In my time

   “Cupio non debuisse evenire in meo tempore,” dixit Frodo.

   “Cupio quoque,” dixit Gandalphus; “et cupiunt quoque omnes, qui talibus in temporibus vivunt. Hoc tamen non est eorum decidere. Solum est nostri decidere quid faciamus temporibus datis.”

 

   “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

   “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

 

—J. R. R. Tolkien, De Domino Anulorum (The Lord of the Rings)

 

Deserves it

 

 

Dignus est! Hoc credo equidem. Multi qui vivunt sunt digni mortis, et nonnulli qui moriuntur sunt digni vitæ. Hasne eis dabis? Quare noli avidior esse mortem dandi in judicio. Etiam sapientissimi nequeunt omnes eventūs prævidere. Non magnopere spero Gollum sanari posse ante mortem, sed non est impossibile. Ille etiam cum fato Anuli colligatus est. Cor meum indicit illi esse nescioquam partem agendam, aut bonam aut malam, ante finem; et illo tempore, misericordia Bilbonis dirrigat plurimum fortunam—tuam non minime.

 

Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many—yours not the least.

 

—J. R. R. Tolkien, De Domino Anulorum (The Lord of the Rings)

I'm going on an adventure!

It began as you might expect

 

Ἐν ἄντρῳ ἐν τῇ γῇ ᾤκει ὅββιτος.

 

(En ántrō en tê gê ṓkei hóbbitos.)

 

In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.

 

—J. R. R. Tolkien, Περὶ τὸν Ὅββιτον (The Hobbit)