£60,000 Hobbit

[davem]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7302101.stm

[Bêthberry]

The photograph - which was expected to fetch up to £600 - shows the author in the Oxford Botanical Gardens leaning against his favourite tree, the Black Pine he named Laocoon.

Now that is an absolutely fascinating piece of information. What is the source for this claim that Tolkien named that tree Laocoon? I cannot recall seeing this in Carpenter and I don't have the book at hand.

Oh how full of tempting possibilities that name suggests. It is, after all, Classical rather than Northern.

[davem]

Blake's etching Laocoon contains the inscription 'Art is the Tree of Life'

which may or may not be relevant.....

[Bêthberry]

Blake's etching Laocoon contains the inscription 'Art is the Tree of Life'

which may or may not be relevant.....

among many other inscriptions . . . but exactly, about may or may not.

Still, as the story of one who gave a warning that went unheeded, it is fascinating to give it to a tree in times of unheeded ecological warnings, eh?

It would be intriguing to know what Tolkien knew/thought of Blake, another cosmologist who railed against the dark, satan mills.

It would also be good to have a reference for that ascription. anyone know Carpenter well enough? Was the name included on the photo's inscription?