Trees, nature spirits and conversations

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J.R.R. Tolkien, Tree of Amalion.

1. The talking tree

 I've been thinking a lot about trees lately, and for a variety of reasons. But then again, I've probably been thinking about nature and the environment for a long, long time, without really knowing it. When it comes down to it, we all have some sort of connection with Mother Earth once the white noise of modernity, and the so-called hustle and bustle is pushed aside. What first set me off on this topic - apart from that almost subconscious fascination with the natural environment and the earth about me, manifesting in my short-lived careers as geologist (1984) and member of parliament for the Australian Greens (2002-2004) - was a visit to Crystal Castle Shambahla Gardens on the New South Wales north coast in 2017. Crystal Castle is basically a crystal and Tibetan Buddhist theme park and sales centre, home to a variety of esoteric and spiritual presentations and sites of interest. And yes, it displays and sells incredibly beautiful, often very large, naturally formed crystals. Whilst there on a holiday with family and visitation to a nearby friend, I went to a presentation in which equipment was used to amplify the sound of various "talking and singing" potted plants and small trees. This was something I was previously unaware of, and of the fact that it was, and is, a subject under scientific investigation internationally (Haskell 2017, Hennigan 2017, Howard 2017, Gibson & Brits 2018, Grant 2018, Halkett 2020, Burke 2021, Wohlleben 2021).

The idea that trees could "talk", or communicate, was - needless to say - revelatory to me, as someone steeped in Western science and civilisation. Due to my asperges nature, I am not generally sensitive to reality beyond the obvious, mundane and in-your-face level of experience. Neither am I intuitive, perceptive, empathetic or tuned in to metaphysical, spiritual and other dimensions of existence. I know this, and I can count on the fingers of one hand instances of such encounters. I was also unaware that the true, and possible sentient nature of plants had first been discussed by Westerners as far back as the 1860s, though native peoples have probably known about it for eons. It was a subject generally debunked by the scientific fraternity until very recent times (Jones 2020, Simard 2021). The experience at Crystal Castle raised within me the possibility / realisation that trees were sentient (adj. able to perceive or feel things). Such a thought, though long part of Indigenous societies and belief systems (viz the totemic nature of Australian Aboriginal society), is not generally accepted within the modern, Christian world, where science dominates proof of existence (forgetting philosophy and quantum physics); where humans are viewed as supreme beings, defined by their possessing a soul, and the rest of the natural world is subservient and largely deemed non-sentient, with the exception of a few domestic animals (Glassman 2020). Of course, all of this was now being turned on its head, for me at least. Accepting that trees and animals possessed a sentient nature was more than simply a leap of faith, as science was now moving towards acceptance, and I needed to keep pace with this. Watching a video of a South African woman communicating with an incarcerated panther helped me along this path.

 

 

The 2012 experience of Anna Breytenbach with Diablo the panther was almost unbelievable, yet so logical and natural as to be believed. Upon watching, it was becoming obvious to me that we human beings were not the only sentient beings on this planet, and were arrogant to ever think we were. Efforts by Christian and other religions to deny spirituality and so-called pagan beliefs, despite the longevity of such beliefs and practices prior to the Christian era, had given rise to the limited world-view I now possessed. Speaking to black panthers, and talking to trees, were thinks now to be considered, rather than simply scoffed at.

 

2. From fantasy to fact

 

