"Mount Doom", Return of the King

by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is a section quote adding line numbers as reference for the linked paper by Nicki T. Hansen, aka GWiZ. In Danish, English.
Paper and translations to English by Nicki T. Hansen.

1   “The light sprang up again, and there on the brink of the chasm, at the very Crack of Doom, stood
2    Frodo, black against the glare, tense; erect, but still as if he had been turned to stone.
3    'Master!' cried Sam.
4    Then Frodo stirred and spoke with a clear voice, indeed with a voice clearer and more powerful
5    than Sam had ever heard him use, and it rose above the throb and turmoil of Mount Doom, ringing
6    in the roof and walls.
7    'I have come,' he said. 'But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The
8    Ring is mine!' And suddenly, as he set it on his finger, he vanished from Sam's sight. Sam gasped,
9    but he had no chance to cry out, for at that moment many things happened.
10    Something struck Sam violently in the back, his legs were knocked from under him and he was
11    flung aside, striking his head against the stony floor, as a dark shape sprang over him. He lay still
12    and for a moment all went black.
13    And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very
14    heart of his realm, the Power in Barad-dur was shaken, and the Tower trembled from its foundations
15    to its proud and bitter crown. The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all
16    shadows looked across the plain to the door that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly
17    was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare.
18    Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him.
19    For he knew his deadly peril and the thread upon which his doom now hung.
20    From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagems and wars his mind
21    shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his
22    captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten. The
23    whole mind and purpose of the Power that wielded them was now bent with overwhelming force
24    upon the Mountain. At his summons, wheeling with a rending cry, in a last desperate race there
25    flew, faster than the winds, the Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths, and with a storm of wings they hurtled
26    southwards to Mount Doom.
27
28    Sam got up. He was dazed, and blood streaming from his head dripped in his eyes. He groped
29    forward, and then he saw a strange and terrible thing. Gollum on the edge of the abyss was fighting
30    like a mad thing with an unseen foe. To and fro he swayed, now so near the brink that almost he
31    tumbled in, now dragging back, falling to the ground, rising, and falling again. And all the while he
32    hissed but spoke no words.
33    The fires below awoke in anger, the red light blazed, and all the cavern was filled with a great glare
34    and heat. Suddenly Sam saw Gollum's long hands draw upwards to his mouth; his white fangs
35    gleamed, and then snapped as they bit. Frodo gave a cry, and there he was, fallen upon his knees at
36    the chasm's edge. But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the ring, a finger still thrust
37    within its circle. It shone now as if verily it was wrought of living fire.
38    `'Precious, precious, precious!' Gollum cried. 'My Precious! O my Precious!' And with that, even as
39    his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on
40    the brink, and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail Precious, and he was
41    gone.
42    There was a roar and a great confusion of noise. Fires leaped up and licked the roof. The throbbing
43    grew to a great tumult, and the Mountain shook. Sam ran to Frodo and picked him up and carried
44    him out to the door. And there upon the dark threshold of the Sammath Naur, high above the plains
45    of Mordor, such wonder and terror came on him that he stood still forgetting all else, and gazed as
46    one turned to stone.
47    A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements, tall as hills,
48    founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons,
49    eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed. Towers
50    fell and mountains slid; walls crumbled and melted, crashing down; vast spires of smoke and
51    spouting steams went billowing up, up, until they toppled like an overwhelming wave, and its wild
52    crest curled and came foaming down upon the land. And then at last over the miles between there
53    came a rumble, rising to a deafening crash and roar; the earth shook, the plain heaved and cracked,
54    and Orodruin reeled. Fire belched from its riven summit. The skies burst into thunder seared with
55    lightning. Down like lashing whips fell a torrent of black rain. And into the heart of the storm, with
56    a cry that pierced all other sounds, tearing the clouds asunder, the Nazgûl came, shooting like
57    flaming bolts, as caught in the fiery ruin of hill and sky they crackled, withered, and went out.
58
59    'Well, this is the end, Sam Gamgee,' said a voice by his side. And there was Frodo, pale and worn,
60    and yet himself again; and in his eyes there was peace now, neither strain of will, nor madness, nor
61    any fear. His burden was taken away. There was the dear master of the sweet days in the Shire.
62    'Master!' cried Sam, and fell upon his knees. In all that ruin of the world for the moment he felt only
63    joy, great joy. The burden was gone. His master had been saved; he was himself again, he was free.
64    And then Sam caught sight of the maimed and bleeding hand.
65    'Your poor hand!' he said. 'And I have nothing to bind it with, or comfort it. I would have spared
66    him a whole hand of mine rather. But he's gone now beyond recall, gone for ever.'
67    'Yes,' said Frodo. 'But do you remember Gandalf’s words: Even Gollum may have something yet to
68    do? But for him, Sam, I could not have destroyed the Ring. The Quest would have been in vain,
69    even at the bitter end. So let us forgive him! For the Quest is achieved, and now all is over. I am
70    glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam.’"
71
72    (The Return of the King – Chap.3 "Mount Doom" - the last pages).
Commentary in Danish (in frames)
Commentary in English (still being translated by Nicki T. Hansen)
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