Old Man Willow
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Old Man Willow is a character in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. He was a willow in the Old Forest from which much of the Forest's hatred of walking things came. He might have been an Ent who had become tree-like, or possibly a Huorn, as the Old Forest was originally part of the same primordial forest as Fangorn.
Tom Bombadil had power over Old Man Willow, and checked the evil as much as he could, or was willing.
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Biography
In The Fellowship of the Ring book, Old Man Willow cast a spell on the hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin), causing them to feel sleepy. Merry and Pippin go and lean against the trunk and fall asleep, while Frodo sits on a root to dangle his feet in the water, before he also falls asleep. The tree then traps Merry and Pippin in cracks of its trunk, and tips Frodo into the stream. They are saved by the timely arrival of Tom Bombadil who 'sings' the ancient tree to sleep.
Portrayal in adaptations
Although this scene didn't appear in the 2001 movie adaptation, a very similar episode with hobbits being swallowed by a tree was included in the extended DVD edition of the second film where Merry and Pippin are attacked by a Huorn in Fangorn forest. In this interpretation Tom Bombadil's lines are spoken by Treebeard.
Trivia
- Willow trees are quite prevelant in folklore and myths. Hans Christian Andersen wrote a story called Under The Willow Tree (1853) in which children ask questions of a tree they call 'willow-father', paired with another entity called 'elder-mother' Green Willow is a Japanese ghost story in which a young samurai falls in love with a woman called Green Willow who has a close spiritual connection with a willow tree. The Willow Wife is another, not disimilar tale. Wisdom of the Willow Tree is an Osage Nation story in which a young man seeks answers from a Willow tree, addressing the tree in conversation as 'Grandfather'.
See also
External Links
- The Great Willow in the Old Forest
- Discussion of trees in Middle-earth
- Origin and History of the Ents
- The Thain's Book - Old Man Willow
