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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Reading Room:
Trees in the Shire:
Edit Log
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Curious
Half-elven
May 2, 2:04pm
Views: 189894
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Quotes from The Fellowship of the Ring:
"A Long-Expected Party
"...There was a specially large pavilion, so big that the tree that grew in the field was right inside it, and stood proudly near one end, at the head of the chief table. Lanterns were hung on all its branches. ...
"The Shadow of the Past
"...'All right,' said Sam, laughing with the rest. 'But what about these tree-men, these giants, as you might call them? They do say that one bigger than a tree was seen up away beyond the North Moors not long back.'
“'Who’s they?'
“'My cousin Hal for one. He works for Mr. Boffin at Overhill and goes up to the North farthing for the hunting. He saw one.'
"'Says he did, maybe. Your Hal’s always saying that he’s seen things; and maybe he sees things that ain’t there.'
“'But this one was as big as an elm tree, and walking — walking seven yards to a stride, if it was an inch.'
“'Then I bet it wasn’t an inch. What he saw was an elm tree, as like as not.'
“'But this one was walking, I tell you; and there ain’t no elm trees on the North Moors.'
“'Then Hall can’t have seen one,” said Ted. There was some laughing and clapping: the audience seemed to think that Ted had scored a point.' ...
"Three Is Company
"After some time they crossed the Water, west of Hobbiton, by a narrow plank-bridge. The stream was there no more than a winding black ribbon, bordered with leaning alder-trees. …
"Thin-clad birches, swaying in a light wind above their heads, made a black net against the pale sky. ...
"After a while they plunged into a deeply cloven track between tall trees that rustled their dry leaves in the night. …
"Just over the top of the hill the came on the patch of fir-wood. Leaving the road they went into the deep resin-scented darkness of the trees, and gathered dead sticks and cones to make a fire. Soon they had a merry crackle of flame at the foot of a large fir-tree and they sat round it for a while, until they began to nod. Then, each in an angle of the great tree’s roots, they curled up in their cloaks and blankets, and were soon fast asleep. …
"Frodo woke up first, and found that a tree-root had made a hole in his back, and that his neck was stiff. …
"Away eastward the sun was rising red out of the mists that lay thick on the world. Touched with gold and red the autumn trees seemed to be sailing rootless in a shadowy sea. …
"In front of them they saw the lower lands dotted with small clumps of threes that melted away in the distance to a brown woodland haze. …
"Frodo hesitated for a second: curiosity or some other feeling was struggling with his desire to hide. The sound of hoofs drew eager. Just in time he threw himself down in a patch of long grass behind a tree that overshadowed the road. Then he lifted his head and peered cautiously above one of the great roots. …
"… a lane branched right, winding through a wood of ancient oak-trees on its way to Woodall. 'That is the way for us,' said Frodo.
"Not far from the road-meeting they came on the huge hulk of a tree; it was alive and had leaves on the small branches that it had put out round the broken stumps of its long fallen limbs; but it was hollow, and could be entered by a great crack on the side away from the road. The hobbits crept inside, and sat there upon a floor of old leaves and decayed wood. They rested and had a light meal, talking quietly and listening from time to time.
"Twilight was about them as they crept back to the lane. The West wind was sighing in the branches. Leaves were whispering. …
"There was a sound of hoofs in the lane, some way behind, but coming slow and clear down the wind. Quickly and quietly they slipped off the path and rand into the deeper shade under the oak-trees. …
“'Yes, it is Elves,' said Frodo. 'One can meet them sometimes in the Woody End. They don’t live in the Shire, but they wander into it in Spring and Autumn'...
