The Theme of Trees

[Nurvingiel]

I just returned from an Art Exhibit of the great Canadian painter Tom Thomson (who inspired the Group of Seven), and like many things in life, I took my new found knowledge and applied it to Lord of the Rings.

Throughout his career, Tom Thomson has the theme of trees in his beautiful oil paintings. The theme evolves and changes, but it is always constant. He also started the Lone Tree type of theme that has become a symbol of Canadian culture, for example, his paintings The West Wind, and my favourite, Jack Pine.

In LOTR, we can also find this changing theme to represent certain elements of the book. I said in another thread that you can find anyting in LOTR, and the tree theme is one of them.

For example, I noticed that forestry comes up a lot. Ents are the Shepherds of the Trees, in other words they are Stewards of the Forest - you could say they are Foresters. After the Scouring of the Shire, Sam is also a forester - planting trees for the sustainability of the Shire's forests.

Men, Elves, Hobbits, and Ents all have an important tree or trees in their cultures. Men have the White Tree of Gondor (a lone tree theme). Obviously Elves value trees highly since they live in the forests. Lothlorien has rare mallorn trees, and the Elves of Mirkwood stay there despite the fact that Sauron had a fortress in the southern part.

I feel like there's loads of other themes and symbolism but I just can't put my finger on them.

What are your views?

[Lizra]

On another forum, I said my favorite thing about Middle Earth was all "The Trees". I'm with you on this theme! You mentioned some that I did.

Trees, trees, everywhere.....trees of note! Ents and hourns, the "Party Tree" in the Shire, the Lothlorien trees and their flets, the White Tree of Gondor, Old Man Willow, hobbits hiding from wraiths under gnarley tree roots, the Mallorn reborn in the Shire, the two trees in The Silmarillion, the cutting of the trees as Saruman's downfall, climbing the trees to escape the wolves in The Hobbit. The main "Tree theme" I see is that there is always hope for life (and "good") to sprout anew. When great trees die, there is always the hope of a seed or shoot to bring forth life anew. There is always hope, do not despair.

[Nilore]

Trees are great.

[Artanis]

Nurvingiel and Lizra, i like what you're saying. Good observations.

[Dolenloteiel]

Those are very good observations, I agree. I believe that the trees are a part of a big symbolism in LOTR. The trees are the protectors. They house the elves of Lorien, who are the guardians of M-E. The orc pursuit into Lothlorien, and the snatching of the Fellowship into the trees show how important they are. (the trees not the fellowship ) The hobbits hiding under a tree root to escape the Nazgul, also protecting. The ents, the shepherds, a living example of protecting nature. Middle Earth, is in itself a character in LOTR. It helps those who need it, Tom Bombadil for example, and it ends up harming those who harm them.

[Huan]

The hobbits hiding under a tree root to escape the Nazgul, also protecting.

Ah! That is intriguing.

[Shadowfax]

Originally posted by Nurvingiel
Canadian painter Tom Thomson (who inspired the Group of Seven)

I believe Tom Thomson was part of the group of 7, not just an inspirer.

Oh, and yeah, trees are great, they're so beautiful, and especially in LotR as symbols of beauty, protection, and life!

[squinteyedsoutherner]

The group of seven:

Harris
MacDonald
Lismer
Varley
Johnston
Carmichael
Jackson

First exhibit 1920

Tom Thompson died in 1917, he was the most well known of the group of artits, but had died before they became Group of Seven"

[crickhollow]

Tolkien had a conversation with CS Lewis that centered around trees--"There it stands", he said (and I am paraphrasing here). "Its feet in the earth, its head in the stars, and what do we call it? A tree. The name falls infinitely short of what the thing actually is."

[The Lady of Ithilien]

Also it is said somewhere in The Silmarillion that the Vala, Yavanna, sometimes takes the shape of a huge tree lifting its branches up to heaven.

However, with all this perfectly true talk about the wonderful trees in this book (and one of my favorite parts is JRRT's description of the different tree personalities, especially in the section on Quickbeam and the rowan tree), I feel compelled to bring up their darker side: Old Man Willow, and those dangerous patches in Fangorn Forest that Treebeard warned Merry and Pippin about.

There again is that theme of good and evil...the trees are certainly an important part of the story.

Somewhere on the Net once I came across an image of JRRT with his favorite tree -- will try to find it again and post the link here.

[Nurvingiel]

That was a great quote, or paraphrase, crickhollow. It reminds me of when Treebeard is trying to describe the stone step on the hill, and Pippin suggests "hill". Treebeard says it's too hasty a name for something that's stood there for many ages, or something like that.

In terms of the group of seven, Tom Thomson would have been part of it had he not died tragically. Then it would have been the group of eight.

[Beleg Strongbow]

I think a major theme of LotR is that green, growing things (and people and things associated with them) are good. When trees are evil, they seem to have stopped growing or aren't as green...
Am I making any sense?

[Nurvingiel]

You're totally making sense Beleg Strongbow! I think in Mirkwood, around Dol Goldur the trees are black and evil-hearted. And then there's always those creepy, black squirrels. (I think there was already a thread about the Naz-squirrels.)

This is an obvious one, but anything evil is partly defined because they destroy green, good things. Orcs cut down trees needlessly on several occasions, and Sauron made the Brown Lands where there was a beautiful orchard.

[The Lady of Ithilien]

Here it is: an Austrian pine in the Oxford Botanic Garden (please excuse the Geocities ad link bar to the right). In a different link is said to have inspired Tolkien's Ents, though it reminds me more of Tree Yavanna.

[shirefarmer]

I think tolkien was really ahead of his time when he used trees and all things green for symbollism. He saw the direction we were or still are going dystroying the enviroment(his hatred for the GAS engine.)
Trees are so important to our survival, trust me trees and LOTRs are the reasons why im going to college.

[Elf Girl]

I think Tolkien made trees one of the main themes because he cares about them, also because the Elves general personality is geared towards liking trees, so they are important to the story.

[Nurvingiel]

I already said this, but Sam is a forester!

I'm in Forestry at University! shirefarmer, are you also in forestry? Conservation? What are you studying?

I love relating real life to books I love, and who says they aren't real life too!

I also think that the Ents and the Rangers can be considered Foresters, because they're stewards of the forest.

[azalea]

I was going to major in Pre-Forestry at one point in college, but it required a lot of chemistry, and I was no good in chemistry, so I went into teaching. Now I kind of wish I had gone for it, but I do love teaching. I just really liked the idea of working outdoors with trees and plants and animals. But I'm sure it's very hard work.

[shirefarmer]

actually im majoring in Horticulture but i do plan on takeing more classes in forestry
and my god tina turner is scary

[shirefarmer]

i mean after i gradueate from where i am right now :-)