LotR -- Book 3 - Chapter 04 - Treebeard

[Aldarion Elf-Friend]

I noticed last night that there's something strange about the forests of Middle Earth. There are three forests mentioned by name between The Hobbit and LotR, and all three are forboding and dangerous. One, the Great Forest outside the Shire even possesses a sort of living malenvolence - a shared vegitation memory, if you will, of past injustices. It is described as forcing the Hobbits down the valley towards Old Man Willow.

In The Hobbit, Mirkwood is similarly dangerous, if not with the intellegence of The Old Forest. The Dwarves are warned not to stray from the path for any reason, and to take enough food and water for the entire trip. Now, the elves of Mirkwood may have a different experience, but from the outside it is certainly a dangerous place. On the trip back, even Beorn and Gandalf take the northern route around the forest, rather than through it. Bilbo's description, passed down to Merry and Pippen was as a place all "dark and black, and the home of dark black things."

Lastly, Fangorn is described as "dim and frightfully treeish. You can't imagine animals living here at all, or staying for long." It is a definitely unsettling place. I liked Saucy's description of children playing in a room in the house they knew they were not permitted in. But even Treebeard admits there are places in Fangorn where the darkness has never completely lifted. Has anyone else wondered at Treebeard being call the oldest living thing, but then he himself describes tress in these dark hollows as even older than he is? Or maybe I'm misremembering Gandalf's description of him.

Now, in the Silmarillion, there are different experiences with named forests. Doriath is a great example. At the same time, the Silm is written essentially from an elvish perspective, so the view of the forests would be accordingly more benevolent.

Some food for thought.