Fantastic Natural History, Part 2: Botanical Edition!

[mary_j_59]

…”Or there maybe ‘tis cloudless night/and swaying beeches bear/the Elven-stars as jewels bright/amid their branching hair” (Sam’’s song, from The Return of the King, page 194 Hardcover Folio edition)

• A   What sort of trees are Mallorns?

It was my sister who spotted this, while we were on a hike. We were going through a stand of beech trees, and, in

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Thank you for this! Mallorns always sounded so beautiful and magical, and it's lovely to know that they (sort of) exist. And holy basil as kingsfoil makes imagining that healing steam so much more vivid. I always wondered!

[mary_j_59]

So glad you came over and read this! I enjoy your posts so much. BTW, my sister and I just saw a brilliant, brilliant analysis of Prince Imrahil on YouTube. Much that was wrong with the movies (there was, of course, much that was right) can be summed up with: they left this guy out. (I had other problems with the movies which I've written about already. But, though I've been a fan of LOTR since the age of ten and have even read the appendices several times, I did not know all this about Imrahil!)

[sunnyskywalker]

Thank you

[mary_j_59]

Oh, that's so interesting! And beautifully put. I hadn't noticed quite this particular balance before, though it struck me very strongly that (as Stratford Caldecott said in his book The Power of the Ring) Sam is confirmed in his "kingship", as Aragorn is in his, by their nurturing natures and power to heal. Of course, we see this in Eowyn, too--she is healed when she accepts her role as a nurturer, and this in no way negates her role as a warrior. Nor Faramir's either