Theplants in Middle-earth, the fictional continent in the world devised byJ. R. R. Tolkien, are a mixture of realplant species withfictional ones.Middle-earth was intended to represent Europe in the real world in an imagined past, and in many respects itsnatural history is realistic.
Thebotany andecology of Middle-earth are described in sufficient detail for botanists to have identified its plant communities, ranging from Arctic tundra to hot deserts, with many named plant species, both wild and cultivated.
Scholars such asWalter S. Judd, Dinah Hazell,Tom Shippey,Matthew T. Dickerson, and Christopher Vaccaro have noted that Tolkien described fictional plants for reasons including his own interest in plants and scenery, to enrich his descriptions of an area with beauty and emotion, to fulfil specific plot needs, to characterise the peoples of Middle-earth, and to carry symbolic meaning.
J. R. R. Tolkien learnt about plants, their history and cultivation from his mother, from his reading, from visiting show gardens, by gardening, and by studying medievalherbals, which taught him about the lore and supposed magical properties of certain plants.[2] He stated that the book that most influenced him as a teenager wasC. A. Johns'sFlowers of the Field, aflora of theBritish Isles, which he called his "most treasured volume".[1]
He explained that he was intrigued by the diversity of plant forms, as he had a "special fascination ... in the variations and permutations of flowers that are the evident kin of those I know".[1][3] Amonghis artworks are a series of paintings of grasses and other plants, often with the names he gave them inQuenya, one of his inventedElvish languages.[4] These could be realistic or, as with his pencil and ink drawing ofranalinque or "moon-grass", stylized, in the manner ofArt Nouveau.[1]
Tolkien intendedArda to represent the real world in an imagined past, thousands of years before the present time.[T 1] He made clear the correspondences inlatitude between Europe andMiddle-earth, establishing the presence of bothBritish andMediterranean zones:
The action of the story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. ... IfHobbiton andRivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude ofOxford, thenMinas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude ofFlorence. The Mouths ofAnduin and the ancient city ofPelargir are at about the latitude of ancientTroy.[T 2]
In his Middle-earth writings, Tolkien mentions real plant species, and introduces fictional ones, for a variety of reasons.Dinah Hazell describes the botany of Middle-earth as being "the best, most palpable example" of Tolkien's realisticsubcreation of a secondary world. In her view, this at once serves a "narrative function, provides a sense of place, and enlivens characterization", while studying the flora and their associated stories gives the reader a deeper appreciation of Tolkien's skill.[2]
Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness.
Many great trees grew there, ... and groves and thickets there were oftamarisk and pungentterebinth, ofolive and ofbay; and there werejunipers andmyrtles; andthymes that grew in bushes, ...sages of many kinds putting forth blue flowers, or red, or pale green; andmarjorams and new-sproutingparsleys, and many herbs of forms and scents beyond the garden-lore of Sam. The grots and rocky walls were already starred withsaxifrages andstonecrops.Primeroles andanemones were awake in thefilbert-brakes; andasphodel and manylily-flowers nodded their half-opened heads ... Greatilexes of huge girth stood dark and solemn in wide glades ... and there were acres populous with the leaves of woodlandhyacinths:[T 3]
Tolkien mentions many plants appropriate to the geographical and climatic zones through which his characters pass, especially inThe Lord of the Rings, the accurateplant ecology conveying a strong sense of the reality of Middle-earth. Scholars such asMatthew Dickerson,Jonathan Evans, andWalter S. Judd with Graham Judd, have described thebotany and ecology of Middle-earth in some detail, from theagriculture ofthe Shire[6] to thehorticulture of theElves,[7] thewildwood of theEnts,[8] and the pollutedvolcanic landscape ofMordor.[9] Walter and Graham Judd have examined the Middle-earth flora and its variousplant communities from Arctic tundra to hot deserts,[10] have listed and illustrated the many identifiable plant species fromalders toyews, not forgetting cultivated plants frombeans toflax,[11] and have provided identification keys to the plants and flowering herbs involved.[12]
