[davem]

Originally Posted by Bb

The Old Forest certainly bears a grudge against the Hobbits from the long ago destruction of trees in the Bonfire Glade and the construction of the Hedge between the Forest and the Brandybuck estate. Old Man Willow is definitely harmful and our young hobbits have fearful feelings about the place.

I wouldn't link it with Sauron or the Enemy but it is a perilous place, isn't it?

As the Professor himself put it:

Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold… The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things : all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. In that realm a man may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveller who would report them. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost.

Middle earth as a whole is a 'perilous' place - well, certainly the parts of it where 'magic' remains a force, but perhaps, as Tolkien said, this is simply its nature, rather than having any specific reason behind it. The trees of the Old Forest have some justification for the hatred they bear all those who go on two legs, but one suspects that it would be a place of peril anyway, simply because it is a part of Faerie & Faerie is a perilous land. Wny it is perilous to the traveller is another question - perhaps because we are not meant to go there? Perhaps because it isn't our home & if we do stray there, or even, like Smith, are invited to walk there, we have to walk with respect & remember we are guests & enter at our own risk.

Originally Posted by LmP

This reproduction issue fascinates me. Everything that is evil seems to spawn at an incredible pace .... as long as the will of a sufficiently puissant evil power stands behind it. Everything that we associate with "Faerie" - Elves, Ents, Dwarves, Tom & Goldberry - either have no offspring or have ceased to issue. Only Man continues. This "death of Faerie" was one of Tolkien's themes, was it not? So I suppose, then, the Galadriel-blessed year of 1420 was a last gasp of Faerie before it began to dissipate in the Fourth Age?

It is interesting - yet Tolkien stated:

Evil is fissiparous. But itself barren. Melkor could not 'beget', or have any spouse (though he attempted to ravish Arien, this was to destroy and 'distain' her, not to beget fiery offspring). (Morgoth's Ring - Myths Transformed)The same holds true for Sauron.

Evil replicates itself endlessly, but seems not to produce true life. I don't know if this contradicts my earlier point, but it seems clear that evil 'reproduces' almost by 'fragmenting' itself, so that what is produced are less & less powerful, more & more broken, 'clones'.

This 'fragmenting' perhaps reflects the same kind of fragmenting of Light & Language throughout the Legendarium which Flieger has shown runs down the ages of Middle earth (& for any other fans of Ms Flieger's work on Tolkien who haven't heard, she has a new book out next month:

Interrupted Music
Tolkien and the Making of a Mythology
Verlyn Flieger
An eagerly awaited exploration of Tolkien’s Silmarillion
The content of Tolkien’s mythology, the Silmarillion, has been the
subject of considerable exploration and analysis for many years, but
the logistics of its development have been mostly ignored and
deserve closer investigation.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars understood the term
mythology as a gathering of song and story that derived from and
described an identifiable world. Tolkien made a continuous effort
over several years to construct a comprehensive mythology, to
include not only the stories themselves but also the storytellers,
scribes, and bards who were the offspring of his thought.
In Interrupted Music Flieger attempts to illuminate the structure of
Tolkien’s work, allowing the reader to appreciate its broad, overarching
design and its careful, painstaking construction. She
endeavors to “follow the music from its beginning as an idea in
Tolkien’s mind through to his final but never-implemented mechanism
for realizing that idea, for bringing the voices of his story to
the reading public.” In addition, Flieger reviews attempts at mythmaking
in the history of English literature by Spenser, Milton, and
Blake as well as by Joyce and Yeats. She reflects on the important
differences between Tolkien and his predecessors and even more
between Tolkien and his contemporaries.
This in-depth study will fascinate those interested in Tolkien and
fantasy literature.