Plants in Middle-earth
The plants in Middle-earth, the fictional world devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, are a mixture of real plant species with fictional ones. Middle-earth was intended to represent the real world in an imagined past, and in many respects its natural history is realistic.
The botany and ecology of Middle-earth are described in sufficient detail for botanists to have identified its plant communities, ranging from Arctic tundra to hot deserts, with many named plant species, both wild and cultivated.
Scholars such as
Context
Tolkien and plants
J. R. R. Tolkien learnt about plants, their history and cultivation from his mother, from his reading, from visiting show gardens, by gardening, and by studying medieval herbals, which taught him about the lore and supposed magical properties of certain plants.[2] He stated that the book that most influenced him as a teenager was C. A. Johns's Flowers of the Field, a flora of the British Isles, which he called his "most treasured volume".[1]
He explained that he was intrigued by the diversity of plant forms, as he had a "special fascination ... in the variations and permutations of flowers that are the evident kin of those I know".[1][3] Among his artworks are a series of paintings of grasses and other plants, often with the names he gave them in Quenya, one of his invented Elvish languages.[4] These could be realistic or, as with his pencil and ink drawing of ranalinque or "moon-grass", stylized, in the manner of Art Nouveau.[1]
Europe and Middle-earth
Tolkien intended Middle-earth to represent the real world in an imagined past, thousands of years before the present time.[T 1] He made clear the correspondences in latitude between Europe and Middle-earth, establishing the presence of both British and Mediterranean zones:
The action of the story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. ... If
Literary functions
In his Middle-earth writings, Tolkien mentions real plant species, and introduces fictional ones, for a variety of reasons. Dinah Hazell describes the botany of Middle-earth as being "the best, most palpable example" of Tolkien's realistic
Realism
Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness.
Many great trees grew there, ... and groves and thickets there were of
Tolkien mentions many plants appropriate to the geographical and climatic zones through which his characters pass, especially in
The Shire is described as a fertile agricultural region, able to produce not only the food needed by its comfortable population, complete with Gaffer Gamgee's "taters" (
Towards the end of their quest, the
-
People inBarliman Butterbur is named for the butterbur, Petasites hybridus, a large stout herb of Northwestern Europe[T 4]
-
Asphodel, one of the Mediterranean herbs found in Ithilien
Narrative and plot
'These leaves', he said, 'I have walked far to find; for this plant does not grow in the bare hills; but in the thickets away south of the Road I found it in the dark by the scent of its leaves.' He crushed a leaf in his fingers, and it gave out a sweet and pungent fragrance. 'It is fortunate that I could find it, for it is a healing plant that the
Men of the West brought to Middle-earth. Athelas they named it, and it grows now sparsely and only near places where they dwelt or camped of old; ... It has great virtues, but over such a wound as this its healing powers may be small.'
He threw the leaves into boiling water and bathed Frodo's shoulder. The fragrance of the steam was refreshing, and those that were unhurt felt their minds calmed and cleared. The herb had also some power over the wound, for Frodo felt the pain and also the sense of frozen cold lessen in his side.[T 5]
Some plants fulfil a specific plot need, such as with athelas, a healing plant that turns out to be the cure for the Black Breath, the chill and paralysis that overcame people who fought against the
Sense of place
One reason was to enrich his descriptions of an area with beauty and emotion, such as with the small white Niphredil flowers and the gigantic Mallorn trees with green and silver leaves in the
Characterisation
Tolkien mentions plant products, too, when he wishes to characterise a people. In the Prologue to The Lord of the Rings, he explains that "pipe-weed", tobacco, is derived from "a strain of the herb Nicotiana", and that the Hobbits of the Shire love to smoke it, unlike the other peoples of Middle-earth. He goes into some detail on this, naming the varieties Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star, grown in the Shire, and Southlinch from Bree.[T 10][T 11] This has a personal ring, as Tolkien loved to smoke a pipe, and indeed described himself as a Hobbit: "I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, ... I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field)".[22][23][T 12]
Obsessive interest
The travellers reached a low ridge crowned with ancient holly-trees whose grey-green trunks seemed to have been built out of the very stone of the hills. Their dark leaves shone and their berries glowed red in the light of the rising sun.[T 13]
The scholar
Through all his work moreover there runs an obsessive interest in plants and scenery, pipeweed and
bramble-coverts for the hobbits to creep into.[19]
Identity of man and nature
Shippey comments that Tolkien's strongest belief, visible as a theme in much of his writing, is the identity of man and nature; he gives multiple examples:
Person or Group | Associated place | Notes |
---|---|---|
Tom Bombadil | River Withywindle (Old Forest ) |
"Not at all" separable |
Fangorn (Treebeard) | Fangorn Forest | Character and forest share the name; "as character, he voices more strongly than anybody else the identity of name and namer and thing," giving him "a kind of magic". |
Hobbits | The Shire | "Only just separable from the Shire"; the almost magical effect is "created by simple harmony". |
Riders of Rohan |
Simbelmynë flowers |
The flower symbolizes the Riders. |
Elves of Lothlórien | Mallorn trees |
The tree symbolizes the Elves. |
Symbolism
Plants could also have symbolic significance in Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. Christopher Vaccaro writes in
In film
References
Primary
- ^ Carpenter 2023, Letter 183 notes on W. H. Auden's review of The Return of the King, 1956
- ^ Carpenter 2023, Letter 294 to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, 8 February 1967
- ^ a b Tolkien 1954, book 4, ch. 7 "Journey to the Cross-Roads"
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87548-303-0.
