The Memory of the Land

In “The Ring Goes South,” Gimli the dwarf says, “we have wrought the image of those mountains into many works of metal and of stone, and into many songs and tales.”  The landscape of Middle-earth is certainly a powerful force in the minds of the book’s characters.  Yet, nature in the story is not merely a static object, but a living force.  It is something that feels and remembers.  The connection is, of course, particularly strong in connection with the elves.  Gandalf observes, “Much evil must befall a country before it wholly forgets the Elves, if once they dwelt there.”  Legolas actually hears the stones lament the vanished Elves: “deep they delved us, fair they wrought us, high they builded us; but they are gone.”

In real life, we may think the landscape remembers us – but usually because we have damaged it so severely that we can see its lingering scars.  In Middle-earth, it is the life – perhaps even the soul – of nature that speaks and remembers, not just its broken bones.