Trees in Middle-earth

Trees play multiple roles in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, some such as Old Man Willow indeed serving as characters in the plot.

Indeed, the Tolkien scholar Matthew Dickerson wrote "It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of trees in the writings of J. R. R.

Commentators have written that trees gave Tolkien a way of expressing his eco-criticism, opposed to damaging industrialisation.

In Dinah Hazell's view, this at once serves a "narrative function, provides a sense of place, and enlivens characterization".

Tolkien Encyclopedia writes that the affinity of Kipling's Puck for these three trees "make him kin to Bombadil and Treebeard".

[T 8] This continued until they were destroyed by the evil giant spider Ungoliant and the first Dark Lord, Melkor, leaving only a flower and a fruit which became the Moon and the Sun for Middle-earth.

[T 9] The Tolkien scholar Matthew Dickerson writes that the Two Trees are "the most important mythic symbols in all of the legendarium".

It was destroyed by the King, Ar-Pharazôn, who had come under Sauron's influence; but the hero Isildur had saved one of its fruits, and when he arrived in Middle-earth from the wreck of Númenor, he planted its seeds; one of these grew into the White Tree of Gondor.

Within Middle-earth, Curry quotes the Ent or tree-giant Treebeard's account of the traitorous wizard Saruman's destruction in Fangorn Forest: "Curse him, root and branch!

His grey thirsty spirit drew power out of the earth and spread like fine root-threads in the ground, and invisible twig fingers in the air, till it had under its dominion nearly all the trees of the Forest from the Hedge to the Downs.

[T 12]Saguaro and Thacker comment that critics have puzzled over this depiction, as it does not fit with Tolkien's image as an environmentalist "tree-hugger".

The Ents are tree-herds; they are fully sentient but look much like trees: they have branch-like arms, root-like legs, faces, and the ability to move and speak.

[T 13][T 14][13] The trees in the Old Forest are not so clearly sentient, but they too convey emotion, even vindictiveness, seeking to impede the intruding Hobbits.

After the destruction of the One Ring, Aragorn gives wide lands for new forest; but, Kocher writes, Tolkien gives "ominous hints that the wild wood will not prosper in the expanding Age of Man" that will follow.