Old Man Willow

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Old Man Willow

Old Man Willow is a giant tree known to exist in the old forests' of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. It is believed to be an Ent turned into a tree or is possibly a Huorn, though Huorns differed from Old Man Willow in the sense that they were able to uproot themselves and can move when compared to Old Man Willow whose roots were deep and firm into the ground.



Old Man Willow was a much frustrated, evil-being known to spread his hatred across the forest against the beings that walked into the forest. He resided deep into the forest and had powers to divert the paths towards him.



Old Man Willow has a trait of spell-binding the passer-by through singing. Once spell-bound, the victim gets diverted towards him. Once it discovers the victim in its vicinity it captures them with his moving roots and squeezes them to death.



The Hobbits namely Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin once fall prey of Old Man Willow's evil intentions. The incident as portrayed in the book The Fellowship of the Ring takes place when the Old Man Willow spell-binds the hobbits, causing them to fall asleep. The Old Man Willow later starts spreading his evil shadow on the hobbits altogether. Frodo who fell asleep while sitting on the root is thrown into the stream by Old Man Willow. Merry and Pippin get trapped in between the roots of the tree. Sam who roughly had a clue about Old Man Willow's evil intentions stays awake and thus, saves Frodo from drowning. Sam and Frodo to save Merry and Pippin somehow manage to create fire to frighten the tree. They ignite the fire near the roots of the tree. The Old Man Willow agitated by the fire warns Merry who was still groped in the roots to make his friends aware that they two will squeeze to death if they don't stop the fire. Fortunately, Tom Bombadil, known to have power above Old Man Willow, sings to the ancient tree to sleep, expelling the hobbits out of the nearly death.

The incident revealed one essential fact about Old Man Willow and that is fire frightens them as well as makes them agitated.

One of the popular excerpts about Old Man Willow from The Fellowship and the Ring is given below;

“My friends are caught in the willow-tree,'cried Frodo breathlessly.

“Master Merry's being squeezed in a crack!' cried Sam.

“What?' shouted Tom Bombadil, leaping up in the air. 'Old Man Willow?Naught worse than that, eh? That can soon be mended. I know the tune for him. Old grey Willow-man! I'll freeze his marrow cold if he doesn’t behave himself. I'll sing his roots off. I'll sing a wind-up and blow leaf and branch away. Old Man Willow!”


The Old Man Willow is considered to be the most thwarted, giant evil tree, inhabiting the deep regions of old forest in Middle Earth. 

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