“...their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.”
WHO: J.R.R. Tolkien
ABOUT WHAT: A minstrel sings of the exploits of Frodo and Sam after they have returned from having destroyed the ring.
MEANING WHAT: There are times when happiness comes from being out of a bad situation, and when awareness of happiness is not independent of the pain and suffering that contrasts with the present. Sometimes being aware of the fragility of happiness makes it feel all the more wonderful. I also really like the short phrase of “joy was like swords” which is a wonderful contrast of sharpness with sweetness, of singular with plural, and of swords in a strangely positive context
posted at 4:51 am
on Mar. 5, 2004
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