Paging Tolkien Nerds to the Green

April 30, 2016 12:49 PM

I am trying to find a specific passage from The Return of the King in which Gandalf reassures Pippin about an impending battle by describing death as a passage to peaceful land to include in a memorial service program.

The exchange from the movie/screenplay is below, but I really want the language from the actual book. I have a copy of the book (this version), but I'm not having any luck looking for it. I think the exchange occurs during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields/Siege of Minas Tirith (at least it does in the movie).

The actual language from the book would be great, the chapter and a location within the chapter would be amazing, and a page number would make me your best friend forever.
_______________
PIPPIN: "I didn't think it would end this way."
GANDALF: "End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The gray rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it."
PIPPIN: "What? Gandalf? See what?"
GANDALF: "White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."
PIPPIN: "Well, that isn't so bad."
GANDALF: "No. No, it isn't."

posted by jeoc to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

That line about the silver glass is actually in FOTR, chapter 8:"Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise."
posted by ilovewinter at 12:53 PM on April 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Unfortunately that scene isn't in the books. There's an explanation here: http://askmiddlearth.tumblr.com/post/47630822493/the-white-shores-quote
posted by northernish at 12:54 PM on April 30, 2016 [9 favorites]

From that link, the "white shores" bit is from much later, when Frodo's sailing to Valinor, and the "silver glass" and other language in the description is a callback to the scene ilovewinter points to.

"And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise."
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:22 PM on April 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

If it might work similarly, there are the lyrics to the Annie Lennox song Into the West
posted by Wysawyg at 3:26 PM on April 30, 2016