Hemlocks were a type of wildflower[note 1] strongly associated with the meeting of Beren and Lúthien, most famously in the poem sung by Aragorn.[1]
They also grew in the Old Forest.[2]
Inspiration
Tolkien's choice for hemlocks in the story of Beren and Lúthien was based on a time during World War I, when he was stationed at Yorkshire. Near the village of Roos there was was a woodland glade filled with hemlocks.[3][4][5][6]
There is debate around the exact type of hemlock that inspired Tolkien, since while the plant most commonly known as hemlock (Conium maculatum) matches the description, its unpleasant odours possibly don't.[3] The Plants of Middle-earth posits that it is cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) [7], which Tolkien and the Great War agrees with. In any case, according to his son Christopher, Tolkien himself “regarded the restriction of a vernacular name to this or that species within a large group of plants not easily distinguishable to the eye as the pedantry of popularizing botanists—who ought to content themselves with the Linnean names.”[8]
Portrayal in adaptations
1984-1997: Middle-earth Role Playing
- Water Hemlocks (S. Ulucthond, Q. Ulcasunda) were a type of hemlock described in the game's books, which grew in Wetlands. They were compared to parsnips, having a tuber like it and turnips, though this one was poisonous. The juice from its root could be mixed with its antidote, the curoloth flower, to make a powerful poison to apply on blades, fittingly called blade hemlock. [9]
Notes
- ↑ Not to be confused with the unrelated tree of the same name, which appears in some adaptations.
References
- ↑ LR 1.11.139Digital Tolkien Project Citation Systems, The Lord of the Rings, "The Fellowship of the Ring", "A Knife in the Dark", Paragraph 139
- ↑ LR 1.06.023Digital Tolkien Project Citation Systems, The Lord of the Rings, "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Old Forest", Paragraph 23
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Walter S. Judd & Graham A. Judd (2017), Flora of Middle-Earth: Plants of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium, pp. 184-187
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 165, (undated, written June 1955)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 257, (dated 16 July 1964)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 340, (dated 11 July 1972)
- ↑ Dinah Hazell (2007), The Plants of Middle-earth, p. 54
- ↑ John Garth (2003), Tolkien and the Great War, p. 238
- ↑ Mark R. Feil (1997), Hands of the Healer (#2026), pp. 143-144