Talk:Mirkwood

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Latest comment: 22 April 2016 by Elf-esteem in topic Edrastel - question for you

Edrastel - question for you[edit source]

(Unless specified elsewhere, Mirkwood seems to have been separate from the ancient great forest that covered Middle-earth, of which Fangorn was said to be the easternmost end.)

I disagree with this edit because you are simply removing content which you consider 'assumptive until proven otherwise', and I really see no reason to do that when you haven't made it any less assumptive (you're basing it on a "seems" not a citation). You just sheered off some details. There was a big forest there that the Elves discovered on the Great Journey. Greenwood was part of it and that is all it said.

In "The Coming of the Elves" from The Simarillion it states that after many years of journeying the Elves came through a forest to the river (Anduin) and crossing that river would lead to the Hithaeglir (Towers of Mist) with no mention of yet another forest on the other side. It also does not say how many years of that travel was actually in the forest or how big the forest was (but even in the Third Age, Mirkwood was vast). In Unfinished Tales, Galadriel is said to have "dwelt under the trees of Greenwood the Great" (p. 249) when she is actually in what became her realm of Lórien, and that is explained between p. 249-252 that the Greenwood and Lórien realms were co-mingled as part of the Greenwood. p. 260 "The Boundaries of Lorien" does not specifically include any note that the borders of Lórien extended beyond the Anduin, as the other reference does, but that the borders between Fangorn and Lórien mingled with an understanding between the Ents and Elves that they're welcome in each other's woods but to mind their own business on p. 261 And after the Battle under the Trees, Lórien did, for a time, again extend across the Anduin into what was southern Mirkwood.

The point being: If Lórien and the Greenwood were part of one great forest which spanned the Anduin and Lórien also mingled its borders with Fangorn (despite the understanding between the two peoples to keep to their own), it is, essentially all one forest, but it's a heck of a thing to piece out. Also, the Brown Lands, where the Entwives lived (at least at one time) was just south of Mirkwood may have once been, at least partly, forested, too.

A lot of Elves, who became the Nandor, decided to park it in the forest and hang out by the river. Why not just leave it like it was and perhaps take out the word presumably or something? Unless you have a source that proves Greenwood the Great was not part of the primeval forest that covered that region along the Anduin, and included what became Lórien and Fangorn, I do not see the reason to truncate the detail. It really was not separate. Although, admittedly, it could be worded better. --Elf-esteem 06:41, 21 April 2016 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Thank you for this information! I was unaware of these details, and I'll revert the edit with some slighty rewording. -- Edrastel 18:47, 21 April 2016 (UTC)Reply[reply]

That looks so much better! --Elf-esteem 03:33, 22 April 2016 (UTC)Reply[reply]