Firefoot wrote:
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Hi, Fimbrethil, welcome to our discussion and the Downs!
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Thanks ! It's a very interesting and mind-stimulating discussion
The Saucepan Man wrote:
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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.
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I guess that both our views can stand up on their own
, but given your further comments about how strange it is to see "evil" trees, considering Tolkien's attitude towards them, I think you might at least partially come my way: maybe the trees did not "shift" - paths are made by people and/or animals and can be overgrown by grass if not used, so other animals may create slightly different paths that take in the same direction; branches also fall on their own; terrains might be difficult and force you to take long detours ...
I'm thinking here of the often heard warning for heroes involved in a quest that <You will find nothing here that you don't bring yourself> (it echoes what my father used to say to me when I was a small child, afraid of the dark "there is nothing here that is not also here when it's light"): maybe the hobbits were simply adding their fears of the unknown into a difficult situation, making it worse.
(Old Man Willow, is, of course, another matter ....)