The idea of sentient trees has long been the purvue of fantasy stories and fairy tales for children and adults (Noonan 1945, Tolkien 1954-5). Further to that, it is now widely discussed and a topic of study (Harrison 1992, Tudge 2005, Wohlleben 2016, McKay 2017, Dordel and Tolke 2019). The sentient nature of the natural environment was further reinforced, in part and indirectly, by my research into the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and, specifically, his autobiographical short story Leaf by Niggle (Tolkien 1945). In that instant the story came to Tolkien one night, as in a dream, and centred around a painting of a tree and the allegorical nature of the so-called 'tree of life' in relation to the character Niggle (Organ 2018). I also discovered that Tolkien had a deep, lifelong affinity with trees, and that his epic work The Lord of the Rings was referred to, by him, in terms of his own tree (Irvin 2017b). Of course, Tolkien's public revelations of an affection for trees was masked by the mythology of his Middle-Earth legendarium and the world of faerie (Tolkien 2008). It was not, therefore, 'real' or in the realm of scientific proof that his tales of trees and Ents were couched, though they seemed realistic enough in the reading, such was his skill as a writer. One could discover therein Ents and Entwives, mean old willow trees, the majestic and sedentarily wise Treebeard, and rebellious, mobile forests. However, this was all presented within the context of a fantasy world lost in time and not processed beyond that by the vast majority of readers. Therefore, despite first encountering Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings back in the late 1960s, I had never considered the subject of the sentient nature of trees, or even the existence of nature spirits, as anything more than fantasy fiction. Neither had I experienced it. That did not change until the aforementioned visit to Crystal Castle, which brought together a variety of disparate thoughts, such as the important role of the natural environment within Australian Aboriginal Dreaming, and my own sense of place in regard to the northern Illawarra region where I grew up. It also introduced some science (?pseudoscience) into the subject of trees and human kind's relationship with them. As a science graduate myself - with an honours degree in the earth science of geology - my interest was therefore tweaked.

 

3. Burning tree

In more recent times I had seen the 2019-2020 Australian summer season catastrophic bush fires sweep across the continent, ravaging vast areas of country and adversely impacting upon millions and millions of trees, not to mention the large amount of associated flora and fauna which had been adversely affected, and in many instances perished. Loss of human life and damage to property also occurred, though on this particular occasion public empathy flowed towards the catastrophic impact on the natural environment as well. I felt the latter, and was saddened by the loss of so much, though ever hopeful that nature would regenerate. The thought of trees and forests as sentient imposed a whole new light on bush fires and deforestation. A recent story in the Smithsonian Magazine suggesting that plants can 'scream' when they are stressed added to this heightened concern (Wu 2019).

New South Wales bushfires, 2019-2020, BBC.

 

As a result of the bush fires, there has been a lot of discussion in Australia, and further afield, about the role of trees and management of forests and bush vegetation in the associated Climate Change debate. There is also a widespread panic over the increasingly extreme weather conditions and its apocalyptic nature (Franzen 2019). Have we reached the point of no return? This gave rise to my giving the subject of trees more thought and, as a result, bringing those thoughts together in this blog. Some commentators seek to blame the forest for the fires, ignoring the long stated warnings of scientists in this regard, namely, that increasing planetary temperature and the resultant disturbed weather patterns are largely responsible. In one instance, Aboriginal author of Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe, has suggested that we now had too many trees and needed to get rid of a lot of them and return to what he believed were traditional Aboriginal bush management practices imposed somewhat uniformly across the country (Pascoe 2014, Fitzgerald 2020). For example, at a recent conference he stated that he had 300 trees per hectare on his property and, because of bush fires, he wanted to cut that down to about three or four trees per hectare. I find objection with this statement on a number of grounds and as a blanket solution regarding how humankind can 'manage' the forces of nature, the natural environment, and human interventions that often give rise to so-called 'catastrophic' bush fires. This anti-tree attitude also goes against traditional wisdom and modern science which accepts the important role of trees and vegetation in maintaining planetary life cycles. On one hand we have the continuation of vast deforestation exercises across the planet in areas such as the Amazon and upon every continent, including Australia - all of which is adding to the climate crisis; and on the other hand we have ongoing calls, and active efforts, to plant millions of trees in order to claw back and stave off some of the catastrophic effects of Climate Change. 

