A few nights ago, Stephen Colbert was joined on A Late Show by Jon Stewart to reminiscence about the 10th anniversary of their Rally to Restore Sanity (and/or Fear) and to talk about the election.
At one point (at 7:32), Jon asks Stephen to quote him something from Tolkien that will give him hope and calm going into today's election. Stephen accesses his "Tolkien occipital Rolodex" for a suitable ray of hope and comes up with a gorgeous moment from The Return of the King with Sam and Frodo trying to get some sleep as they cross the dreadful plain of Gorgoroth on their way to Mount Doom.
Here's the full passage:
'Now you go to sleep first, Mr. Frodo,' he said. 'It's getting dark again.' …
Frodo … was asleep almost before the words were spoken. Sam struggled with his own weariness, and he took Frodo's hand; and there he sat silent till deep night fell. Then at last, to keep himself awake, he crawled from the hiding-place…. The land seemed full of … noises, but there was no sound of voice or of foot. Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim…. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. 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.
May the star of Eärendil shine in the West again tonight.
