John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English philologist, writer and university professor, best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

A devout Roman Catholic, he was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon language (Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon) and Merton Professor of English language and literature.

In addition his famous works (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings), his son - Christopher Tolkien - published several other works based heavily on Tolkien’s notes - The Silmarillion and others. All these works, taken together, form a connected body of tales, fictional histories, invented languages and literary essays about an imagined world, Middle-Earth.

Those of you who have read The Hobbit will be familiar with the following quote. The words belong to Thorin, a proud, purposeful and sturdy dwarf warrior; a character that is also bit stubborn at times.

In The Hobbit, as the novel progresses, Thorin’s inability to formulate successful plans, his greed and his reliance on Bilbo to save him at every turn make him a somewhat unappealing figure, but he is redeemed by the remorse he shows before he dies.

Thorin speaks these wise words in the Chapter 18 of the novel, just before he dies, asking Bilbo’s forgiveness for the harsh words he told him before the Battle of the Five Armies. Here’s what he said:

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