 

There are just too many mixed signals. Human kind is divided over what needs to be done and what to do. Broad statements like those by Pascoe engender confusion amongst the public at large and can give rise to damaging ripple effects in regard to the aforementioned efforts focused on the survival of trees, forests and diverse ecosystems as part of the solution to any impending Climate Change apocalypse. We know, for example, that the more trees we have, the more positive the environmental outcomes. We also know the negative effects of deforestation and environmental degradation. Trees create micro-climates; they help store moisture in the ground; they support ecological diversity; they stabilise the earth around them; they assist in making rain; they act as a carbon dioxide soaks; and they stop the land from drying out and turning into desert. These are just a few of the elements that need to be considered in the preservation and promulgation of forests and trees. We must plant more trees, not less, in order to clean the air we breath, preserve and expand ecosystems upon which human kind and the planet rely for survival, and minimize climate change and the negative effects on the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other pollutants (Wood 2020). A recent Australian newspaper article raised a number of possible and partial solutions to the Climate Change crisis, including the role to be played by trees:

Would tree planting actually work? Technically, when Trump pledged his support for the One Trillion Trees initiative at the World Economic Forum, he already had a head start. In 2017, his repeated public denial of climate science inspired a tree-planting campaign known as Trump Forest, which aimed to offset the amount of carbon released into the air due to the President's energy policies. Three years on, Trump Forest has shut down but more than one million trees stand in his name. Trees are still considered among the best carbon capture technology in existence and, unsurprisingly, large-scale land-clearing is to blame for a good chunk of emission. They are also conveniently non-partisan, as one exec at the World Economic Forum pointed out: "Everyone's pro-trees." In 2019, the one trillion figure was put forward by researchers analysing how many trees could be planted without encroaching on urban or agricultural areas. Increasing the world's canopy by 25 percent, they argued, could pull down about a quarter of its carbon. That has since been criticised by some as an overestimate, but Pearman and even NASA have defended reforestation as a promising option, noting that half of all emissions from car exhausts are absorbed by the ecosystem. But experts say it's vitally important to restore biodiversity as well as just tree cover (Groch 2020).

It is clear that planet Earth needs to increase its amount of vegetation cover, rather than continue to treat it merely as a resource or impediment to development. Large sections of the planet have been decimated over recent millennia as a result of such practices, and the statements by people such as Pascoe threaten the path to sustainability and recovery. We need to support nature in maintaining the natural cycles associated with trees and vegetation. For the above reasons I have been thinking about trees. Another is, as noted, J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).

4. Tolkien and trees

My engagement with the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien in recent years, and especially his character Tom Bombadil, raised the issue of trees on numerous occasions and helped me understand the concept of their sentient nature - a factor that was recognised by Tolkien from the days of his childhood. This is seen in the moving 2019 biopic Tolkien, wherein his connection with trees is referred to on a number of occasions (Mondello 2019).

J.R.R. Tolkien sitting amidst the roots of trees in the woods near his home in Bournemouth, England, 1972. Photographer: Lord Snowden. 

 

 

J.R.R. Tolkien, rooted in the earth, 1972.

Tolkien loved trees. He had a special relationship with them, a connection which he often referred to, but never explained fully (Harrod 1984, Finseth 1987, Bassham and Bronson 2003, Mirus 2004, Saguaro and Thacker 2013, Curry 2015, Pearce 2015,  Irvin 2017a, Judd 2017, Basu 2019). For example, around 1966 he told Clyde Kilby that the birch tree outside of his window on Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford, was his totem tree (Kilby 1976). Kilby went on to note the following in regard to Tolkien, his family, and the plant kingdom:

 

On our first visit there he took me round the garden and gave me the personal history of nearly every plant, and even the grass. He said he had loved trees since childhood and pointed out the trees he had himself planted. One easily understands Michael Tolkien's remark that from his father he "inherited an almost obsessive love of trees" and considered the massing felling of trees "the wanton murder of living beings for very shoddy ends" (Tolkien 1973). Tolkien wrote a letter to the editor of the Sunday Telegraph taking exception to what he thought an unfair allusion to his attitude towards trees. "In all my works," he wrote, " I take the part of trees as against all their enemies" and he spoke of " the destruction, torture and murder of trees perpetrated by private individuals and minor official bodies. The savage sound of the electric saw is never silent whenever trees are still growing" (Tolkien 1972). ... Elsewhere he is reported to have said that his most treasured book was Johns' Flowers of the Field.