The Shire is described as a fertile agricultural region, able to produce not only the food needed by its comfortable population, complete with Gaffer Gamgee's "taters" (potatoes), but cultivatedmushrooms,wine such as the delicious Old Winyards, and tobacco.[13] NearbyBree indeed uses botanical names for many of its people, such as the "doubly botanical"[14] name of the innkeeperBarliman Butterbur, named forbarley (the chief ingredient ofbeer), and thebutterbur, a large stout wayside herb of Northwestern Europe. Other plant-based surnames in Bree includeFerny,Goatleaf,Heathertoes,Rushlight,Thistlewool, andMugwort.[T 4][14]
Towards the end of their quest, thehobbit protagonistsFrodo andSam travel through theMediterranean vegetation ofIthilien, giving Tolkien the opportunity to demonstrate the "breadth of his botany" with convincing details of that region'smild climate and different flora.[13][T 3] The scholarRichard Jenkyns has commented that "Ithilien is Italy, as the name implies".[15][16]
![People in Bree often had botanical names; Barliman Butterbur is named for the butterbur, Petasites hybridus, a large stout herb of Northwestern Europe[T 4]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aButterbur.jpg)
'These leaves', he said, 'I have walked far to find; for this plant does not grow in the bare hills; but in the thickets away south of the Road I found it in the dark by the scent of its leaves.' He crushed a leaf in his fingers, and it gave out a sweet and pungent fragrance. 'It is fortunate that I could find it, for it is a healing plant that theMen of the West brought to Middle-earth.Athelas they named it, and it grows now sparsely and only near places where they dwelt or camped of old; ... It has great virtues, but over such a wound as this its healing powers may be small.'
He threw the leaves into boiling water and bathed Frodo's shoulder. The fragrance of the steam was refreshing, and those that were unhurt felt their minds calmed and cleared. The herb had also some power over the wound, for Frodo felt the pain and also the sense of frozen cold lessen in his side.[T 5]
Some plants fulfil a specific plot need, such as withathelas, a healing plant that turns out to be the cure for the Black Breath, the chill and paralysis that overcame people who fought against theRingwraiths,Sauron's most deadly servants. InThe Lord of the Rings,Athelas is used only byAragorn, who becomes King ofGondor, explaining its common name, Kingsfoil.[T 5][T 6] Shippey remarks that Aragorn the healer-king echoes a real English King,Edward the Confessor.[17] Tolkien may have had theOld English Herbarium in mind with the healing herb Kingsfoil: in that text, Kingspear (woodruff) is said to have a distinctive aroma, and to be useful for healing wounds, while the ending in -foil, meaning "leaf", is found in the names of herbs such ascinquefoil.[18]
One reason was to enrich his descriptions of an area with beauty and emotion, such as with the small white Niphredil flowers and the gigantic Mallorn trees with green and silver leaves in theElvish stronghold ofLothlórien, symbolising indeedGaladriel's Elves.[19][T 7] Similarly, when describing the Island ofNúmenor, lost beneath the waves before the time ofThe Lord of the Rings, Tolkien introduces Oiolairë, an evergreen fragrant tree said to be highly esteemed by the people there.[T 8] Or again, when describing the grave-mounds of the Kings ofRohan, Tolkien mentions Simbelmynë (Old English for "Evermind"), a whiteAnemone that once grew inGondolin and that stands for remembrance of the noble and brave Riders of Rohan.[19][T 9][20] David Galbraith of theRoyal Botanical Gardens (Ontario) writes that "plants are ... crucial in imagined landscapes", and that few of these are as rich in detail as Tolkien's Middle-earth", where "the plants ranged from simple and familiar to exotic and fantastic".[21]
Tolkien mentions plant products, too, when he wishes to characterise a people. In the Prologue toThe Lord of the Rings, he explains that "pipe-weed",tobacco, is derived from "a strain of the herbNicotiana", and that theHobbits ofthe Shire love to smoke it, unlike the other peoples of Middle-earth. He goes into some detail on this, naming the varieties Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star, grown in the Shire, and Southlinch fromBree.[T 10][T 11] This has a personal ring, as Tolkien loved to smoke a pipe, and indeed described himself as a Hobbit: "I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, ... I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field)".[22][23][T 12]
