Editing Old Forest (section)

==Fictional role==

{{further|Forests in Middle-earth}}

===Overview===

[[File:Sketch Map of The Shire.svg|thumb|upright=2.25|Sketch map of [[the Shire]], with the Old Forest on the right. The forest's river, the Withywindle, flows into the River Brandywine.]]

The Old Forest lay near the centre of [[Eriador]], a large region of north-west Middle-earth. It was one of the few survivors of the primordial forests which had covered much of Eriador before the [[Second Age]]. Indeed, it had once been but the northern edge of one immense forest which reached all the way to [[Fangorn]] forest, hundreds of miles to the south-east.<ref group=T name="Council of Elrond">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=book 2, ch. 2 "[[The Council of Elrond]]"}}</ref>

The vicinity of the Old Forest was the domain of three nature-spirits: [[Tom Bombadil]], [[Goldberry]], and [[Old Man Willow]]. The powers of these beings doubtless contributed to its survival when other forests were destroyed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dickerson |first1=Matthew |author1-link=Matthew T. Dickerson |last2=Evans |first2=Jonathan |author2-link=Jonathan Evans (scholar) |year=2006 |title=Ents, Elves and Eriador |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |at=ch. 5, p. 133 |isbn=0-8131-2418-2}}</ref>

Old Man Willow, along with the [[Barrow-wight]] and Tom Bombadil himself, first appeared in Tolkien's narrative poem ''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'', where Old Man Willow trapped Bombadil himself briefly.<ref group=T>''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'', ''[[The Oxford Magazine]]'', 15 February 1934</ref> Willow is portrayed as a sentient and evil willow tree with powers including [[hypnosis]] and the ability to move his roots and trunk. Some characters of the story speculate that he may have been related to the [[Ent]]s, or possibly the [[Huorn]]s. However, unlike Ents or Huorns, he is portrayed more like a tree, with roots in the ground, and without the ability to move from place to place. [[Tom Bombadil]] had power over Old Man Willow, and checked the evil as much as he could, or was willing.<ref name="House of Tom Bombadil" group=T/>

According to Tom Bombadil, at the dawn of time, long before even the [[Elf (Middle-earth)#Awakening|Awakening of the Elves]], trees were the only inhabitants of vast stretches of the world. Because the Elves awoke far in the East, it was still a considerable time before any other beings spread into the vast primeval forests of western Middle-earth. A handful of trees survived from this time until the present day, who are angered at the encroachment of Elves and Men and their dominion over the earth; trees who bitterly remember a time long ago when they were as Lords of vast regions of the world. Bombadil relates that of the corrupted trees of the Old Forest, "none were more dangerous than the Great Willow; his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning, and a master of winds, and his song and thought ran through the woods on both sides of the river. His grey thirsty spirit drew power out of the earth and spread like fine root-threads in the ground, and invisible twig-fingers in the air, till it had under its dominion nearly all the trees of the Forest from the Hedge to the Downs."<ref name="House of Tom Bombadil" group=T/>

In the [[First Age]], [[Tom Bombadil]] "was here before [[Withywindle|the river]] and the trees".<ref name="House of Tom Bombadil" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 1, ch. 7 "In the House of Tom Bombadil"</ref> In the [[Years of the Lamps|Spring of Arda]], plants emerge,<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977}}, ch. 1 "Of the Beginning of Days"</ref> possibly including Old Man Willow.<ref name="House of Tom Bombadil" group=T/> In the [[Years of the Trees]], [[Elf (Middle-earth)|Elves]] skirted the forest on their primeval migration to [[Beleriand]] and [[Valinor|the West]]; they were observed by Bombadil.<ref name="House of Tom Bombadil" group=T/> 

By the time Sauron had been defeated and driven from Eriador, most of its old forests had already been destroyed,<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980}}, part 2, ch 4. Appendix D</ref> leaving remnants such as the Old Forest. (Other vestiges included Woody End in the Shire, Chetwood in [[Bree (Middle-earth)|Bree-land]], and Eryn Vorn in Minhiriath.) The Old Forest was now "hostile to two legged creatures because of the memory of many injuries."<ref name="Letter 339" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#339 to the editor of ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 30 June 1972 }}</ref>

