Forests of Beleriand (and Earlier)

[MithLuin]

Yes, yes, I know we are not to Beleriand yet. But we do have forests, and they are of the dark, Mirkwood-style in the sense that they are wild and full of dangerous beasts but not much light...right? At least after the loss of the Lamps.

This article about hunting (in the European tradition, with heavy emphasis on spiritual elements) mentions a few forests by name that might be worth considering for these:

http://thefellowshipoftheking.net/2016/02/25/a-hunting-we-will-go-the-historic-heraldry-and-spiritual-symbolism-of-the-hunt/

"Perhaps only one tract of this sort remains today: the Bialowiecza Forest straddling the border of Poland and Belarus."

I have never been to Paimpoint Forest, so I don't know if it holds any of the mystique of legendary Broceliande.


But anyway, what types of forests are we going to have in Season One before the War of the Powers? It can be a variety of locations that are quite distinct, after all.

 

[Haakon]

Great! What do you think about these?
http://www.photoguides.net/16-breathtaking-forest-photographs-from-romania

 

[Haakon]

Or the magic of a wild birch forest:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-siberian-birch-forest-arshan-region-buryatia-trees-image64268313

 

[Haakon]

This seems to be Irish:

And these are apparently Sherwood forest pines:
This is a also an Irish forest:

Typical Swedish forest:

 

[Haakon]

I'm also thinking of different kinds of streams in forests (unknown; Rhone, France; North Carolina):

 

[Nicholas Palazzo]

I've been to Sherwood Forest, long time ago. No forest I have ever been in evoked Fangorn so much in my mind.

 

[Haakon]

I've been to Sherwood Forest, long time ago. No forest I have ever been in evoked Fangorn so much in my mind.

Yeah I was there too once and absolutely loved it. But I was five years old and hadn't read Tolkien, so I just thought about Robin Hood... Well, it's wonderful.

 

[Nicholas Palazzo]

I was ... twenty I think. But yes, walking the same ground as the fabled Robin Hood was exciting enough on its own. We also went to the church that claims to be the place he and Marian were married. I mean, I'm aware that Marian was a much later addition to the story, but still.

 

[MithLuin]

On the 'Passage of Time' thread, I've outlined some periods of time in Earth's prehistory that could correspond to different episodes in Season 1, to give the audience a clear feeling of progression and time passing.

So, prior to the construction of the Lamps, we are in the Paleozoic. In Episode 2, Yavanna first invents roots, so we should see the *earliest* plants at this time - mosses and ferns (Devonian). Moving into Episodes 4 and 5, we can have the great tree ferns of the Carbiniferous era. Cycads, ginkos and early conifers can be added to the mix.

The Time of the Lamps corresponds to the Mesozoic Era, with their destruction being the great extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. The first flowering plants show up during the Cretaceous, so we can have (early) flowers and forests of Dawn Redwoods, a deciduous needle tree that is still around, and could grow impressively tall in the light of the Lamps.

Dawn Redwood:

There is a grove of these at the Morris Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania: http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/arboretum/collection_dawnredwood.shtml

And at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC

Figs, planes and magnolias also show up at this time in history, so we can mix those in:

Fig tree in Florida:

Magnolia:

European plane tree (Belgium):

Now, I personally am a *huge* fan of the American sycamore, which is also a plane tree, but I am a bit leery to inject non-European flora into Middle Earth without cause. Maples and oaks soon follow.


I am not sure when birches show up. They thrive in cold environments, and did well as the glaciers retreated, but I will have to do more research to figure out how 'young' they are as a tree.

 

[Haakon]

Lovely trees there!

I am not sure when birches show up. They thrive in cold environments, and did well as the glaciers retreated, but I will have to do more research to figure out how 'young' they are as a tree.

From the Wikipedia: "The Betulaceae are believed to have originated at the end of the Cretaceous period (about 70 million years ago) in central China. This region at the time would have had a Mediterranean climate due to the proximity of the Tethys Sea, which covered parts of present-day Tibet and Xinjiang into the early Tertiary period. This point of origin is supported by the fact that all six genera and 52 species are native to this region, many of those being endemic. All six modern genera are believed to have diverged fully by the Oligocene, with all genera in the family (with the exception of Ostryopsis) having a fossil record stretching back at least 20 million years from the present."

So, we may use birches before the destruction of the Lamps. We don't have to, I think, but it's a possibility. In any case, we can use them after that.

 

[Haakon]

I'd love to use birches when the elves arrive, mostly because I love this picture: