[mark12_30]

Strider in a moment of vulnerability:

‘Now let us take our ease here for a little!’ said Aragorn. ‘We will sit on the edge of ruin and talk, as Gandalf says, while he is busy elsewhere. I feel a weariness such as I have seldom felt before.’ He wrapped his grey cloak about him, hiding his mail-shirt, and stretched out his long legs. Then he lay back and sent from his lips a thin stream of smoke.
‘Look!’ said Pippin. ‘Strider the Ranger has come back!’
‘He has never been away,’ said Aragorn. ‘I am Strider and Dúnadan too, and I belong both to Gondor and the North.’

Legolas in an endearing moment of impatience:

Legolas lay still, looking up at the sun and sky with steady eyes, and singing softly to himself. At last he sat up. ‘Come now!’ he said. ‘Time wears on, and the mists are blowing away, or would if you strange folk did not wreathe yourselves in smoke. What of the tale?’

Pippin counts on his fingers, which I find charming:

Pippin made some calculations on his fingers. ‘Only nine days ago!’ he said.

...which means that Gimli's Two Hundred leagues were covered in that time. Wow.

Strider returns the hobbits' knives:

‘Here are some treasures that you let fall,’ said Aragorn. ‘You will be glad to have them back.’ He loosened his belt from under his cloak and took from it the two sheathed knives.

I went back to the chapter "The Departure of Boromir" and found this quote:

‘See!’ cried Aragorn. ‘Here we find tokens!’ He picked out from the pile of grim weapons two knives, leaf-bladed, damasked in gold and red; and searching further he found also the sheaths, black, set with small red gems. ‘No orc-tools these!’ he said. ‘They were borne by the hobbits. Doubtless the Orcs despoiled them, but feared to keep the knives, knowing them for what they are: work of Westernesse, wound about with spells for the bane of Mordor. Well, now, if they still live, our friends are weaponless. I will take these things, hoping against hope, to give them back.’

"Wound about with spells"-- in which case I would expect Anduril to also be wound about with spells, and Strider would have been well aware of it. No wonder he was so defensive of Anduril at the door of Edoras.

Once upon a time, Saruman's hands were "marvellously skilled." I find this a very interesting value of Tolkien's, and it reminds me of Gandalf's praise of Feanor, later in the palantir chapter.

Once again, Gandalf is "merry"-- almost.

Then Gandalf came back to us, and he seemed relieved, almost merry. He did say he was glad to see us, then.
‘”But Gandalf,” I cried, “where have you been? And have you seen the others?”
‘”Wherever I have been, I am back,” he answered in the genuine Gandalf manner.

Another good chuckle from Treebeard regarding Wormtongue:

‘”The water is not deep,” said Treebeard. “It is dirty, but that will not harm you, Master Wormtongue. In you go now!”