Grey Havens - Tumblr Posts
"The Grey Havens"
2023
... the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.
-"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", by J.R.R. Tolkien
My tribute to the Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy ends, fittingly, at the shores of the sea. The Grey Havens scene has become the epitome of bittersweet endings everywhere; it's breathtakingly sad, but also wholesome, tender, and comforting in its sadness. And it is elevated by one of the most beautiful yet underrated musical themes in the films, which is also melancholic but carrying within it a powerful sentiment of hope.Β And I don't know how, but Howard Shore made this tune sound like the sea, if that makes any sense.
This scene also notably contains one of my very favorite LotR quotes ever, uttered by none other than Gandalf himself:Β "I will not say 'do not weep', for not all tears are an evil."