Tolkien and Trees

Many people dismiss J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings as merely a tale of war and bloodshed.  They suggest that its primary appeal is to adolescent boys feeding into their sense of aggrandized self.

It is quite interesting, though, that the vast majority of the art that Tolkien drew for publication in his book were scenes of nature, not of warfare.  If you take the time to read Tolkien's magnum opus, it becomes quickly cleaar that more passages describe the natural world than are devoted to battle.

Tolkien had a great love of nature and an equally strong distrust of machines.  He was shaped as a boy when his favorite tree was cut down and then left to lay where it fell.  He could not imagine anyone heartless enough to cut down a tree for no good reason.

When Tolkien invented the Ent (from the same root as our word giant), a large walking tree that herded the forest, he gave voice to the trees.  One rescues Merry and Pippen, hears their tale, and then goes to the Entmoot (imagine a church business meeting but with recalcitrant tree giants) to rouse them finally to act.  That they played a major role in the defeat of Saruman, a wizard of machines and craft, should come as no surprise.  In a way it is as if he imagined that tree from his childhood finally being avenged for the wrong that was done to it.

Tolkien saw the rural England he loved being scarred by people in the name of progress.  His response--to imagine the trees fighting back.  His book is on some level a cautionary tale for those who would take the world's resources and use them in the pursuit of riches and power.

One of the last and most famous pictures of Tolkien was taken in the Oxford Botanical Garden.  He sits in quiet reflection on the ground.  One knee is up the other stretched out.  He is quite the Oxford professor in his tweed jacket, felt vest and tie.  His bushy eyebrows seem to half cover his eyes as he gazes wistfully into the distance.  His back is leaning against a tree.  A very particular tree. The one in the picture above. His favorite tree.  A Pinus nigra for the botanically inclined.

If you look at it closely, you can see its arms lifted in hope and almost see its Entish face.