The Old Forest
 

I have a dilemma. In my Trilogy class (*smugly thinks how lucky I am*) there are a few Resident Wizards. We know more about the books than everyone else, but the problem is, if we have a question, nobody else can answer it. And if we involve characters that give away the plot in the question, we lose average points.

My question concerns the Old Forest (that's the chapter that we are on now). It claims that the queerest part of the forest is the Withywindle valley, and that the valley is where all of the queerness comes from. What makes that part of the forest the queerest? Bombadil? He's weird yeah, but you wouldn't think that he could eminate that kind of aura. Any ideas?

It's because that's where Old Man Willow, the source of evil power in the Old Forest, has his roots.

My Complete Tolkien Companion (not definitive admittedly, but generally pretty reliable) states:

The Old Willow's influence over the trees of the forest ensured that all who wandered in it came to him.

It does make me wonder, though, how Farnmr Maggot was able to visit Tom Bombadil. Perhaps he was protected in some way by Tom.

While you can't use this to explain, it's just like treebeard said in his chapter: there are deep dark dells in which the sun never rises and trees are rotten to the core. The old forest would be an example of a large region like that.

Iarwain

Why thank you my friends, now I can share the information wealth with the other 3 people in my class who have finished the books (multiple times) and were also curious.

Coincidentally, has Old Man Willow always been evil? Or did that sort of happen to him somehow? Because if he was once good, then the Old Forest would have been surrounded in a good aura, correct?

Fea

OOhhhh there are lots of lovely Bombadil&Old forest topics around at the moment aren't there? Well its understandable, he has yellow boots for one thing.

Anyway, as far as I know (but dont quote me on this), Old man Willow is as much of an Enigma as Tom, although it is often argued that he could be a Huorn, as he posesses a lot of their characteristics, perhaps one that travelled with the Entwives when they left if they did head for the Shire as is hinted.

But as for the original Withywindle quesiton, I would just add that Goldberry, Tom's wife, is the river-daughter, and the river is presumably the Withywindle, as it is the main (only?) river in the forest, and it is where Old Tom meets her in "The adventures of Tom Bombadil".

Old Man Willow could also be bitter towards all intruders in the forest because his "dominion" over those lands was taken away. Especially when the Brandybucks burned a path into the forest and a clearing, many trees (under Old Man Willow) probably hated them.

I'm just conjecturing, but wouldn't it be possible that Old Man Willow is one the trees that act more like Ents that Treebeard mentioned. And if that's so, it could make sense for him to be bitter. As he awakened, he had no guidance from Ents, and in his intellectual solitude amongst a bunch of trees, he would naturally become bitter over that ages.

And about Farmer Maggot visiting Tom Bombadil, he probably went the long way around the Old Forest, cutting through the Barrow Downs instead to reach Tom.

-these are the Huorns - see my post above.