Talk:Old Forest

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Latest comment: 28 October 2022 by Dour1234 in topic The men of Cardolan

In the second paragraph, this is the first sentence:

"It is bordered in the east by the Barrow-downs, and in the west by The Hay, a large wall which the Hobbits of Buckland built after they cut the forest to make room for their new homes. "

Shouldn't "The Hay" read "The Hedge?" I don't remember anything called "The Hay," but I remember in Fellowship of the Ring, "The Hedge" being mentioned several times, and it's also on the maps. --Ishmayl 12:44, 17 July 2008 (EDT)

I'm not sure where "The Hay" comes from either, I've fixed it, good catch! --Hyarion 12:53, 17 July 2008 (EDT)

The men of Cardolan[edit source]

I admit that this is a bit of a shot in the dark, but I want to throw it out there anyway.

This page contains the sentence:

"When Angmar attacked Arnor in T.A. 1409, some DĂșnedain of Cardolan fled into the Forest."

Which, based on the citation, must be in reference to this sentence in LOTR Appendix A:

"A remnant of the faithful among the DĂșnedain of Cardolan also held out in Tyrn Gorthad (the Barrow-downs), or took refuge in the Forest behind."

Cutting to the chase, are we sure that "the Forest behind" referred to in this sentence is the Old Forest? I suppose it seems "obvious" that it is, because the Old Forest is only forest near the Barrow-Downs, but due to the how vague the statement is, and from the way it's phrased, I believe there's another way to interpret the statement:

"...held out in [the Barrow-downs], or took refuge in the Forest behind [the path of the men who held out]."

You see, what's throwing me off here is the fact that, in the context of the original sentence, it describes that some men of Cardolan went forward, closer to the borders between the petty kingdoms, to aid in the battle against Angmar, while other citizens of Cardolan held back, to hide out. Why, then, would they get closer to the Barrow-downs where the battles were, when most inhabitants of Cardolan probably were nowhere near that place to begin with?

When I first read that sentence, I thought it was more likely that the forest in question was Eryn Vorn, the other forest in Cardolan, and the one without nearly as much of a reputation for being dangerous to dwell in. It feels like that makes more sense to me, anyways; Nowhere else in the book is there any indication that anyone ever lived in the Old Forest other than Tom Bombadil, and it feels more logical that the people trying to stay safe and avoid the war would go to the woodland as far away as possible from where the war actually is.

Plus (heavy conjecture and subjective-ness alert), it always seemed weird to me that Eryn Vorn is pretty much the only location on the entire map that's never acknowledged once any of the "big three" books. I know it's given a one-off mention in the Unfinished Tales, but it never stopped feeling strange to me that it would be included have been included in the LOTR maps, labelled and everything, if it wasn't mentioned in some way. This explanation would fill in that gap, at least.

Perhaps in one point of history, the two forests were connected once.Dour1234 (talk) 20:56, 28 October 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't really relate to what I'm saying. I'm pretty sure it's known that all the forests in Eriador were indeed connected once, but my understanding is that they were already separate by the time this conflict happened.