- ^ a b Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 12 "Flight to the Ford"
- ^ Tolkien 1955, book 5, ch. 8 "The Houses of Healing"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 6 "Lothlórien"
- ^ Tolkien 1980, "A Description of the Island of Númenor"
- ^ Tolkien 1954, book 3, ch. 6 "The King of the Golden Hall"
- ^ Tolkien 1954a, "Prologue"
- ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 7 "Homeward Bound"
- ^ Carpenter 2023, Letter 213 to Deborah Webster, 25 October 1958
- ^ Tolkien 1954a Book 2, ch. 3 "The Ring Goes South"
Secondary
- ^ a b c d e McIlwaine 2018, p. 198.
- ^ a b Hazell 2015, Introduction.
- OCLC 561798225.
- ^ McIlwaine 2018, p. 184.
- ISBN 978-1403946713.
- ^ Dickerson & Evans 2006, pp. 71–94.
- ^ Dickerson & Evans 2006, pp. 95–118.
- ^ Dickerson & Evans 2006, pp. 119–144.
- ^ Dickerson & Evans 2006, pp. 185–214.
- ^ Judd & Judd 2017, pp. 6–25.
- ^ Judd & Judd 2017, pp. 73–346.
- ^ Judd & Judd 2017, pp. 50–66.
- ^ a b Curry 2013, pp. 512–513.
- ^ a b Judd & Judd 2017, pp. 342–344.
- ^ Burton, Philip. 'Eastwards and Southwards': Philological and Historical Perspectives on Tolkien and Classicism. pp. 273–304. in Williams 2021
- ^ Jenkyns, Richard (1980). The Victorians and Ancient Greece. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 49.
- ^ Shippey 2005, p. 206.
- ^ Kisor 2013, p. 350.
- ^ a b c d Shippey 2005, p. 150.
- ^ Judd & Judd 2017, pp. 144–146.
- Royal Botanical Gardens, Ontario. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ^ Carpenter 1978, pp. 61, 81.
- The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
- ^ Curry 2000, p. 282.
- ^ JSTOR 45320503.
- ^ a b Vennell, Robert (15 May 2016). "Lord of the Trees: The Botany of Middle Earth". The Meaning of Trees. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
- ^ Vennell, Robert (23 March 2019). "Lord of the Trees: The Botany of Middle Earth – Part II". The Meaning of Trees. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-04-928039-7.
- ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
- ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
- ISBN 978-0-415-20406-4.
- ISBN 0-8131-7159-8.
- Hazell, Dinah (2015). The Plants of Middle-earth: Botany and Sub-creation (Paperback ed.). ISBN 978-1-60635-265-6.
- ISBN 978-0-19-027631-7.
- Kisor, Yvette (2013) [2007]. "Leechbook and Herbarium". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0.
- McIlwaine, Catherine (2018). ISBN 978-1-85124-485-0.
- ISBN 978-0261102750.
- OCLC 9552942.
- OCLC 1042159111.
- OCLC 519647821.
- ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3.
- Williams, Hamish, ed. (2021). OCLC 1237352408.
External links
- Tolkien's Plant Passion Moves Botanist To Create Guide To Middle Earth, on National Public Radio