 

Tolkien was what became known as a tree hugger before it became a derogatory term used by anti-environmentalists against individuals often known as Greenies. He sat with trees, touched them, looked at them, sketched and painted them, wrote stories about them. It was also noted that:

 

Thus in nature [Tolkien] found refuge from the wastes of industrialization [and war] (Irwin 2017)

 

Trees were very much part of who he was as both private person and public figure. He publically defended them, especially in his latter years. As he noted:

I am (obviously) much in love with plants and above all trees, and always have been; and I find human maltreatment of them as hard to bear as some find ill-treatment of animals. (J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955)

 

This love of trees extended to his writing, where he found expression therein: 

In all my works I take the part of trees as against all their enemies. (J.R.R. Tolkien 30 June 1972)

J.R.R. Tolkien leaning against one of his favourite trees, the Black Pine (Pinus nigra) he nicknamed 'Loacoon', Botanical Gardens, Oxford, 9 August 1973. Photograph: Michael Tolkien.

As the above quotes indicate, Tolkien often felt more for trees than his fellow humans. In The Lord of the Rings, living, mobile, sentient trees in the form of Ents feature in the fight against Sauron's devastation and the work of Saruman the White Wizard. Trees also feature prominently in his greater legendarium, as revealed in The Silmarillion and related works. Among his many writings trees figure, such as in the autobiographical short story Leaf by Niggle, and in both narrative and prose featuring Tom Bombadil - referred to as the spirit of nature - and his partner, the water spirit Goldberry. Trees exist both within the Middle-earth legendarium, and beyond its realm. For example, as human forms of spirits, Bombadil and Goldberry commune with nature spirits in a manner which is unquestioned. Tom can influence the revengeful actions of Old Willow Man, the mobile tree, who in turn communicates with, and controls, trees within the Old Forest, much as Treebeard plays a leadership role in The Lord of the Rings. The hobbits and Tom know of this sentient nature and deal with it accordingly. We read and accept it, without any real thought that it is more than just fantasy on the part of the author when he reveals the nature of trees and forests (Perlman 1994, Robinson 2007, Raven 2012, Saguaro 2013, anonymous 2016).

J.R.R. Tolkien 1973.

According to Tolkien and others, the sentient nature of trees is a given. This may sound incredible, or even impossible, to many / most, but Western society is slowly coming to terms with the fact. Scientists are investigating and reporting on this nature and how it operates. People now talk to trees, and we have machines by which we can hear them sing or otherwise communicate. Mediums  engage in interviews with them, recording conversations with nature spirits and specifically trees (Pilarski 2014, Holstein 2019). Tolkien is not the only one to write of nature spirits and trees that are sentient. They have long been part of the European world of faerie. Japanese mythology also prominently features such spirits, both good and evil. This can be seen in the cinematic anime from Studio Ghibli such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and My Friend Totoro.

5. Tom Bombadil Tree Society

As a result of all this information, and in bringing it together, the idea came to mind of setting up a Tom Bombadil Tree Society, whose aim would be the promotion and protection of trees. But perhaps that Society could also be called Bombadil Goldberry Niggle (BGN) to encompass the three levels  of what I see as the nature of human interaction with trees - Tom Bombadil as the ultimate nature spirit, a manifestation of the Christian God in the form of the grace-giving Holy Spirit of the Trinity; Goldberry as a water spirit and representative of the feminine, the goddess; and Niggle as the individual human or sentient being, on the same level as a tree in regard to possessing that spark of life and consciousness. Goldberry, for example, specifically pointed out the sentient nature of trees early in The Lord of the Rings, in a conversation with the hobbit Frodo Baggins:
 

The trees and the grasses and all things growing or living in the land belong each to themselves. (Goldberry to Frodo, The Lord of the Rings).

 

Niggle also has an affinity with trees like Tolkien. As a result, those three fictional characters, and their relationship with trees, add to what Tolkien felt about trees beyond the events concerning Treebeard and the Ents which are well known from popularization of The Lord of the Rings saga in film. Significantly, Tom Bombadil - who did not feature at all in the Peter Jackson film series - was protector of the Old Forest, and it's inhabitants such as the rather angry Old Willow Man tree. Within The Silmarillion, Tolkien wrote the following of trees, through the voice of the Green Elves of Ossiriand in conversion with Finrod Felagund:

These folk [men] are hewers of trees and hunters of beasts; therefore we are their unfriends, and if they will not depart we shall afflict them in all ways that we can (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion). 

