want no reward, loving only the death of orcs and being unhindered in their simple lives.

Kill orc-folk!  No other words please Wild Men.
GHAN

Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts.
GHAN

On the Pelennor

Need brooks no delay, yet late is better than never.
EOMER

Horns, horns, horns.  The music of battle echoes around Mindolluin as the last host of the Rohirrim arrive with the dawn.  And not a moment too soon, for the city is burning, the gate is thrown down, the Steward is about to kill himself, and the men of Minas Tirith have fled the walls at the coming of the Lord of the Nazgul.

Twice blessed is help unlooked for.
EOMER

 

The Rohirrim are an uncomplicated people, and their strength is not in strategy; Theoden knows that fleet-footed aggression and big-hearted courage are what his people bring to the field.

Strike wherever the enemy gathers.
THEODEN

Yet even as the Last Host of the Eorlingas enter the fray, their horns bring the Witch-King flying from the gate, saving the city perhaps but dooming their king.

On the Southern Numenoreans

The Men of Minas Tirith will never be overcome.
BERGIL

Prepare against all chances, good as well as evil.
IMRAHIL

Men are better than gates.
ARAGORN

Whether seen through the blinkered conviction of Bergil, or the steady-eyed pragmatism of Aragorn and the Prince, the fact remains that still, after three thousand years and more, the Men of Gondor and the Tower of Guard still remain unconquered.

From Mithrandir

Gandalf uses proverbs all the time - often, very probably, without realising.  They are regularly strung together as a part of normal speech, rather than being quoted more formally.

This creates a situation where there is little way of telling whether an axiom is actually being employed, or whether Gandalf's own thoughts naturally present themselves in such lore-like poetic forms.

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world,
but to do what is in us for the succour of the years wherein we are set,
uprooting the evil in the fields that we know,
so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.
What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
GANDALF

Which could more easily, and less floridly, be expressed as:

All we now have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
GANDALF

On the Black Land

The Shadow... can only mock, it cannot make.
FRODO

The land of Mordor, stronghold of Sauron for five millennia, is a dreary, gasping desert (especially in Gorgoroth and Udun), void of culture, creativity, or learning.

Yet there is knowledge (albeit basic) and there is experience (albeit brutal), so the basic ingredients required for wisdoms to develop are there.  And sure enough, in our short exposure to the Orcs of Mordor, even they use proverbs.

Where there's a whip there's a will.
MORDOR ORC

Mercifully, we don't hear much more.  The majority of the thinking and talking is now being done by Sam, in spite of being the servant and despite rarely trusting his own judgement.  But his simple pragmatic dictums do the job, and keep them nudging forward.

Talking won't mend nothing.
SAM

On the Limits of Hobbits

The Ring is destroyed and the Dark Tower broken; the Shadow is passed.  There is nothing left to debate except when next to eat.

 

At last, the members of the Fellowship have the chance to get reacquainted, to tell their stories, and to marvel at how much they (or Merry and Pippin at least) have grown.

Mortals cannot go drinking ent-draughts
and expect no more to come of them than a pot of beer.
GIMLI

There is a lot to catch up on, though Sam plainly can't get his head around it, and it is clear that the breaking of the Fellowship, though grievous, worked to great good.

One can't be everywhere at once.
SAM

From Mithrandir

With Sauron defeated and his work complete, the Grey Wanderer no longer needs to wander, entering a joyful semi-retirement: laughing, serving, and stringing together proverbs like never before.

Many folk like to know beforehand what is to be set on the table;
but those who have laboured to prepare the feast like to keep their secret;
for wonder makes the words of praise louder.
GANDALF

One White Tree

It seems rather peculiar to discover that among the dictums passed down through the ages, there are some about nothing more important than a tree.

But when that tree is the only known descendent of the White Tree of Numenor, and that of the Eldest of Trees, then perhaps we can see how its care and tending might be a matter of lore and not just of gardening.

It is said that though the fruit of the Tree comes seldom to ripeness,
yet the life within may then lie sleeping through many long years,
and none can foretell the time in which it will awake.
GANDALF

On Home

Just as Aragorn and Arwen can finally build their long-anticipated home, it is time for the hobbits to leave Gondor and return to theirs.

It is easy to forget that the hobbits - none of whom had gone further than Bree previously - have been in exile for over seven months, living rough for much of that time (which would be hard enough for anyone, but particularly home-comforted halflings).  It must have been a sore test.

And now they must go back, and finally break up the Fellowship.  The proverb with which the King dismisses them is ironic, coming from a homeless wanderer like him, but true nonetheless.

The tree grows best in the land of its sires.
ARAGORN

A Snake Without Fangs?

Treebeard has proven too gentle-hearted a jailor after all, releasing Saruman at last from the ruins of his dead hopes.  His reasoning is logical, if over-trusting of a multiple traitor.

A snake without fangs may crawl where he will.
TREEBEARD

And when, further up the road north, the travelling company overtake the Wizard and his Worm, the two wanderers are pitied - not that Saruman has anything but derision for mercy and kindness.

A beggar must be grateful, if a thief returns him even a morsel of his own.
SARUMAN

In a very hobbit-like act of simple generosity, Merry gives Saruman all his remaining pipeweed, only to be accused of thievery and then not even having the pouch returned.  But this is the degree to which Saruman has withered.

One thief deserves another.
SARUMAN

Sharky's End

With only one pleasure left in life - creating distress and disturbance for those he hates - Saruman has set about the destruction of the Shire.

One ill turn deserves another.
SARUMAN

The wizard's spite, founded on vengeance for his own fall from dignity and authority - from favourite of Aule in Valinor to homeless exile - and on jealousy of the hobbits who have risen so high, is mirrored by that felt for him by Wormtongue, who pays back his long suffering with the murder of his master.

Grima is then himself shot, despite Frodo's desperate protests to avoid bloodshed.

It is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.
FRODO

The contrast between the Big People (the oafish thuggery of the ruffians, the bitter retribution of Saruman and Wormtongue etc.) and Hobbits (including the generous mercy of Frodo, and the simple sense of the Gaffer) shows where wisdom assuredly lies, and how out of place murder and meanness are in the Shire.

It's an ill wind as blows nobody no good.
GAFFER

All's well as ends Better!
GAFFER

On Naming Babies

The War is over, and the only pressing concerns remaining are far more common-place (and Hobbit-like) than what has gone before.  This is the speciality of Shire-lore.

Put the Little People in counsels of war or discussing the devices of evil and they will fall silent, but get them discussing ale or bath-times or taters, and a wealth of tried-and-tested sayings leap forth.  Likewise choosing names for newborns.

Make it short, then you won't have to cut it short.
GAFFER