Nicholas Hoult credited as playing...
J.R.R. Tolkien
- J.R.R. Tolkien: I made stories, legends. After all, what is language for? It's not just the naming of things, is it? It's the lifeblood of a culture, a people.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: You are the most remarkable spirit I have ever met. You have courage and resourcefulness, talent, you're proud, maddeningly, wonderfully, so; and you are cunning and vibrant and completely alive. You deserve every happiness you find. No. No, you don't. You don't deserve happiness, that's not what I - What I mean is, you deserve much more. You deserve magic.
- John Tolkien Jnr. (Child): What's it about?
- J.R.R. Tolkien: It's about journeys. Adventures. Magic, of course. Treasure. And love. It's about all kinds of things, really. It's hard to say. I suppose - I suppose it's about quests, to a certain extent. The journeys we take to prove ourselves. About courage. Fellowship. It's about fellowship. Friendship.
- Professor Wright: Could you write five thousand words on the influence of Norse elements in Gawain?
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Yes, absolutely. When would you like it by?
- Professor Wright: This evening.
- Edith Bratt: Hand. That might be a beautiful word.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Yes, it is.
- Edith Bratt: But it means so much more because of what we associate it with. Touch.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: There's a word in old German, it has no translation in English; but, it means a gift offered fearfully in the wake of an argument. Drachenfutter. Literally, "Dragon Food."
- Edith Bratt: So now I'm a dragon?
- Edith Bratt: Wagner wrote it in four acts. It starts with a ring, a magical ring which can rule the world and which is forged by a dwarf.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: It's Alberich. Well, I have picked up the odd bit of German mythology.
- Edith Bratt: But to harness the ring's power, you first have to renounce love.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Oh. A very sensible exchange, in my opinion.
- Edith Bratt: Well, that's because you're a coldhearted Viking.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Professor, since childhood, I have been fascinated with language. Obsessed with it. I've invented my own. Full, complete languages. Look. This is, it's - everything.
- [presents a notebook]
- J.R.R. Tolkien: From the Breost-hord. My heart. The treasure of the breast.
- Professor Wright: And the drawings?
- J.R.R. Tolkien: I made stories. Legends. After all, what is language for? It's not just the naming of things, is it? It's the lifeblood of a culture, a people.
- Hilary Tolkien: Remember how mother made us kiss the trees?
- J.R.R. Tolkien: And listen to them talk.
- Hilary Tolkien: What dark magic was that?
- J.R.R. Tolkien: I'm sorry, Geoff.
- Geoffrey Smith: No, it's not your fault.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: No, it is. If it wasn't for me, you'd be in the arms of the delightful Mary by now.
- Geoffrey Smith: Please. The moment I showed any interest, she started talking about her sweetheart.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: To taste it - is to possess the power of sight. Sight beyond sight. Sight into the deepest, darkest parts of the human heart. It's a hungry, potent magic. A magic beyond anything anyone has ever felt before.
- Beryl: It's not very nice to talk about another lady when you're with someone.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: No, you're absolutely right. I apologize, Myrtle.
- Beryl: It's Beryl.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: I can't fail it again. And you know what will happen if I don't get into Oxford. I could become a priest, but I don't think a life of celibacy is what either of us had in mind.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: I'd like to change to your class. To study philology.
- Professor Wright: To my class?
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Yes. Yes, I'm Tolkien, Ronald Tolkien. I stood outside your window and shouted obscenities in a kind of bastardized Finnish.
- Professor Wright: And you consider that a recommendation?
- Father Francis: I spend my every afternoon with mothers, widows. What can I say to them? Your sons have died in the war to end all wars.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: What do you say?
- Father Francis: Words are useless. Modern words, anyway. I speak the liturgy. There's a comfort, I think, in distance. Ancient things.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: I can't get into my stride. I feel - unfocused.
- Christopher Wiseman: You know what I think that's a symptom of?
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Constipation?
- Christopher Wiseman: Ha-ha-ha. Love. Requited or otherwise.