Old Man Willow, drawn by Tolkien while he was writing the chapter on the Old Forest. A face can just be made out on the right-hand side of the tree above the arm-like branch.[1]
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy The Lord of the Rings, Old Man Willow is a malign tree-spirit of great age in Tom Bombadil's Old Forest, appearing physically as a large willow tree beside the River Withywindle, but spreading his influence throughout the forest. He is the first hostile character encountered by the Hobbits after they leave the Shire.
Tolkien made a drawing of Old Man Willow while writing the chapter about him; his son Christopher suggests it was based on a tree by the River Cherwell at Oxford. A predatory tree appears in a 1934 poem, but Tolkien did not arrive at the malevolent Old Man Willow, both tree and spirit, for some years. Scholars have debated the nature of the tree; some have been surprised by it, as Tolkien is seen as an environmentalist. The character was omitted by both Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson from their film versions of The Lord of the Rings.
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of the Rings, OldManWillow is a malign tree-spirit of great age in Tom Bombadil's Old Forest, appearing physically as a large willow tree beside the...
Old Forest and of OldManWillow contradicts Tolkien's otherwise protective stance for wild nature. Scholars have discussed the symbolism of the Old Forest...
OldManWillow (an evil tree in his forest) and the barrow-wight, from whom he rescues the hobbits. They were not then explicitly part of the older legends...
hostile characters at all concerned with the Ring. Instead, the "Old Forest, OldManWillow, Tom as Eldest" (his emphasis) stand outside time, "left over...
shake off the Black Riders by cutting through the Old Forest. Merry and Pippin are trapped by OldManWillow, an ancient tree who controls much of the forest...
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Pippin encounter Goldberry and Tom in the Old Forest near Buckland. After the Hobbits are rescued from OldManWillow, the couple offers them refuge in their...
intercepting him. The hobbits escaped into the Old Forest. They were waylaid by the magic of OldManWillow, but rescued by Tom Bombadil, who gave them shelter...
the Black Riders by cutting through the Old Forest. Merry and Pippin are trapped by the malign OldManWillow, but are rescued by Tom Bombadil. Leaving...
had great skills of hand and mind and assumed the guise of Men, seemingly old but of great vigour. Their mission was to guide elves and men by gaining...
English word for spider, influenced by Old English loppe or "spider". The word is not related to "cob" nor "cobweb". Old English attercoppe (meaning "spider")...
protecting them from local dangers, whether wolves and goblins, or OldManWillow and the Barrow-wight. Burns writes that Beorn's character, too, contains...
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daughter of the Elf-queen Galadriel, ruler of Lothlórien. She marries the Man Aragorn, who becomes King of Arnor and Gondor. In Peter Jackson's film adaptation...
Second Age to corrupt the men of Númenor. He appeared then "as a man, or one in man's shape, but greater than any even of the race of Númenor in stature...
have gained the idea of a fire demon from his philological study of the Old English word Sigelwara, which he studied in detail in the 1930s. Balrogs...
the Shire to Crickhollow in Buckland. They enter the Old Forest, where the evil tree OldManWillow traps a hobbit. He is rescued by Tom Bombadil, who takes...
states that this exactly matches the Old English view of luck and personal courage, as Beowulf's "wyrd often spares the man who isn't doomed, as long as his...
noting that this uses genuinely archaic grammar, not just a sprinkling of old words. The effect is to make his speech distinctive, befitting his age and...
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