Trees in Middle-earth

Trees play multiple roles in <a href="/facts/J._R._R._Tolkien/41HPhk5C">J. R. R. Tolkien</a>'s fantasy world of <a href="/facts/Middle-earth/HCQrvKQe">Middle-earth</a>, some such as <a href="/facts/Old_Man_Willow/VXFUSeBK">Old Man Willow</a> indeed serving as characters in the plot. Both for Tolkien personally, and in his Middle-earth writings, caring about trees really mattered. Indeed, the Tolkien scholar <a href="/facts/Matthew_Dickerson/5yzorfbQ">Matthew Dickerson</a> wrote "It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of trees in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien."
Tolkien stated that primaeval human understanding was communion with other living things, including trees. <a href="/facts/Treebeard/PEYUH17S">Treebeard</a>, a tree-giant or <a href="/facts/Ent/6shkaQCt">Ent</a>, herds trees including the Huorns which are halfway between Ents and trees, either becoming animated or reverting to becoming treelike.
Some specific kinds of tree are important in Tolkien's stories, such as the tall <a href="/facts/Mallorn/TWFmPXWI">Mallorn</a> trees at the heart of <a href="/facts/Lothl%25C3%25B3rien/zPsBkB8z">Lothlórien</a>. In <a href="/facts/Tom_Bombadil/gWzTsN7w">Tom Bombadil</a>'s Old Forest, <a href="/facts/Old_Man_Willow/VXFUSeBK">Old Man Willow</a> is a malign and fallen tree-spirit of great age, controlling much of the forest. Early in the creation, the <a href="/facts/Two_Trees_of_Valinor/rBghD5Gp">Two Trees of Valinor</a>, one silver, one gold, gave light to the <a href="/facts/Paradise/NB9KrK61">paradisiacal</a> realm of <a href="/facts/Valinor/S1D14dCm">Valinor</a>.
Commentators have written that trees gave Tolkien a way of expressing his eco-criticism, opposed to damaging industrialisation.

Trees in Middle-earth open-in-new

Trees in Middle-earth