Tolkien (2019)

Nicholas Hoult: J.R.R. Tolkien

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Quotes 

• J.R.R. Tolkien : I made stories, legends. After all, what is language for? It's not just the naming of things, is it? It's the lifeblood of a culture, a people.

• J.R.R. Tolkien : You are the most remarkable spirit I have ever met. You have courage and resourcefulness, talent, you're proud, maddeningly, wonderfully, so; and you are cunning and vibrant and completely alive. You deserve every happiness you find. No. No, you don't. You don't deserve happiness, that's not what I - What I mean is, you deserve much more. You deserve magic.

• [last lines] 

  J.R.R. Tolkien : Hobbit

• John Tolkien Jnr. (Child) : What's it about?

  J.R.R. Tolkien : It's about journeys. Adventures. Magic, of course. Treasure. And love. It's about all kinds of things, really. It's hard to say. I suppose - I suppose it's about quests, to a certain extent. The journeys we take to prove ourselves. About courage. Fellowship. It's about fellowship. Friendship.

• Professor Wright : Could you write five thousand words on the influence of Norse elements in Gawain?

  J.R.R. Tolkien : Yes, absolutely. When would you like it by?

  Professor Wright : This evening.

• Edith Bratt : Hand. That might be a beautiful word.

  J.R.R. Tolkien : Yes, it is.

  Edith Bratt : But it means so much more because of what we associate it with. Touch.

• Edith Bratt : Wagner wrote it in four acts. It starts with a ring, a magical ring which can rule the world and which is forged by a dwarf.

  J.R.R. Tolkien : It's Alberich. Well, I have picked up the odd bit of German mythology.

  Edith Bratt : But to harness the ring's power, you first have to renounce love.

  J.R.R. Tolkien : Oh. A very sensible exchange, in my opinion.

  Edith Bratt : Well, that's because you're a coldhearted Viking.

• J.R.R. Tolkien : I'm sorry, Geoff.

  Geoffrey Smith : No, it's not your fault.

  J.R.R. Tolkien : No, it is. If it wasn't for me, you'd be in the arms of the delightful Mary by now.

  Geoffrey Smith : Please. The moment I showed any interest, she started talking about her sweetheart.

• J.R.R. Tolkien : To taste it - is to possess the power of sight. Sight beyond sight. Sight into the deepest, darkest parts of the human heart. It's a hungry, potent magic. A magic beyond anything anyone has ever felt before.

• J.R.R. Tolkien : Don't be an ass, Wiseman.

• J.R.R. Tolkien : There's a word in old German, it has no translation in English; but, it means a gift offered fearfully in the wake of an argument. Drachenfutter. Literally, "Dragon Food."

  Edith Bratt : So now I'm a dragon?

• J.R.R. Tolkien : Professor, since childhood, I have been fascinated with language. Obsessed with it. I've invented my own. Full, complete languages. Look. This is, it's - everything.

  [presents a notebook] 

  J.R.R. Tolkien : From the Breost-hord. My heart. The treasure of the breast.

  Professor Wright : And the drawings?

  J.R.R. Tolkien : I made stories. Legends. After all, what is language for? It's not just the naming of things, is it? It's the lifeblood of a culture, a people.

• Hilary Tolkien : Remember how mother made us kiss the trees?

  J.R.R. Tolkien : And listen to them talk.

  Hilary Tolkien : What dark magic was that?

• J.R.R. Tolkien : I can't get into my stride. I feel - unfocused.

  Christopher Wiseman : You know what I think that's a symptom of?

  J.R.R. Tolkien : Constipation?

  Christopher Wiseman : Ha-ha-ha. Love. Requited or otherwise.

• Beryl : It's not very nice to talk about another lady when you're with someone.

  J.R.R. Tolkien : No, you're absolutely right. I apologize, Myrtle.

  Beryl : It's Beryl.

• J.R.R. Tolkien : I can't fail it again. And you know what will happen if I don't get into Oxford. I could become a priest, but I don't think a life of celibacy is what either of us had in mind.

• J.R.R. Tolkien : I'd like to change to your class. To study philology.

  Professor Wright : To my class?

  J.R.R. Tolkien : Yes. Yes, I'm Tolkien, Ronald Tolkien. I stood outside your window and shouted obscenities in a kind of bastardized Finnish.

  Professor Wright : And you consider that a recommendation?

• J.R.R. Tolkien : Hail Earendel, brightest of angels sent unto men. Hail Earendel...

• Father Francis : I spend my every afternoon with mothers, widows. What can I say to them? Your sons have died in the war to end all wars.

  J.R.R. Tolkien : What do you say?

  Father Francis : Words are useless. Modern words, anyway. I speak the liturgy. There's a comfort, I think, in distance. Ancient things.

• Edith Bratt : I don't have a hat.

  J.R.R. Tolkien : It's all right. They all look ridiculous anyway.

• Edith Bratt : Oh, for God's sake, Ronald. Don't be so dramatic. It doesn't matter.

  J.R.R. Tolkien : No, don't say that. Of course, it matters.

  Edith Bratt : I don't know why you're taking it so hard. Things are just returning - to normal, that's all. To reality.