So, a friend proposed a theory as to who our mysterious Q source might be. Suppose they were both getting the line from -- *gasp* -- Tolkien!
Which would make a depressingly large amount of sense, when you think about it, and thus take one more spark of mystery out of the universe. Doing a quick search within the books' text we discover a passage that was obviously the basis for the line in the LOTR movies. Meanwhile, the timing of The Ruling Class would put it well within the high-water mark of the books' popularity. The screenwriters could have read LOTR and simply internalized the distinctive and pleasing cadence of this line. And then Jackson, Boyens, & Walsh riffed on it for the movie.
Here is the original line from the books -- largely the same as what made it into the movie, apart from that clunky ending, which the screenwriters sagely replaced with something more alliterative.
It appears in the chapter "The King of the Golden Hall":
"I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a serving-man till the lightning falls."
Case (regretfully) closed.
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