=== Geography, flora and fauna ===

[[File:An old, damaged oak, Savernake Forest - geograph.org.uk - 344479.jpg|thumb|right|250px|An old oak in [[Savernake Forest]], [[Wiltshire]], England. English oak woods provided the inspiration for the Old Forest]]
{{anchor|Barrow-downs}}

The Old Forest was about 1,000 square miles in area (some 2,600 km<sup>2</sup>).<ref group=T>Based on the fold-out map of "The West of Middle-earth" in the 1st edition of ''[[Unfinished Tales]]'' (hardback). This map has a larger scale than the equivalent map in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.</ref> It was bordered on the east by the '''Barrow-downs''', a hilly area dotted with ancient [[burial mounds]], where Frodo's party encountered the [[Barrow-wight]]. In the north it reached towards the Great East Road, and in the west and south it approached the [[Baranduin|Brandywine]] river. The '''Withywindle''', a tributary of the Brandywine, ran through the heart of the forest, which covered most of the Withywindle's [[drainage basin]].<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/>

This was also a 'catchment area' in another sense. The landscape, trees and bushes were aligned so that if any strangers attempted to traverse the forest, then they were funnelled towards the Withywindle,<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/> and into the clutches of Old Man Willow in particular. The valley of the Withywindle within the Old Forest was known as '''the Dingle'''.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|2014}}, Preface</ref>

The Old Forest was a type of woodland nowadays described as [[temperate broadleaf and mixed forest]]. The west and south of the forest was dominated by "[[Quercus robur|oaks]] and [[Fraxinus excelsior|ashes]] and other strange trees", which were generally replaced by [[Pinus nigra|pines]] and [[fir]]s in the north.<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/> [[Fagus sylvatica|Beeches]]<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|2014}}, poem 2 verse 1</ref> and [[Alnus glutinosa|alders]]<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|2014}}, poem 2 verse 5</ref> were found here and there in the forest, and [[willow]]s were dominant along the Withywindle.<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/>

Many of the trees were covered "with [[moss]] and slimy, shaggy growths".<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/> The [[understory|understorey]] was congested with bushes and other undergrowth, including [[Rubus|brambles]]. A variety of plants grew in the forest's occasional glades: grass, [[Conium#Conium maculatum|hemlocks]], [[Anthriscus sylvestris|wood-parsley]], [[Epilobium angustifolium|fire-weed]], [[Urtica dioica|nettles]] and [[Cardueae|thistles]].<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/><ref>[[Wayne G. Hammond|Hammond, Wayne G.]] & [[Christina Scull]] (2005), ''[[The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion]]'', [[HarperCollins]], pp. 121–122, {{ISBN|0 00 720308 X}}.</ref>

===Hobbits and the Old Forest===

In one of his letters, Tolkien explained that "the Old Forest was hostile to two-legged creatures because of the memory of many injuries."<ref name="Letter 339" group=T/> When Gorhendad Oldbuck and his clan of Hobbits settled [[Buckland (Middle-earth)|Buckland]], they began to encroach upon the Old Forest, thus re-awakening the hostility that had first been aroused back in the [[Second Age]]. The settlers soon found themselves under threat from the forest. They felt that the trees of the Old Forest were in some manner 'awake', and were hostile. The trees swayed when there was no wind and whispered at night, and they daunted intruding hobbits by tripping them, dropping branches, and driving them deeper into the forest. Deep within the Old Forest was the [[Withywindle]] Valley, the root of all the terrors of the forest; it could be a dark, evil and malevolent place.<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/>

The Bucklanders therefore planted and maintained a great Hedge (also known as the [[High Hay]]) all the way along Buckland's eastern border, which ran right along the edge of the forest. This had occurred "many generations" before the War of the Ring.<ref name="Conspiracy Unmasked" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 1, ch. 5 "A Conspiracy Unmasked"</ref>

