“Before setting off on the return journey to England, Tolkien bought some picture postcards. Among them was a reproduction of a painting by a German artist, J. Madelener. It is called Der Berggeist, the mountain spirit, and it shows an old man sitting on a rock under a pine tree. He has a white beard and wears a wide-brimmed round hat and a long cloak. He is talking to a white fawn that is nuzzling his upturned hands, and he has a humorous but compassionate expression; there is a glimpse of rocky mountains in the distance. Tolkien preserved this postcard carefully, and long afterwards he wrote on the paper cover in which he kept it: ‘Origin of Gandalf’.”
-Tolkien, Humphrey Carpenter
(via tolkienianos)
"If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world."
- J.R.R. Tolkien (via believeinmiddlearth)
(via believeinmiddlearth)
