Editing Old Forest (section)

{{short description|Fictional forest in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth}}

{{Distinguish|Old growth forest}}
{{Infobox fictional location
| name         = Old Forest
| source       = [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s [[Tolkien's legendarium|legendarium]]
| type         = A remnant of the primordial forests of [[Eriador]]
| blank_label  = Location
| blank_data   = East of [[the Shire]]
| blank_label1 = Lifespan
| blank_label2 = Founder 
| ruler        = [[Tom Bombadil]]
| locations    = the [[Withywindle]]
}}

In [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]’s [[fictional universe]] of [[Middle-earth]], the '''Old Forest''' was a daunting and [[ancient woodland]] just beyond the eastern borders of [[the Shire]]. Its first and main appearance in print was in the chapter of the 1954 ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' titled "The Old Forest".<ref name="Old Forest" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 1, ch. 6 "The Old Forest"</ref> The [[hobbit]]s of the Shire found the forest hostile and dangerous; the nearest, the Bucklanders, planted a great hedge to border the forest and cleared a strip of land next to it. A malign tree-spirit, [[Old Man Willow]], grew beside the River Withywindle in the centre of the forest, controlling most of it, though [[Tom Bombadil]] presides over the forest.

The scholar [[Verlyn Flieger]] has observed that the hostility of the Old Forest and of Old Man Willow contradicts Tolkien's otherwise protective stance for wild nature. Scholars have discussed the symbolism of the Old Forest, likening it to "Old England", and, given that the protagonist [[Frodo Baggins]] calls it "the shadowed land", to Death.