If I may venture a guess . . .
It may be Thorin from
The Hobbit speaking of the desolation of Smaug as they approached the Lonely Mountain in the chapter "On the Doorstep".
Quote:
The land about them grew bleak and barren, though once, as Thorin told them, it had been green and fair.
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"Green they were and pleasant, and now lie bare and empty, and no merry sound stirs this dreadful silence."