'Yes, that's so,'
said Sam. 'And we shouldn't be here at all, if we'd known more about it before
we started. But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old
tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think
that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked
for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit
dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with
the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to
have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you
put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only
they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been
forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end,
mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a
good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite
the same – like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren't always the best tales to hear,
though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a
tale we've fallen into?'
[…]
'…Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs
or tales. We're in one, or course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told
by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters,
years and years afterwards. And people will say: "Let's hear about Frodo
and the Ring!" And they'll say: "Yes, that's one of my favourite
stories. Frodo was very brave. wasn't he, dad?" "Yes, my boy, the
famousest of the hobbits, and that's saying a lot."'
THE TWO TOWERS
(BOOK FOUR, Chapter 8: The Stairs of Cirith Ungol)
J. R. R.
Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
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