All that glitters is not gold

Posted by Aranel on March 18, 2003

In Reply to: All that glitters is not gold posted by Gary on March 13, 2003

Hello!
I just wanted to confuse you all a bit ;) by saying that there is a passage in Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which reads:
"All that is gold does not glitter"
(Riddle of Aragorn)
It refers to someone who looks quite shabby, but is the heir of a king and is meant to do great things. So I guess, it's kind of the reversion of Shakespeare's "All that glisters is not gold": instead of "beautiful things don't have to be valuable", it means "sth. that looks shabby doesn't have to be worthless". In other words: don't judge a book by it's cover. Right?