LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 06 – The Old Forest

[Lalwendë]

Saucepan Man raised the question of:

Tolkien's seemingly ambivalent attitude toward trees in this chapter

Perhaps the behaviour of the hobbits in this chapter - the story about clearing trees, Frodo and Sam lighting the fire - displays something of hobbit character. I see The Shire as an agrarian society, and while hobbits are most definitely nature-lovers, they are also farmers, and are quite prepared to 'tame' nature when necessary, as davem says. Evidence of this might include the presence of a mill on The Water, the High Hay at Buckland, enclosing the tree within the party tent at Bilbo's party and the tree clearance itself. Contrasting with this is how the elves of Lothlorien instead work with nature by building their homes in the trees, rather than of the trees. If this is intentional or not, who can say, but it does not, I think, conflict with Tolkien's own responses to the rural landscape he valued so highly, as this itself is a 'tamed' landscape.

Moving towards the idea of nature as a force unto itself, the contrast of the 'evil' Old Forest with the 'good' Fangorn (or is it?) is interesting, as the former is a woodland which has been under attack from the people who have moved to live on the borders, while Fangorn had apparently remained until then relatively undamaged. And Treebeard himself is moved by this destruction to act, so why should Old Man Willow not also act, after all he does not know the nature of the hobbits and their quest. This does show that there is indeed something deeper in Middle Earth than the events which happen upon it.

The inscrutable forces of nature and man's attempts to make sense of these are a feature of myth, legend and ancient history, and it's clear that Tolkien has incorporated this into his work. Far from being 'sidelines' to the story, I see the Old Forest chapters as essential in making the story deeper and richer. I argued with someone the other day about these chapters being extraneous. Part of my argument being that Lord of the Rings was not merely a project to be finished up efficiently, but a novel set in a place which needed bringing to life and making as vivid as possible. Yes, you could easily read LOTR without reading chapters 6 to 8, but you would also miss out on much of what makes the tale so unique. I've said to people that they could skip some of the poetry if they wish, but I hated having to say this as to me it misses the point to 'skip' things.