Forest · Eriador
Old Forest
A surviving scrap of the primeval wood east of Buckland, where the trees move the paths
- Appears in
- The Lord of the Rings
- Region
- Eriador
- Journeys passing through
- 1
On the map the Old Forest is a dark patch immediately east of Buckland, fenced off from hobbit country by the High Hay, with the Barrow-downs beyond its eastern edge and the Withywindle running out of it to join the Brandywine. It is small on paper and much larger in practice, because the tracks inside it do not stay where they were.
The wood is a remnant of the forest that once covered most of Eriador, older than the Shire and older than Arnor, and its trees remember being cut. Hobbits burned hundreds of them after the Forest crowded up against the Hedge, and the Bonfire Glade is the bare patch left from that fight. Merry Brandybuck, who knew more about it than most hobbits, said the trees whispered and sometimes shifted to mislead travellers.
Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin went in through a tunnel under the Hedge on 26 September TA 3018 to shake off pursuit. The paths pushed them steadily downhill into the Withywindle valley, where Old Man Willow put them to sleep and trapped Merry and Pippin inside his trunk. Tom Bombadil, out gathering water-lilies, heard Frodo's shouting and sang to the tree until it opened and let the two hobbits out.
Events at this place
-
after TA 2340 · The Lord of the Rings
The Battle of the Hedge
Some time after Buckland was settled the trees crowded up against the High Hay, and the hobbits cut and burned a wide strip of the Forest, leaving the Bonfire Glade.
-
TA 3018, September 26 · The Lord of the Rings
The hobbits enter the Forest
On 26 September the four hobbits rode in under the Hedge and were herded by the paths down into the Withywindle valley.
-
TA 3018, September 26 · The Lord of the Rings
Old Man Willow
The great willow trapped Merry and Pippin in its cracks and tipped Frodo into the stream, where Sam pulled him out. Tom Bombadil then came by and sang the tree into letting the two hobbits go.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the Old Forest on the Middle-earth map?
East of Buckland and the Brandywine, between the High Hay and the Barrow-downs, with the Withywindle flowing out of its southern side.
Why is the Old Forest dangerous?
Its trees are awake and hostile to walkers. Paths shift, travellers are steered toward the Withywindle, and Old Man Willow traps anyone who sleeps under him.
Is the Old Forest connected to Fangorn?
Both are described as leftovers of the vast forest that covered these lands in the Elder Days, though by the Third Age they are separated by hundreds of miles.