A man inherited a field in which was an accumulation of old stone, part of an older hall. Of the old stone some had already been used in building the house in which he actually lived, not far from the old house of his fathers. Of the rest he took some and built a tower. But his friends coming perceived at once (without troubling to climb the steps) that these stones had formerly belonged to a more ancient building. So they pushed the tower over, with no little labour, and in order to look for hidden carvings and inscriptions, or to discover whence the man's distant forefathers had obtained their building material. Some suspecting a deposit of coal under the soil began to dig for it, and forgot even the stones. They all said: 'This tower is most interesting.' But they also said (after pushing it over): 'What a muddle it is in! ' And even the man's own descendants, who might have been expected to consider what he had been about, were heard to murmur: 'He is such an odd fellow! Imagine using these old stones just to build a nonsensical tower! Why did not he restore the old house? he had no sense of proportion.' But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea. .J.r.r. Tolkien
About This Quote
The man in the story is completely obsessed with his tower. He is so engrossed in it that he is oblivious to everything else around him. The old stones that he uses in the tower will be used for something else, even though they were once part of an older building. He doesn’t even take into consideration the fact that he is destroying the older stones when he destroys the tower.
While it may seem to be a short story about an odd man, there is actually a lot of wisdom in it. We can learn from this story that we should never build things to satisfy our own selfish desires, but should only build things for their true purpose. Everything must serve a greater purpose than just our own self-fulfillment.
Everything must serve the greater good of others and if we don’t do it then someone else will do it for us instead.
Source: Beowulf And The Critics
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