forests and fog

[bilunabirotunda]

Somehow, the English mythological picture of forests just does not match my own. In English stories forests are always dark, dangerous, evil, mysterious places, have you noticed? In Tolkien, of course, Mirkwood, the Old Forest where the hobbits meet Tom Bombadil (and are almost eaten by a willow tree), and Fangorn are all Not Nice places. The only

Comments

[graymalkn]

Though I wouldn't argue about the general thesis that Europeans tend to treat forests as places of danger, I'm not sure I'd agree that Tolkien does, at least not uniformly. Mirkwood is certainly meant to be a Bad Place, but I think the others are meant to be supremely indifferent to humans - wild and uncaring. This does make them dangerous, but not malicious. Remember that when Legolas entered Fangorn he commented on what a pleasant place it seemed.

But yes, in general I think Europeans tend to think of their forests as being dark and dangerous, at least symbolically. I do wonder whether the average European actually feels that way more than the average American. Maybe it's just us who don't :-)

And different forests have different feels. Like you said, the redwoods feel utterly safe and comforting. But other forests don't necessarily - I know you dislike the woods across from UCSC.

Part of it, I think, is that how we feel about forests is the core of how we feel about nature. The European Christian attitude has generally been that nature is evil, and I think that's crept into the symbolism even when the attitude itself no longer remains. Americans, on the other hand, have probably tended to view nature more as opportunity.