[The Saucepan Man]

We are now entering strange territory - the Old Forest & Old Tom. (davem)

Indeed. And the sense of leaving familiar territory is, I think, wonderfully evoked by the following passages:

Everything was still, and far-away noises seemed near and clear: fowls chattering in a yard, someone closing a door of a distant house.

They mounted, and soon they were riding off into the mist, which seemed to open reluctantly before them and close forbiddingly behind them.

In the space of two paragraphs Tolkien reminds us, with the familiar sounds that they hear, that the Hobbits are leaving comfortable surroundings and highlights for us that they are now moving into dangerous and forbidding territory. The sense of danger is subtle at first, conveyed only by the description of their movement through the ominous mist. But, as Aiwendil has explained so well, the sense of tension continues throughout the chapter, building gradually and culminating with the Hobbits' encounter with Old Man Willow.

I found this line quite curious:

"I don't know what stories you mean," Merry answered. "If you mean the old bogey-stories Fatty's nurses used to tell him, about goblins and wolves and things of that sort, I should say no ..."

Curious because the Hobbits are living in a world where goblins and wolves (of a most terrifying variety) do exist, and not too far from the Shire's borders. It is reminiscent of Sam's conversation with Ted Sandyman in The Green Dragon, when Sandyman derides Sam for his talk of Dragons and Tree-Men, dismissing them as fireside-tales and children's stories. The effect, I think, is to emphasise once again that, in this magical and dangerous world, the Shire is a place with which we can identify, since goblins and wolves do feature in our children's bogey-stories.

I have to put my hand up here and admit that I am not a great fan of Tom Bombadil ( ). I am one of those who finds his manner and ambiguity rather at odds with the remainder of the story, although I have come to appreciate him more over the years. I am, however, partial to the encounters with Old Man Willow and (later on) the Barrow-Wight. So it rather annoys me that the Hobbits have to be rescued by Old Tom in each of these encounters. In a sense, I would prefer that they were able to overcome these menaces themselves. I do, however, see the sense in what Boromir88 says:

The troubles towards the end are Shelob, Orcs at Cirith Ungol, Gollum, destroying the ring, all are probably "bigger" problems then the ones from the beginning, and also theres no one there to help them out they have to overcome it themself. Showing The growth of the Hobbits.

They are not yet ready to deal with these dangers on their own, so they need someone (something? ) like Tom to help them out. If they did not, then they would not need to make their respective journeys. Although I am glad that, on each occasion, at least one Hobbit displays the ability to effect at least a partial rescue (Sam with Old Man Willow and Frodo with the Barrow-Wight).

A word about the Old Forest and, in particuar, Old Man Willow. Davem said:

Yet, what struck me more forcefully re-reading this chapter, was the way its not simply OMW, or even the trees themselves, which are the threat - the whole forest, even the earth itself, seems to actively conspire.

While Fimbrethil commented:

What I'm not really sure of is the evil intent of the Old Forest - apart from Old Man Willow we never actually see the trees moving or actively doing something: I wonder whether this is just the product of the hobbits' imagination, aided by Merry's quite scary tale and combined with the strange environment they find themselves into.

I think that there is sufficient evidence in this chapter that the forest itself is actively hostile towards them. Merry notes that the path to the Bonfire Glade has moved and concludes that the "trees do shift". A branch falls from an overhanging tree as if to express its distaste at Frodo's song. And, perhaps most convincingly, the Hobbits are maneuvred against their will towards the Withywindle valley by the trees, undergrowth and terrain. Each of these events by itself might be dismissed as mere coincidence or the Hobbits' overactive imagination. But their combined effect seems to me to make it clear that there is something more at work here.

And while I agree with davem that the whole Forest is actively conspiring against them, I would not agree that Old Man Willow is only one aspect of this. He seems to me to be the most important aspect, indeed the driving force behind it. Merry comments that:

The Withywindle valley is said to be the queerest part of the whole wood - the centre from which all queerness comes, as it were.

Later, when Sam and Frodo try to kindle a fire against Old Man Willow in an effort to free Merry and Pippin, his anger spreads to the surrounding trees and runs out in ripples over the whole forest. And it is, of course, the Withywindle valley, and Old Man Willow himself, that the forest leads the Hobbits to. Old Man Willow, therefore, seems to be the source of the forest's spite and its controlling force.

Davem also said:

We have to face the fact that the trees the hobbits cut down & burned also ‘had voices of their own that are lost forever now’ & that OMW’s anger & desire for revenge is no less understandable than Treebeard’s.

The Hobbits' burning of the Old Forest was, however, a response to a seeming assault by the trees on the Hedge. Now, maybe the forest felt threatened by the Hobbits' encroachment (with the establishment of Buckland), but it nevertheless made the first move. So I think that there is a diference here between Old Man Willow and Treebeard. The latter acts only in self(Fangorn)-defence, while the former seems to have a more active and unprovoked hatred of those that go on two feet. I think his actions, in contrast to those of Treebeard, can be described as evil. Doesn't Treebeard himself later say that there are trees who have turned rotten at the core?

Which brings me, finally, to Tolkien's seemingly ambivalent attitude toward trees in this chapter. We know that he himself greatly prized trees and, throughout the rest of the book, they are portrayed sympathetically. We have the instances in the opening chapters where hollow trees provide the Hobbits with refuge during their trek through the Shire (in stark contrast to the "refuge" that Old Man Willow provides within his trunk). And later we have the Elves' symbiotic relationship with the trees of Lothlorien and, of course, good old Treebeard and his pivotal intervention in the War of the Ring. So why does Tolkien portray trees as such enemies here? I am not so sure that it is, as davem suggests, an aspect of the "conceit" of the tale having been set down by the Hobbits. We have to take the events at face vaue and this, I think, includes Old Man Willow's unprovoked attack on them. I tend to agree, rather, with Aiwendil:

I've always thought that the Old Forest shows, contrary to what one might get from the rest of the book, that nature is not all "good". Nature is a force of its own and not necessarily allied with the good incarnates.

Nevertheless, I still find Tolkien's portrayal of Old Man Willow, and the forest itself, as evil (or, at the very least, incredibly hostile) curious in light of his love for trees.

Yet again, a much longer post than I intended. Sorry.