"The woods on either side became denser; the trees were now younger and thicker; and as the lane went lower, running down into a fold of the hills, there were many deep brakes of hazel on the rising slopes at either hand. At last the Elves turned aside from the path. A green ride lay almost unseen through the thickets on the right; and this they followed as it wound away back up the wooded slopes on the top of a shoulder of the hills that stood out into the lower land of the river-valley. Suddenly they came out of the shadow of the trees and before them lay a wide space of grass, grey under the night. On three sides the woods pressed upon it; but eastward the ground fell steeply and the tops of the dark trees, growing at the bottom of the slope, were below their feet. Beyond, the low lands lay dim and flat under the stars. Nearer at hand a few lights twinkled in the village of Woodhall. …
"At the south end of the greensward there was an opening. There the green floor ran on into the wood, and formed a wide space like a hall, roofed by the boughs of trees. Their great trunks rand like pillars down each side....
"A Short Cut to Mushrooms
"In the morning Frodo woke refreshed. He was lying in a bower made by a living tree with branches laced and drooping to the ground; his bed was of fern and grass, deep and soft and strangely fragrant. …
"The hobbits scrambled down a steep green bank and plunged into the thick trees below. …
"He soon found that the thicket was closer and more tangled than it had appeared. There were no paths in the undergrowth, and they did not get on very fast. When they had struggled to the bottom of the bank, they found a stream running down from the hills behind. Most inconveniently it cut across the line they had chosen. They could not jump over it, nor indeed get across it at all without getting wet, scratched, and muddy. They halted, wondering what to do. 'First check! Said Pippen, smiling grimly.'…
"They all looked, and on the edge high above them they saw against the sky a horse standing. Beside it stooped a black figure.
"They at once gave up any idea of going back. …
"Going on was not altogether easy. They had packs to carry, and the bushed and brambles were reluctant to let them through. …
"They waded the stream, and hurried over a wide open space, rush grown and treeless, on the further side. Beyond that there came again to a belt of trees: tall oaks, for the most part, with here and there an elm tree or an ash. The ground was fairly level, and there was little undergrowth, but the trees were too close for them to see far ahead. …
"After a half an hour Pippin said: 'I hope we have not turned too much towards the south, and are not walking longwise through this wood! It is not a very broad belt — I should have said no more than a mile at the widest — and we aught to have been through it by now.'
"It is no good our starting to go in zig-zags,” said Frodo. 'That won’t mention matters. Let us keep on as we are going! I am not sure that I want to come out into the open yet.'
"Before long the wood came to a sudden end. Wide grass-lands stretched before them. They now saw that they had, in fact, turned too much to the south. Away over the flats they could glimpse the low hill of Bucklebury across the River, but it was now to their left. Creeping cautiously out from the edge of the trees, they set off across the open as quickly as they could. …
“'This is Bamfurlong, old Farmer Maggot’s land.'..."
Quotes from The Return of the King
"The Grey Havens
"The trees were the worst loss and damage, for at Sharkey’s bidding they had been cut down recklessly far and wide over the Shire; and Sam grieved over this more than anything else. …
"So Sam planted saplings in all the places where specially beautiful or beloved trees had been destroyed, and he put a grain of the precious dust in the soil at the root of each. He went up and down the Shire in this labor; but if he paid special attention to Hobbiton and Bywater no one blamed him. … The little silver nut he planted in the Party Field where the tree had once been: and he wondered what would come of it. …
"Spring surpassed his wildest hopes. His trees began to sprout and grow, as if time was in a hurry and wished to make one year do for twenty. In the Party Field a beautiful young sapling leaped up: it had silver bark and long leaves and burst into golden flowers in April. It was indeed a mallorn, and it was the wonder of the neighborhood."
Questions:
1. Do you have any general comments or reactions after reading all those quotes about trees in the Shire?
2. Knowing that ents and huorns and other trees that seem mobile exist in Middle Earth -- with some as close as the Old Forest -- do you think the trees in the Shire have any awareness? Do you think Sam's cousin Hal might have seen an ent?
3. Let's assume for the sake of argument that the trees in the Shire are at least as aware and mobile as the trees in the Old Forest. Does that change your reading of those quotes? What actions do the trees in the Shire take, and with what purpose, if they are awake?
4. Did the tree root that made a hole in Frodo's back wake him up on purpose after cradling the hobbits during their sleep? Was it aware of a danger that Frodo didn't know about?
