Old Man Willow, and the trees of the Old Forest, remember the days when the trees were attacked. Remember how the Numemoreans felled vast stretches of forest, so that the Old Forest is only a remnant of what once was.
There is also bad sap between the Hobbits and the Old Forest, for Hobbits once tried to destroy the trees also.
FOTR, chapter 6, "The Old Forest", Merry speaks:
Quote:
But the Forest is queer. Everything in it is very much more alive, more aware of what is going on, so to speak, than things are in the Shire. And the trees do not like strangers. They watch you. Usually they are content merely to watch you , as long as daylight lasts, and don't do much. Occasionally the most unfriendly ones may drop a branch, or stick a root out, or grasp at you with a long trailer. But at night things can be most alarming, or so I'm told. I have only once or twice been in here after dark, and then only near the Hedge. I thought all the trees were whispering to each other, passing news and plots along in an unintelligible language; and the branches swayed and groped without any wind. They do say the trees actually move, and can surround strangers and hem them in. In fact, long ago they attack 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. There is still a wide bare space not far inside where the bonfire was made.
"Is it only the trees that are dangerous?" asked Pippin.
"There are various queer things living deep in the Forest, and on the far side," said Merry, "or at least so I've heard; but I have never seen any of them. But something makes paths...
[And a couple of pages later...]
"That," said Merry pointing with his hand, "that is the line of the Withywindle. It comes down out of the Downs and flows south-west through the midst of the Forest to join the Brandywine below Haysend. We don't want to go that way! The Withywindle valley is said to be the queerest part of the whole wood--the centre from which all the queerness comes, as it were.
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Bethberry