20/01/2025
Frodo sat silent and motionless, fear seemed to stretch out a vast hand, like a dark cloud rising in the East and looming up to engulf him. 'This ring! he stammered. 'How, how on earth did it come to me?'
'Ah!' said Gandalf. ' That's a very long story. The beginnings lie back in the black years, which only the lore-masters now remember. if i were to tell you all that tale, we should still be sitting here when Spring had passed into Winter.
'But last night i told you of Sauron the Great, the Dark Lord. The rumours that you've heard are true: he has indeed arisen again and left his hold in Mirkwood and returned to his ancient fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor. That name even you Hobbits have heard of, like a shadow on borders of old stories. always after a defeat and a respite, the shadow takes another shape and grows again.'
' i wish it need not have happened in my time.' said Frodo.
'so do i.' said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times. but that's not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that's given us. And already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black. The enemy is fast becoming strong. His plans are far from ripe, i think, but the're ripening. We shall be hard put to it. We should be very hard put to it, even if it weren't for this dreadful chance.
'The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance, break the last defenses, and cover all the land in a second darkness. He lacks the One Ring.
- The Fellowship of the Ring