5. Did the trees deliberately hide the hobbits from the Nazgul?
6. It's convenient that the hobbits find a hollow -- but still living -- tree they can hide inside while eating lunch. Is it possible that the trees arranged for that?
7. Is there any significance to the "trees whispering"? Are they talking to each other? Are they trying to talk to the hobbits? Or is it just the wind in the leaves and nothing more?
8. Above the village of Woodhall is a literal wood hall made of living trees where the Elves rest and eat. Do you think any hobbits know about the Elves' wood hall? If not, why not? Does that hall even exist when the Elves are not present? Or is there some kind of magical protection from discovery? Is it possible that the village of Woodhall is named after the Elves' wood hall by some hobbit long ago who met with the Elves?
9. Was Frodo's bower made by a living tree with a bed of fern and grass made by the Elves, by the tree, or both? Do the Elves talk to the trees? Can they make requests? Or are they more like human gardeners who have guided the design of the trees over the years so they have an outdoor camp in the Shire with a hall and comfortable beds? Do you have any other potential explanation? Are the Elves just good Boy Scouts?
10. The trees seem accommodating as long as the hobbits stick close to roads and paths or are guided by the Elves. But when Frodo decides to take a short-cut across country, suddenly sticking to a direction becomes difficult, and indeed the hobbits end up walking several miles south instead of east.
Are the trees guiding them south, the way the trees in the Old Forest guide the hobbits to Old Man Willow? If so, why? Do the trees know Farmer Maggot? Did they guide the hobbits to him? Is it good or bad that the hobbits end up walking a different direction that takes them far from their intended path? What are the pros and cons of taking a longer route than intended?
Or is the hobbits' detour just the result of trying to walk straight through rough country where no path exists?
11. Tolkien names elms, alders, birches, firs, oaks, hazels, ash, and mallorn. Can you pictures those trees? Why is Tolkien so specific?
12. Why did Saruman / Sharkey order the trees in the Shire destroyed? There's no indication that he used all the wood. Was it just spite? Or did he consider these trees his enemies and a threat to his dominion over the Shire?
13. Why didn't the hobbits, over hundreds of years, cut down more trees? Why did they leave a large chunk of the Shire as a wild forest? They didn't have such a great relationship with the Old Forest. Why did they have a different relationship with Woody End?
14. Did the hobbits ever cut down living trees for wood? During Saruman / Sharkey's brief reign, many Hobbit-holes were destroyed and replaced with wooden shacks. Did wooden shacks exist before Saruman came to the Shire?
Was it possible that the hobbits just harvested dead trees for their limited needs? Might they have some kind of unspoken truce or even alliance with the trees in the Shire that they don't have with the hostile Old Forest? Or are the trees just trees and not at all "awake" like the trees in the Old Forest?
15. Tolkien explicitly shows us mobile and awake trees in the Old Forest and Fangorn Forest. But he never shows us mobile and awake trees in the Shire, at least not without ambiguity. Why not? Is it because the Shire doesn't have such trees? Is it because the Shire is more like the real world -- in the late 19th century -- than the rest of Middle Earth? Is it because Tolkien wanted to suggest that trees are awake in the real world?
16. In many ways Tolkien was considered a reactionary, but his love of trees and natural environments and dislike for industry and wanton destruction of nature gave him a connection with the radical youth and environmentalists of the 1960s and 1970s. But is Tolkien's love of trees typical of any British people before the 20th century? Or is it an example of early 20th century disillusionment with industry and nostalgia for forests that were eagerly destroyed for fuel, ships, and other uses in earlier eras?
After all, the United Kingdom is one of the least wooded countries in Europe, and the country only started to expand forests in the 20th century. Someone must have cut down all those trees.
In short, is Tolkien's love of trees and natural environments really reactionary at all? Or is he, perhaps unwittingly, just as radical about trees and nature as the youth of the 1960s who embraced his books?
Thanks, and sorry I was late!
(This post was edited by Curious on May 2, 2:06pm)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by Curious
(Half-elven) on May 2, 2:05pm
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Post edited by Curious
(Half-elven) on May 2, 2:06pm
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