J. R. R. Tolkien Quotes
For so sworn good or evil an oath may not be broken and it shall pursue oathkeeper and oathbreaker to the world's end.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Silmarillion. George Allen & Unwin, 1977, p. 83.
There was a legal requirement that all cadidates for the parliament had to sign before the election an oath swearing to take their seat if elected to close off the possibility that some would cripple the parliament by winning but not taking their seats. De Valera wanted to run, and fully intended to take his seat, but had promised to sign no oaths about the parliament elections. On the last day possible, he went to the election clerk who gave him a piece of paper with the oath printed on the top and below it, the lines for candidate signatures. De Valera took a blank piece of paper and covered the oath but leaving the signature line exposed. He then signed the line and made sure that the clerk would remember that he has not signed an oath, but had signed a blank piece of paper where the oath could not be seen. To him this was a very important distinction but if failed to convince most other Irishmen.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE FRSL was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
