Enchanted forest

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Adrian Ludwig Richter – a refuge and a magical deer

In

enchantments. Such forests are described in the oldest folklore from regions where forests are common, and occur throughout the centuries to modern works of fantasy. They represent places unknown to the characters, and situations of liminality and transformation. The forest can feature as a place of threatening danger, or one of refuge, or a chance at adventure
.

Folktales

The forest as a place of magic and danger is found among folklore wherever the natural state of wild land is forest: a forest is a location beyond which people normally travel, where strange things might occur, and strange people might live, the home of

Schippeitaro live in the forest.[10]

Indeed, in

Grimm's Fairy Tales, the hero always goes into the forest. It is not itself enchanted, but it contains enchantments and, being outside normal human experience, acts as a place of transformation.[11] The German fairy tale has an unusual tendency to take place in the forest; even such neighboring countries as France or Italy are less like to have fairy tales situated in the forest.[12]

Even in folklore, forests can also be places of magical refuge.

dwarfs from her stepmother,[14] The Girl Without Hands found a hut to stay in when she had been slandered to her husband,[15] and Genevieve of Brabant found not only a refuge from slander but a doe magically came to her aid.[16] Even Brother and Sister
hid in the forest after their stepmother turned the brother into a deer.

At other times, the marvels they meet are beneficial. In the forest, the hero of a fairy tale can meet and have mercy on

Schippeitaro, the cats reveal their fear of the dog Schippeitaro when the hero of the tale spends the night in the forest.[10]

The creatures of the forest need not be magical to have much the same effect; Robin Hood and the Green Man, living in the greenwood, has affinities to the enchanted forest.[21] Even in fairy tales, robbers may serve the roles of magical beings; in an Italian variant of Snow White, Bella Venezia, the heroine takes refuge not with dwarfs but with robbers.[22]

Mythology

The danger of the folkloric forest is an opportunity for the heroes of legend. Among the oldest of all recorded tales, the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh recounts how the heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu traveled to the Cedar Forest to fight the monsters there and be the first to cut down its trees. In Norse myth and legend, Myrkviðr (or Mirkwood) was dark and dangerous forest that separated various lands; heroes and even gods had to traverse it with difficulty.[23]

Romans referred to the Hercynian Forest, in Germania, as an enchanted place; though most references in their works are to geography, Julius Caesar mentioned unicorns said to live there, and Pliny the Elder, birds with feathers that glowed.

Medieval romance

Gustave Doré’s illustration to Orlando Furioso: a knight and his men see a knight and lady approach in the forest
Giacinto Gimignani, Rinaldo and Armida meet in the enchanted forest in Jerusalem Delivered

The figure of an enchanted forest was taken up into

Swan Children, a lord finds a mysterious woman – clearly a swan maiden or fairy – in an enchanted forest and marries her.[28] Genevieve of Brabant, having rebuffed a would-be lover and found herself accused of adultery by him, escaped to the forest.[29]

This forest could easily bewilder the knights. Despite many references to its pathlessness, the forest repeatedly confronts knights with forks and crossroads, of a labyrinthine complexity.[30] The significance of their encounters is often explained to the knights – particularly those searching for the Holy Grail – by hermits acting as wise old men – or women.[31] Still, despite their perils and chances of error, such forests are places where the knights may become worthy and find the object of their quest; one romance has a maiden urging Sir Lancelot on his quest for the Holy Grail, "which quickens with life and greenness like the forest."[32] Dante Alighieri used this image in the opening of the Divine Comedy story Inferno, where he depicted his state as allegorically being lost in a dark wood.[33]

Renaissance works

Rinaldo's Conquest of the Enchanted Forest, Francesco Maffei, a scene from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso (1581)

In the Renaissance, both

epic poem, until they are broken by Rinaldo
.

While these works were being written, expanding geographical knowledge, and the decrease of

Titania, the fairy king and queen; like many forests in Shakespeare's works, it becomes a place of metamorphosis and resolution.[34] Others of his plays, such as As You Like It, take place in a forest, which contains no enchantments but acts much as the forest of folklore.[21]

Known inhabitants and traits

Often forests will be the home of dragons, dwarves, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, satyrs, goblins, orcs, trolls, dark elves, leprechauns, halflings, centaurs, half-elves, and unicorns.

There may be trees that talk or with branches that will push people off their horses, thorny bushes which will open to let people in but close and leave people stuck inside, and other plants that move or turn into animals at night, or the like.

Some stories have powerful sorcerers and witches, both good or evil living somewhere in the depths of the forest.

Modern fantasy

The use of enchanted forests shaded into modern fantasy with no distinct breaking point, stemming from the very earliest fantasies.[35]

See also

References

  1. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, The Annotated Hansel and Gretel Archived 2009-01-16 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner,The Annotated Vasilissa the Beautiful
  3. ^ Joseph Jacobs, "Molly Whuppie Archived 2013-07-18 at the Wayback Machine", English Fairy Tales
  4. ^ W. F. Kirby, "The Grateful Prince", The Hero of Esthonia
  5. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, "The Three Little Men in the Wood Archived 2014-03-24 at the Wayback Machine
    " Household Tales
  6. The Yellow Fairy Book
  7. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, The Annotated Brother and Sister Archived 2010-04-01 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ a b Andrew Lang, The Violet Fairy Book, "Schippeitaro"
  9. ^ Paul Delarue, The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales, p xvii, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York 1956
  10. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, The Annotated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
  11. ^ Heid Anne Heiner, The Annotated Girl Without Hands Archived 2013-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Max Lüthi, Once Upon A Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales, p 76, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York, 1970
  13. ^ "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men"
  14. ^ Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, "Rumpelstiltskin", Grimm's Fairy Tales
  15. ^ John Rhys, "Whuppity Stoorie", Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1901. Volume 2.
  16. ^ .
  17. ^ Margaret Schlauch, Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens, New York: Gordian Press 1969 p 91-2
  18. ^ Laura A. Hibbard, Medieval Romance in England pp. 240-1 New York: Burt Franklin, 1963.
  19. ^ Margaret Schlauch, Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens, New York: Gordian Press 1969 p 107
  20. ^
  21. ^ Cox, William T. (1910). Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. Judd & Detweiler Inc.
  22. ^ Suzanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, London; Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004.

Further reading

  • Hackett, Jon, and Seán Harrington, eds. Beasts of the Forest: Denizens of the Dark Woods. Bloomington, IN, USA: Indiana University Press, 2019. doi:10.2307/j.ctvs32scr.
  • Łaszkiewicz, Weronika. "Into the Wild Woods: On the Significance of Trees and Forests in Fantasy Fiction." Mythlore 36, no. 1 (131) (2017): 39–58. doi:10.2307/26809256.
  • Maitland, Sara. "From the Forest." New England Review 33, no. 3 (2012): 7-17. www.jstor.org/stable/24242777.
  • Post, Marco R.S. "Perilous Wanderings through the Enchanted Forest: The Influence of the Fairy-Tale Tradition on Mirkwood in Tolkien's "The Hobbit"." Mythlore 33, no. 1 (125) (2014): 67–84. doi:10.2307/26815941.