The travellers reached a low ridge crowned with ancient holly-trees whose grey-green trunks seemed to have been built out of the very stone of the hills. Their dark leaves shone and their berries glowed red in the light of the rising sun.[T 13]
The scholarPatrick Curry states that "Tolkien obviously had a particular affection for flora", noting that the birch was his "personal 'totem'".[24]Tom Shippey writes that Tolkien's many mentions of plants reveal a deep and continuous interest:
Through all his work moreover there runs an obsessive interest in plants and scenery, pipeweed andathelas, the crown ofstonecrop round the overthrown king's head in Ithilien, the staffs oflebethron-wood with a "virtue" on them of finding and returning, given by Faramir to Sam and Frodo, theholly-tree outsideMoria that marks the frontier of 'Hollin' as theWhite Horse of Uffington shows the boundary ofthe Mark [in England], and over all the closely visualised images of dells and dingles and Wellinghalls, hollow trees and clumps ofbracken andbramble-coverts for the hobbits to creep into.[19]
Shippey comments that Tolkien's strongest belief, visible as a theme in much of his writing, is the identity of man and nature; he gives multiple examples:
| Person or Group | Associated place | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Bombadil | RiverWithywindle (Old Forest) | "Not at all" separable |
| Fangorn (Treebeard) | Fangorn Forest | Character and forest share the name; "as character, he voices more strongly than anybody else the identity of name and namer and thing," giving him "a kind of magic". |
| Hobbits | The Shire | "Only just separable from the Shire"; the almost magical effect is "created by simple harmony". |
| Riders of Rohan | Simbelmynë flowers | The flower symbolizes the Riders. |
| Elves ofLothlórien | Mallorn trees | The tree symbolizes the Elves. |
Plants could also have symbolic significance in Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. Christopher Vaccaro writes inMallorn that theWhite Tree of Gondor inThe Lord of the Rings symbolises the return of the King to Gondor, the fresh sapling replacing the dead tree as Aragorn replaces the Stewards sitting in the King's place. The sapling, in turn, was descended from "Nimloth the fair", which itself came of the line of Telperion, one of theTwo Trees of Valinor described inThe Silmarillion. Those trees have powerful significance,bringing light to the world.[25] Vaccaro states that these trees carry both Christian and pagan symbolism. In Christianity, theBook of Genesis tells of a tree of life at the centre of theGarden of Eden. Further symbolic trees described in theBook of Daniel and theBook of Isaiah, this time denoting the future King, Christ; and in theBook of Revelation, a tree of life stands in theNew Jerusalem. Christ's cross, too, came in medieval times to be described as a tree, with Christ hanging on it as a fruit. In pagan literature, among many possible parallels,Yggdrasil is theworld tree ofNorse mythology; Vaccaro notes that a warrior comes with an axe to cut the tree, "seven the stones on which he whet[ted] it", commenting that perhaps the words of this passage "made its way into Tolkien'sNúmenórean folklore."[25]
Peter Jackson'sfilm trilogy ofThe Lord of the Rings set the action largely in the New Zealand landscape. The New Zealand ecologist Robert Vennell writes that this put native and introduced plant species into the films in "an important supporting role". He notes for instance that as Frodo and Sam set out on their quest across the Shire inThe Fellowship of the Ring, they are "knee deep" in theinvasive species wandering willie,Tradescantia fluminensis, a native of Latin America; it covers the ground, drowning out the native forest undergrowth. Further south, they travel through forests ofsouthern beech,Nothofagus, used for the Elvish forest ofLothlorien, the Entish forest ofFangorn andAmon Hen where the fellowship fight theUruk-hai. Thetotara tree appears in the Shire;wilding pines appear in the scene where theRingwraiths chase Arwen and Frodo.[26] Fictional flowers, too, were created for the films; Vennell writes that thewood anemone-likeSimbelmynë of Rohan were made in theWeta Workshop.[27]