 

Numerous books and articles have been written about Tolkien as an environmentalist, a lover of trees and forests, and his use of the latter as the link between humankind and faerie, or nature spirits. There is a contradiction between his profound religious (Catholic) commitment which officially never promulgated a spiritual aspect of nature, and his personal, open espousal of an almost pagan love for nature. Yet Tolkien is able to bridge this treacherous gap through his writings, and especially in works such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, whilst seemingly remaining true to the church. As a result, he his lauded by both groups - the Catholics who seek his sainthood, and the lovers of mythology and faerie - as one of the greatest writers and promoters of both ideologies. He is a saint to both in the fact that he was able to use his writings to covey truth and moral sentiment to all humankind who care to read, or listen. The universality of his hobbit saga and its messages is due, in part, to the presentation of nature and everyday natural endeavour. His portrayal of nature spirits such as Treebeard, Tom Bombadil and Goldberry as part of this (our) world - as good spirits in the fight against evil spirits - resonates across time and differences of culture and ethnicity.

 

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6. References

Astell-Burt, Thomas and Fang, Xiaoqi, More green, more 'zzzzz'? Trees may help us sleep, The Conversation [website], 16 March 2020.

Bassham, G. and Bronson, E., Tolkien's Green Time: Environmental Themes in The Lord of the Rings, in The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, Open Court, Chicago, 2003, 150-64.

Basu, Kamalika, Tolkien's love for trees, The Telegraph [India], 13 September 2019.

Burke, Janine, My Forests: Travels with Trees, Melbourne University Press, 2021, 250p.

Chamovitz, Daniel, What a plant knows: A field guide to the senses, Oneworld Publications, 2017.

Curry, Patrick, Tolkien and Nature, Tolkien Estate [website], 2015.

Dordel, Julia and Tolke, Guido, Intelligent Trees - The Documentary [video], Dragon Eye Films, 2019, duration: 45.09.

Finseth, Claudia Riiff, Tolkien's Trees, Mallorn, The Journal of the Tolkien Society of Great Britain, 35, 1987. Reprinted in TheOneRing.net [blog], 3 November 2008. 

Fitzgerald, Bridget, Aboriginal historian wants more trees cut to prevent bush fires, AM - ABC Radio, 14 January 2020.

Franzen, Jonathan, What if we stopped pretending? The climate apocalypse is coming - to prepare for it, we need to admit that we can't prevent it, The New Yorker, 8 September 2019.

Gagliano, Monica, Thus spoke the plant: A remarkable journey of ground-breaking discoveries and personal encounters with plants, North Atlantic Books, 2018, 176p.

Gibson, Prudence and Brits, Baylee, Covert plants: vegetal consciousness and agency in the anthroprocentric world, Brainstorm Books, Santa Barbra, 2018.

Glassman, Alan, Are we born with a soul that makes us superior to machines with artificial intelligence?, New Dawn, 179, March-April 2020, 58-60.

Grant, Richard, Do trees talk to each other?, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2018.

Groch, Sherryn, Switching on to climate control, Sydney Morning Herald, 15-16 February 2020.

Halkett, John, Talking Trees [blog], accessed 9 February 2020.

Harrison, Robert Pogue, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Harrod, Elizabeth, Trees in Tolkien, and what happened under them, Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams and Mythopoeic Literature, 11(1), 1984.

Haskell, George David, The songs of trees: Stories from nature's great connectors, Penguin, 2017, 307p.

Hennigan, Tom, Talking trees - secrets of plant communication, Answers Magazine [blog],  9 April 2017. 

 

Howard, Krissy, How trees "talk" to each other, All That Is Interesting [blog], 31 January 2017.

Irvin, Doyle. The original Ent: How J.R.R. Tolkien became an environmentalist, Loose Leaf - The official blog of American forests [blog], 9 March 2017.

