i’m reading the stand for the first time, & i’m about 300 pages in, & at this point rita & larry have just packed their bags & are preparing to leave the city. i’m a huge LOTR fan & i know stephen king loves tolkien too, so this part excited me but confused me all at once. i know it’s probably not a big deal at alllll i just was curious if it was simply a mistake or if it was intentional. here’s the quote i’m talking about: “the beginning of a journey,” she said, & then so softly he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly: “the way leads ever on...” “what?” “it’s a line from Tolkien,” she said, “The Lord of the Rings. i’ve always thought of it as sort of a gateway to adventure.” so i googled just to make sure i wasn’t forgetting a line that was slightly different & couldn’t find anything, but i know the line in the song is “the road goes ever on”. is it possible it was intentionally misquoted because of the line about larry possibly mishearing her? that seems like an unnecessary thing to do, though. it just seems odd to me that something so known would be mistakenly misquoted by king. wouldn’t that be something you double check before writing it in off the top of your head? just wanted to know if anyone out there had any insight to this or if i’m just being way too nitpicky & it’s simply a mistake! (yes, i’m aware how nerdy & obnoxious this post probably is lol)
