LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 08 - Farewell to Lórien

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

I must say, this scene and the closing conversation of Gimli with Legolas endeared the Dwarf to me forever. His poetic words and gallantry are lovely and touching! I have quite a few of those sentences underlined in my book:

here just today.)

I regression perhaps rather than a digression: I share some of of Estelyn's feelings about this conversation. For me, it voices a "fundamental truth", which stands free of it's context. Legolas' words of comfort are not pat or trite but sincere and beautiful but yet they do not truly console. "Memory is not what the heart desires" is a phrase that must surely sound a chord for all, save those perhaps who have not lived long enough enough to encounter bereavemen or loss or have not faced a choice between "duty" and "desire" - and few of us reach adulthood so unmarked. If it weren't such an odd word to use about an exchange between elf and dwarf, I would say that it was very human! Also human is the deliberate switch to weak humour when the conversation has gone "deeper" than normal, to return it to a normal level.