-----, The Ent Activist: Why The Lord of the Rings became a counterculture icon, Loose Leaf - The official blog of American forests [blog], 23 May 2017.

Jones, David, Recordings reveal that plants make ultrasonic squeals when stressed, New Dawn, 179, March-April 2020, 5.

 

Kilby, Clyde, Tolkien and The Silmarillion, Lion Publishing, 1976, 89p.

Judd, Walter S. and Judd, Graham A., Flora of Middle-Earth: Plants of J.R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium, Oxford University Press, 2017, 424p.

McKay, Jeffrey, Call of the forest: the forgotten wisdom of trees [video], Edgeland Films, 2017, duration: 82 mins.

Mirus, Peter, Tolkien and His Trees, Catholic Culture [blog], 27 September 2004.

Mondello, Tony, Review: 'Tolkien' is a tale of tweed and trees, NPR [website], 9 May 2019..

Noonan, Michael, In the Land of the Talking Trees: A Fantasy, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1946. Illustrated by D.H. Gilmore.

Organ, M.K., Tolkien's Surrealistic Pillow: Leaf by Niggle, Journal of Tolkien Research, 5(1), 2018. 

 

Pascoe, Bruce, Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident, a history of Aboriginal agriculture, Magabala Press, 2014.

Pearce, Joseph, Tolkien, Trees and Tradition, The Imaginative Conservative [blog], 2 February 2015.

Perlman, Michael, The Power of Trees: The Reforesting of the Soul, Spring Publications, London, 1994.

Pilarski, Michael, Recommended Fairy Books: Verena Stael von Holstein, Fairy and Human Relations Congress, 12 December 2014.

Raven, Susan, Nature Spirits: The Remembrance - A Guide to the Elemental Kingdom, Clairview Books, 2012, 176p.

Robinson, W.A. Hawke, J.R.R. Tolkien's Love of Trees and the Environment, 2 May 2007 (updated July 2011). 

Saguaro, Shelley, and Thacker, Deborah Cogan, Tolkien and Trees, in J.R.R. Tolkien, Macmillan Education, UK, 2013.

 

Simard, Suzanne,  Finding the mother tree: Discovering the wisdom of the forest, Penguin, 2021.

Tolkien, J.R.R., Leaf by Niggle, Dublin Review, 216, 1945, 46-61.

-----, The Lord of the Rings, Allen & Unwin, London, 1954-5.

 

-----, Trees, Daily Telegraph, 4 July 1972.

-----, On Fairy Stories, Tolkien on Fairy-Stories, Harper/Collins, London, 2008. Edited by Veryln Flieger and Douglas A. Anderson. 

 

Tolkien, Michael, J.R.R. Tolkien - the Wizard Father, Sunday Telegraph, 9 September 1973.

 

Tolkien and Trees, Root Simple [blog], 8 September 2016.

Trees, Tolkien Gateway [website], 2 May 2015.

Trees, The One Wiki to Rule Them All: The Lord of the Rings Wiki [website], accessed 2 February 2020.

Trees, Tolkien Estate [website], 2015. 

 
Tudge, Colin, The Secret Life of Trees: How they live and why they matter, Allen Lane, 2005, 320p.

Von Holstein, Verena Stael, Nature Spirits and what they say, Clairview Books, 2019, 238p. Originally published 2001.

-----, Nature Spirits of the Trees, Clairview Books, 2019, 240p. Originally published 2004.

Wollheben, Peter, The Hidden Life of Trees: What they feel, how they communicate - discoveries from a secret world, Greystone Books, 2016, 290p.

-----, The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing our ancient bond with forests and nature, Black Inc., 2021.
 

Wood, Patrick, How trees can be a cheap and effective alternative to air-conditioners, ABC News, Sydney, 13 February 2020. 

Wu, Plants may 'scream' when stressed, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 December 2019. .

Years of the Trees, Tolkien Gateway [website], 17 November 2019. 

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Aboriginal Dreaming Stories | Faerie in Australia | Cook's Australian Fairy Tales | Peck's Australian Legends | Picnic at Hanging Rock | Trees & nature spirits |

Last updated: 21 July 2023
Michael Organ, Australia