When did you cry?

[Kath]

Oh how could I have forgotten this bit! When the Fellowship are together for the very last time and then they never all meet up again. Just the pure sadness that permeates from the words, you can feel that they would all be choking up and so so sad to part.

[Nimrodel_9]

I cried several times, but I think I cried the hardest (and still do sometimes) at The Grey Havens. I think this was mostly because I can relate to it. I had to go through the same thing in leaving my friends recently.

I cried for DAYS about the Gray Havens--you would have thought that Frodo would be able to enjoy his time after his quest was finished, but that was taken from him too. I think that was the most poignant part for me--it didn't seem fair. He did not seem happy even as he was going to the Gray Havens. Also when Sam notes that Frodo did not receive much renown or respect in the Shire itself upon his return was very sad.

I also found the part where Arwen gives her seat on the boat to Frodo quite emotional. It was more or less making her choice final.

The part where Sam thinks Frodo is dead and debates his choices made me cry as well. He was so filled with despair that he considerred hurling himself off the cliff rather than live without Frodo.

Boromir's funeral was very touching to me, but knowing his fall before it, his death did not touch me as much.

The description of Dernhelm (Eowyn disguised in armour) as Merry rode by--the utter despair on her face, seeking death.

Faramir's departure for Osgiliath with a bleak outlook, without his father's blessing/love, knowing that his father would have rather had him die in Boromir's place. The movie did a great job with this part of the story I thought.

There may be others I don't remember now, but I think this is a big part of what makes this story great: the ability to stir emotions.

[mark12_30]

"Horns, horns, horns. Rohan had come at last."

[ninja91]

I make myself not cry (I am a little to proud...) but I think the scene that gets to me most is definitely the departure of Frodo, Gandalf, and company at the Grey Havens. That part is the saddest for me.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

It does not happen often to me, but when there is the possibility, I don't have anything against crying a little bit. And Tolkien definitely gives that possibility, as even this thread shows.

I believe no one has this far mentioned the scene that definitely made me cry. Maybe there were others, I'm not sure, but this one I remember: Thorin's death in the Hobbit. When Bilbo awakens, Gandalf greets him and is happy and then he leads him to Thorin. "Hail, Thorin! I have brought him." And then Thorin's speech. Oh my, I just now started to cry! I had to check the exact words, opened the book and look what happened! That settles it, I am not going to check anything else... *walks away, sobbing*

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

I believe no one has this far mentioned the scene that definitely made me cry. Maybe there were others, I'm not sure, but this one I remember: Thorin's death in the Hobbit. When Bilbo awakens, Gandalf greets him and is happy and then he leads him to Thorin. "Hail, Thorin! I have brought him." And then Thorin's speech. Oh my, I just now started to cry! I had to check the exact words, opened the book and look what happened! That settles it, I am not going to check anything else... *walks away, sobbing*

Ah! Legate! That's so sad.

Actually, yes, that part makes me cry nearly as much as Frodo's 'death' after Shelob. I had simply forgotten it. Pop and them laughed at me last time we read The Hobbit aloud because I was sitting over there crying.

-- Folwren

[Thenamir]

I will get skewered for this one. I just know it.

There is one, and only one scene in the FOTR movie which I believe to be a distinct improvement over the book. In the book it makes me choke up, but in the movie it causes me to weep openly (much to the embarassment of my near seat-mates at the premiere!) -- the death of Boromir as portrayed by the estimable Sean Bean. The courage and valor of Boromir coming to the defense of Merry and Pippin, the score (or more) of uruks slain in their defense, all for naught...Aragorn handing him his sword so that he can make peace with Aragorn and do homage in salute to his sovereign before he dies...I tear up here at work just remembering the line "I would have followed you, my brother...my captain...my king!"

Bean deserved the Oscar for Best Actor for that one line alone.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

I believe no one has this far mentioned the scene that definitely made me cry. Maybe there were others, I'm not sure, but this one I remember: Thorin's death in the Hobbit. When Bilbo awakens, Gandalf greets him and is happy and then he leads him to Thorin. "Hail, Thorin! I have brought him." And then Thorin's speech. Oh my, I just now started to cry! I had to check the exact words, opened the book and look what happened! That settles it, I am not going to check anything else... *walks away, sobbing*

Interesting you should mention that, Legate. That scene is the only one I can recall crying at– I don't just mean in Tolkien's work, I mean at all. I think it must have been the first story I had encountered where a major character dies (I was about five).

[Aganzir]

Lommy, I almost started crying while reading that on the screen. It's definitely one of the saddest and most beautiful phrases ever.

I'm not a sentimental person (at least I didn't use to be), but there are so many things that make me cry in Tolkien's works that I don't even remember them all. Some parts fill me with almost unbearable joy ("Rohan had come at last", "Thus came Aragorn son of Arathorn, Elessar, Isildur's heir, out of the Paths of the Dead, borne upon a wind from the Sea to the kingdom of Gondor..." etc.), some make me cry every time I read them. Many poems & songs, for example, and the endings of both the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. I remember weeping uncontrollably for the last pages almost every time I've read them. They're just too beautiful.

Almost twenty years ago a Finnish theatre group recorded some songs from the Lord of the Rings, and a few years ago I borrowed the cd from Lommy. All of the singers don't sound very good (ie. don't resemble the "original" singers), but many of the songs themselves are quite beautiful. One night I listened to the song of the Ent and the Entwife on repeat probably ten times and cried all the time just because it was so sad.

However, there's still one no one has mentioned: The Leaf by Niggle. I cry every single time I read it (and admit doing something like Lommy: reading it just to make me cry). Last time I almost started crying in a bus, and that wouldn't have been too nice.

[Valier]

I would have to say the scene when Faramir goes out to battle, and knows he is to die if his father is to ever love hi,. that made me choke up. Also of course the scene where Sam carries Frodo, I had tears in the eyes on this one. And of course the scene that did me in is when Aragorn says "You bow to noone" and everyone bows to the Hobbits, this one I lost it, could'nt hold back, river of tears.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Adding on to what I said before... I think that there is so many instances when I cry or at least tear up when I read those books or see the movies, but as Gandalf says not all tears are of evil, I do cry because it is a most glorious moment or because it is just a happy moment, I have cried when Sam woke up in the Houses of Healing.... even reading this thread, remembering things... just let me go off and cry now....................