A summer with Tolkien: Chapter 6- The Old Forest

This is part 6 of my initiative to read one chapter from The Lord of the Rings everyday this summer. There are 62 chapters across the three books- will I make it? Only time will tell.

• The four hobbits depart from Buckland into the Old Forest through a private gate in the hedge.
• Almost immediately after entering the forest, they feel oppressed and stifled as if a presence were watching them with evil intent.
• After clearing the bonfire glade (which is a result of the strife between the hobbits of Buckland and the forest), the hobbits reach the top of a hill from where they try to ascertain the direction they need to go.
• However much they try, the hobbits are thwarted in their path by natural obstacles and are pushed deeper into the heart of the forest.
• They finally reach ‘Old Man Willow’ where they feel drowsy. Merry and Pippin rest against the bark of the willow tree and are sucked in. Frodo is pushed into the water- only Sam remains awake.
• Frodo calls for help. Tom Bombadil appears. The hobbits are rescued and make their way to Tom Bombadil’s house.

“They do say the trees do actually move, and can surround strangers and hem them in. In fact long ago they attacked the Hedge: they came and planted themselves right by it, and leaned over it. But the hobbits came and cut down hundreds of trees, and made a great bonfire in the Forest, and burned all the ground in a long strip east of the Hedge. After that the trees gave up the attack, but they became very unfriendly.”

I remembered reading long ago that Tolkien was very fond of trees. Trees and Forests play an important role in his works. The original source of light in Valinor (land of the Gods) in Tolkien’s myths were two trees.

“I am (obviously) much in love with plants and above all trees, and always have been; and I find human maltreatment of them as hard to bear as some find ill-treatment of animals.”

From the Letters of J R R Tolkien (#165)

If I remember my lore correctly, the Old Forest itself was once part of a much larger primordial forest that covered all land between the Old Forest, Fangorn and Mirkwood (which used to be Greenwood). This was probably in the First Age. By the time of the events in the Lord of the Rings (in the Third Age) the trees and forests had been chopped down by men, hobbits and evil beings such as orcs. I think there’s an explanation forthcoming in the next chapter about Old Man Willow so I won’t elaborate here. For a man who loved trees and woods as much as Tolkien, showing a forest corrupted must have been one of the strongest depictions of evil.

“but they all got an uncomfortable feeling that they were being watched with disapproval, deepening to dislike and even enemity.”

The Old Forest- actually Palani Hills, Tamil Nadu, India

Also, the Old Forest is the first place in LOTR where one of the characters actually comes close to physical harm. Until then, the hobbits only have a few close scrapes with the black riders. However, in the Forest, they are made to feel sleepy and then nearly absorbed by the tree.

“He lifted his heavy eyes and saw leaning over him a huge willow-tree, old and hoary. Enormous it looked, its sprawling branches going up like reaching arms with many long-fingered hands, its knotted and twisted trunk gaping in wide fissures that creaked faintly as the boughs moved.”

Thankfully, Tom Bombadil comes to the rescue- was it Frodo’s call that draws him? And who is Tom Bombadil?