However at length (but still "long ago" before the War of the Ring), the Bucklanders found that the Hedge was under "attack" by the forest. Trees began to plant themselves against the Hedge and lean over it. To counter this attack, the hobbits cleared a narrow strip of land on the outside of the Hedge, felling and burning many trees. They cleared a space some way inside the forest; this later became known as the '''Bonfire Glade'''.<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/>

The ruling family of Buckland, the Brandybucks, owned a private gate in the Hedge, through which they occasionally dared the threshold of the Old Forest.<ref name="Conspiracy Unmasked" group=T/><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, Prologue §1</ref> They also went in to maintain the cleared strip, which was still in existence during the [[War of the Ring]]. At least one non-Brandybuck visited the Old Forest: [[Farmer Maggot]].<ref name="Conspiracy Unmasked" group=T/>

The heir of the Brandybucks during the War of the Ring was [[Merry Brandybuck]]: a member of the [[Fellowship of the Ring (characters)|Fellowship of the Ring]]. He had been into the Old Forest "several times", and had a key to the gate. On Merry's advice, [[Frodo Baggins]] (the bearer of the [[One Ring]]) decided to attempt a traversal of the dreadful forest in order to evade the pursuit of [[Nazgûl|Black Riders]].<ref name="Conspiracy Unmasked" group=T/><ref name="Old Forest" group=T/>

===Old Man Willow===
[[File:Old_Man_Willow.jpg|thumb|''Old Man Willow'', drawn by Tolkien while he was writing the chapter on the Old Forest. A face can just be made out on the right-hand side of the tree above the arm-like branch.<ref name="Hammond 1995"/>]]
{{main|Old Man Willow}}

[[Old Man Willow]] is a malign tree-spirit of great age in [[Tom Bombadil]]'s Old Forest, appearing physically as a large willow tree beside the River Withywindle, but spreading his influence throughout the forest.<ref group=T name="Old Forest">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 1, ch. 6 "The Old Forest"</ref><ref name="Saguaro Thacker 2013">{{cite book |last1=Saguaro |first1=Shelley |last2=Thacker |first2=Deborah Cogan |title=Chapter 9. Tolkien and Trees J. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings |date=2013 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] (New Casebooks) |isbn=978-1-137-26399-5 |pages=138–154 |url=http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/791/1/Tolkien%20a}}</ref><ref name="House of Tom Bombadil" group=T/> He casts a spell on the [[hobbit]]s, trapping two of them; they are rescued by [[Tom Bombadil]].<ref name="Old Forest" group=T/> Bombadil explains that the tree was wholly evil, and had grown to control most of the Old Forest.<ref name="House of Tom Bombadil" group=T/> Tolkien made a drawing of Old Man Willow, from an [[Pollarding|unpollarded]] tree by the river in Oxford, to support his writing.<ref name="Hammond 1995">{{cite book | last1=Hammond | first1=Wayne |author1-link=Wayne G. Hammond | last2=Scull |first2=Christina |author2-link=Christina Scull| title=J.R.R. Tolkien : artist & illustrator | publisher=[[HarperCollins]] | location=London | year=1995 | isbn=978-0-261-10360-3 | oclc=34533659 | pages=155–156}}</ref> The evil tree has puzzled critics, as it does not fit with Tolkien's image as an [[environmentalist]] "tree-hugger"; others have noted that trees too are seen by Christians as affected by the Biblical [[Fall of Man]].<ref name="Saguaro Thacker 2013"/><ref name="Dickerson 2013">{{cite book |last=Dickerson |first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Dickerson |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |chapter=Trees |title=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B0loOBA3ejIC&pg=PA678 |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=978-0-415-96942-0|pages=678–679}}</ref><ref name="Nelson 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Nelson |first=Dale |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Literary Influences: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=372-377<!--20th C-->}}</ref><ref name="Lobdell 2004">{{cite book |last=Lobdell |first=Jared |author-link=Jared Lobdell |title=The world of the rings : language, religion, and adventure in Tolkien |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8126-9569-4 |oclc=54767347 |page=9}}</ref>