Ithilien, the garden of Gondor.
…but all about them lay a tumbled
heathland, grown with ling and broom and cornel, and other shrubs that they did
not know. Here and there they saw knots of tall pine-trees. The hearts of the
hobbits rose again a little in spite of weariness: the air was fresh and
fragrant, and it reminded them of the uplands of the Northfarthing far away.
So they passed into the northern marches of that land that Men once called
Ithilien, a fair country of climbing woods and swift-falling streams. The night
became fine under star and round moon, and it seemed to the hobbits that the
fragrance of the air grew as they went forward; and from the blowing and
muttering of Gollum it seemed that he noticed it too, and did not relish it. At
the first signs of day they halted again.
All about them were small woods of resinous trees, fir and
cedar and cypress, and other kinds unknown in the Shire, with wide glades among
them; and everywhere there was a wealth of sweet-smelling herbs and shrubs…
fronds pierced moss and mould, larches were green-fingered, small flowers were
opening in the turf, birds were singing. Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now
desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness.
Many great trees grew there, planted long ago, falling into untended age amid a
riot of careless descendants; and groves and thickets there were of tamarisk
and pungent terebinth, of olive and of bay; and there were junipers and
myrtles; and thymes that grew in bushes, or with their woody creeping stems
mantled in deep tapestries the hidden stones; sages of many kinds putting forth
blue flowers, or red, or pale green; and marjorams and new-sprouting parsleys,
and many herbs of forms and scents beyond the garden-lore of Sam. The grots and
rocky walls were already starred with saxifrages and stonecrops. Primeroles and
anemones were awake in the filbert-brakes; and asphodel and many lily-flowers
nodded their half-opened heads in the grass: deep green grass beside the pools,
where falling streams halted in cool hollows on their journey down to Anduin.
A little way back above the lake they found a deep brown bed of last year's
fern. Beyond it was a thicket of dark-leaved bay-trees climbing up a steep bank
that was crowned with old cedars. Here they decided to rest and pass the day,
which already promised to be bright and warm. A good day for strolling on their
way along the groves and glades of Ithilien;
Back in February I volunteered to lead the discussion of this chapter just
because of these poetic pastoral passages, in some ways my very
favorites in all of The Lord of the Rings!
First, let’s settle a few things. I understand some people find this vocabulary
strange and difficult. Please visit this
helpful site, and put those pesky “just what the heck is tamarisk and
pungent terebinth?” questions to bed once and for all.
Feeling better now? Nice readers! Squire always helps.
A. Did you note the medicinal, medieval, biblical, or Mediterranean
connection of most of the plants?
B. Does this kind of information help locate Ithilien in your mind, especially
in relation to the hobbits’ Shire? What is Ithilien, both realistically and
symbolically?
A poster on TORn this summer said that a walk in the Rocky Mountains was like a
visit to Ithilien. Now that I’ve learned what plants Tolkien was describing, I
still respect her love of verdant landscapes, but I strongly disagree that the
sub-Alpine aspen woods of Colorado are Ithilien.
C. Is the location of Ithilien very specific to you? Have you ever been to
Ithilien?
The travellers turned their backs
on the road and went downhill. As they walked, brushing their way through bush
and herb, sweet odours rose about them. Gollum coughed and retched; but the
hobbits breathed deep, and suddenly Sam laughed, for heart's ease not for jest.
Sam scrambling below the outfall of the lake. smelling and touching the
unfamiliar plants and trees,…
D. Why does Tolkien introduce and define Ithilien primarily by its smells?
Ithilien, by Ted Nasmith
The Mountains of Shadow
‘Soon get more now,’ he said,
licking his lips. ‘Good water runs down in streams to the Great River, nice
water in the lands we are going to.’
The streams of Ithilien rise in the Mountains of Shadow. Later Frodo will be
warned against drinking from the waters of Morgul Vale.
E. How can the waters of Ephel Dúath be “good”?
they had turned the dark northern
shoulder of the lower mountains and were heading southwards.
With hearts strangely lightened they now rested again, but
not for long.
The growing light revealed to them a land already less barren and ruinous. The
mountains still loomed up ominously on their left, but near at hand they could
see the southward road, now bearing away from the black roots of the hills and
slanting westwards. Beyond it were slopes covered with sombre trees like dark
clouds,…It seemed good to be reprieved, to walk in a land that had only been
for a few years under the dominion of the Dark Lord and was not yet fallen
wholly into decay.
Now they climbed up the westward bank and looked abroad. Day was opening in the
sky, and they saw that the mountains were now much further off, receding
eastward in a long curve that was lost in the distance. Before them, as they
turned west, gentle slopes ran down into dim hazes far below.
. . . shielded from the east by the Ephel Dúath and yet not under the
mountain-shadow . . .
F. What is the relationship—topographic, meterological, ecological, moral,
or spiritual—between the Mountains of Shadow and Ithilien?
Montsegur in the Pyrenees
The Pool.
They followed a
stream that went quickly down before them. Presently it brought them to a small
clear lake in a shallow dell: it lay in the broken ruins of an ancient stone
basin, the carven rim of which was almost wholly covered with mosses and
rose-brambles; iris-swords stood in ranks about it, and water-lily leaves
floated on its dark gently-rippling surface; but it was deep and fresh, and
spilled ever softly out over a stony lip at the far end.
G. Why would an apparent lake be in actuality a stone-edged swimming pool
(or fish-pond)? Who built this, and for what? And finally, why is this the only
sign of human craft or structure or cultivation (aside from the road itself)
that Frodo and Sam see in all of Ithilien?
A Deserted Land
It dwindled at last to a country
cart-road little used;
Many great trees grew there, planted long ago, falling into untended age amid a
riot of careless descendants;
‘I'll bet there's all sorts of good things running wild in this country.’
‘Elves do not walk in Ithilien in these days.’
‘But there are no travellers in this land’
‘Wise man trusts not to chance-meeting on the road in this land.’
…they were Rangers of Ithilien; for they were descended from folk who lived in
Ithilien at one time, before it was overrun.
‘It is close on ten leagues hence to the east-shore of Anduin,’
I. Huh!? When did Elves walk here? For that matter, when did anyone last
live in Ithilien? How populated was it at the height of Gondor’s power?
There is an ongoing
debate as to whether Mediterranean highland landscapes are unnatural and
due to human activity like grazing and farming; or whether they are mature and
naturally occur as they are found in today’s world.
J. Do you associate Ithilien’s landscape with human interference? Does
Tolkien?
Southern climate.
South and west
it looked towards the warm lower vales of Anduin, shielded from the east by the
Ephel Dœath and yet not under the mountain-shadow, protected from the north by
the Emyn Muil, open to the southern airs and the moist winds from the Sea far
away.
The long journey from Rivendell had brought them far south of their own land,
but not until now in this more sheltered region had the hobbits felt the change
of clime. Here Spring was already busy about them.
K. Is it really the “shelter” of the storm-ridden Emyn Muil and the dark
shadowy Ephel Duath that explains Ithilien’s climate?
L. What is the meaning of the “South” in The Lord of the Rings?
Text of this
chapter
Everyone is laughing for heart's ease, now that they're in Ithilien! Join me in the Reading Room this week for a squireific topic-oriented discussion of Chapter 4, Book IV of The Two Towers: "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit".
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