He Shall Be Like a Tree Planted By the Rivers of Water - Page 7
© Michael Martinez
But though the Barrow-wights were sent to infest the ancient mounds of the Dunedain by either Sauron or the Lord of the Nazgul, why did the Old Forest become dark and menacing? Tolkien notes that the woods held "the memory of many injuries". What were those injuries? We can only be sure of a few. Sauron's burning of the forests of Eriador may have started the slow process. Somehow, a few places like the Old Forest and Eryn Vorn survived the destruction of the war. But whereas some of the Gwathuirim (men related to the Dunlendings and the Men of Brethil in Beleriand) retreated to Eryn Vorn, and undoubtedly gave their love to the woods as best men were able, no men retreated to the Old Forest.
Thousands of years later, men did take refuge in the Old Forest. In the war of 1409 in the Third Age, the realm of Angmar overran Cardolan. The Dunedain retreated westward from their homes in the South Downs. Some of the Dunedain held out in the mounds of Tyrn Gorthad, but others fled into the Old Forest itself. There the fighting was fierce, and perhaps many trees were lost or injured. A similar retreat may have occurred when Angmar finally destroyed the realm of Arnor. Many of Arnor's people were destroyed, but some fled into hiding. The Old Forest may have provided such a refuge. And centuries later, the Oldbucks crossed the Baranduin river from the Shire and colonized a strip of land adjacent to the Old Forest. The hobbits and the trees came into conflict, and Merry says there was indeed a battle of sorts. The Hobbits burned many trees and nurtured the High Hay to be a barrier between their land and the forest. But Hobbits still occasionally ventured into the Old Forest. There may indeed have been a few more incidents.
With no Ents to watch over them, and with Bombadil only holding the evil in check, seeking neither to destroy nor dominate it, the Old Forest seethed with malice and "the memory of many injuries". Some of the trees grew Entish, as Fangorn put it. And undoubtedly every now and then some of them went wandering out into the wild lands. Maybe they found a nice plot of land and settled down. Maybe they were destroyed by fearful two legged creatures, or worse. But as there was little hope of the Ents' finding the Entwives again, so there must have been little hope of reconciling the Old Forest with the two legged creatures. Eventually, even Bombadil would have to give up and move on.
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