Editing Old Forest (section)

===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>