I'm re-reading Tolkein's Lord of the Rings. This time, I'll read for a while, then watch some of the movie, then read some more. Tolkein is so quotable! This one struck me today. It is where Frodo and Sam are in the valley of Mordor on the last stage of their quest to destroy the ring. Sam is watching while Frodo sleeps, and sees high above them a star.

"The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master's, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo's side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep"