“Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; on it spells of ruin lay. Grond they named it, in memory of the Hammer of the Underworld of old. Great beasts drew it, orcs surrounded it, and behind walked mountain-trolls to wield it.”

“Like my hairstyle?" she asked."It's great.""How great?""Great enough to knock down all the trees in all the forests of the world.”

“In battle, in forest, at the precipice in the mountains,On the dark great sea, in the midst of javelins and arrows,In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame,The good deeds a man has done before defend him.”

“The town was a series of dark shapes with edges picked out in moonlight; sloping rooves and gables, balconies and gutters met one another in a chaotic, shadowed jumble. Behind him, the far-flung darkness of what must be the great northern forests. And to the south ... to the south, past the dark shapes of the city, past the lightly wooded hills and rich central provinces of Vere, lay the border, prickling with true castles, Ravenel, Fortaine, Marlas ... and across the border Delpha, and home.”

“Voyaging great distances – through forests, from island to island, across plains and into the mountains – is all about finding ourselves.”

“As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens.”