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In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Fangorn forest is the domain of the immensely tall and giantlike, treeish Ents. It is named after the oldest Ent, Fangorn (Treebeard), or perhaps he is named for it. Along with the other great forests[1] of Tolkien's legendarium such as Mirkwood, Doriath and Lothlórien it serves as an important stage in the theatre of its time, the Third Age.
Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took enter the forest in the second volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. There, they meet Treebeard and persuade him of the danger that Saruman poses to the Ents and their forest. Following an Entmoot, the rest of the Ents agree to march against Isengard, taking Merry and Pippin with them, and send Huorns to Helm's Deep to deal with the Orcs there. Part of the Ents' anger was caused by Saruman's orcs chopping down the trees at the south and west side of the forest. It is especially notable in that Fangorn Forest is personified by Treebeard whose deliberate and slow moving character anthropomorphosises Tolkien's deep invented history and places its vast time in a contrapuntal humor with the 'hasty' immediacy of the hobbits' drama in the War of the Ring.[2]
Also in The Two Towers, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas enter the forest to search for Merry and Pippin. They encounter an old man dressed in white. At first, they believe it to be Saruman before realizing that it is Gandalf, who they thought had been killed at Khazad-dûm.
Fangorn forest is actually just the easternmost remnant of the immense forest that spanned all of Eriador and Calenardhon in the First Age and early Second Age. Treebeard expresses a deep sadness at the loss of the forest primeval to the orcs and the age of men and their machines.[3]The rest of the forest was destroyed by the Númenóreans and Sauron. It was the oldest part of Treebeard's realm, and the Ents' last retreat.
[edit] References
- ^ New York Times Book Review, The Hobbit, by Anne T. Eaton, March 13, 1938, "After the dwarves and Bilbo have passed ...over the Misty Mountains and through forests that suggest those of William Morris's prose romances." (emphasis added)
- ^ Lobdell, Jared, A Tolkien Compass, ISBN-13-0875483160, p. 84, "only look at The Lord of the Rings for the briefest of times to catch a vision of ancient forests, of trees like men walking, of leaves and sunlight, and of deep shadows."
- ^ Matthew T. Dickerson, Jonathan Evans. Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J. R. R. Tolkien, University Press of Kentucky 2004
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