Elves, orcs, dragons, in The Lord of the Rings and its extensive mythology we find a large number of magical creatures that enrich the legend and the universe that Tolkien bequeathed us. But among the pages of stories and tales of the British writer born in South Africa we find much more than creatures. Plants form an important part of the history of Middle-earth ; so much so, that, in Tolkien’s mythology, before the ages of the sun, before the existence of the sun and the moon, there were the ages of trees .
Laurelin , the golden tree – inspired by a laburnum tree – and Telperion , the silver tree – inspired by a cherry tree – illuminated the world with their light, until the mighty Ungoliant , mother of all spiders, devoured them. The light of the trees survived in the jewels that the elf Fëanor forged, called silmarils , and which give the story its name— Quenta Silmarillion in High Elvish means “the story of the silmarils”—and also in the last flower of Telperion , which they called Isil —which would later be the moon— and the last fruit of Laurelin , called Anar —and which would be the sun—.
With this background in Tolkien’s mythology, it is not uncommon for plants to be a constant throughout the various stories . With examples such as the athelas , or ‘leaf of kings’, a plant with healing properties with which Aragorn saves Frodo from the evil of the ‘black breath’, or the ucornos , trees capable of communicating with each other —today we know that some plants can do , although not as Tolkien imagined it—and even walking. The author gives plants a high value that few fantasy writers have been able to lend.
Simbelmynë, the flowers of the ancestors
In the tombs of the kings of Rohan, land of horsemen, stand out some white flowers that bloom permanently, and spread easily on the ground.
The inhabitants of Rohan call them simbelmynë , which would translate to something like ‘it always matters’, and the elves call them alfitin , ‘immortals’. It is said that in the tomb of the great King Helm ‘Iron Hand’ the simbelmynë grow in such profusion that it appears to be covered in perpetual snow, in memory of what happened during his reign in Rohan.
In some translations they called it ‘forget-me-not’, but it does not seem to be related to the plants of the genus Myosotis , which we know of. Instead, Tolkien was inspired by a small, light buttercup flower called the flower of the wind ( Anemone nemorosa ) , very common in England and also present on the Iberian peninsula. It is a plant that spreads easily underground, thanks to underground stems called rhizomes , and forms large colonies, whose flowering indicates the beginning of spring.
The cereal of the gods
One of the most relevant foods in the story of Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring is lembas , the elvish bread of the way . A kind of cakes of bread that the elves of Lothlorien give to the eight companions, carefully wrapped in silver-backed leaves, which never spoil and turn out to be an exceptional food, since a single bite satisfies a person’s appetite.
It is not clear whether the true nutritional power of lembas comes from the cereal from which they are made, a product created by the Vala Yavanna —the goddess of plants and agriculture— or if it is due to the recipe, developed by the Maia Melian —a sort of a minor goddess, who was associated with the elves in ancient times.
Tolkien was based on the so-called sailor biscuit , a type of flattened and small bread that was hardened by double baking – ‘biscuit’ literally means ‘twice baked’ – that was used as food on long overseas voyages, for be very durable and easy to transport. And just as the sailor’s cake is made with wheat, the cereal with which the lembas are made must also be something similar to wheat .
Although it seems strange, modern wheat is a plant that is not found in nature . Triticum aestivum is a hexaploid hybrid, that is, it has a set of chromosomes in groups of six, unlike humans, who have them in pairs. Furthermore, it is a variety that has three distinct parent species: Triticum urartu , Triticum tauschii , and Aegilops speltoids . A true chimera .
Mallorn, the leaves that endure
In the scene in which Galadriel delivers the elvish bread to the Company, another very important plant for the forest of Lothlorien can be seen; the one that gives the leaves with which the lembas are wrapped. The mallorn is perhaps the most representative tree of the fortress of Caras Galadhon . Its wood is silver, and its leaves, with a deep green upper side and silver undersides, have the ability to stay fresh for a long time after being pulled from the tree, as well as to preserve what is stored in them if they are damaged. use as a wrapper. When autumn arrives, the leaves turn golden, but they do not fall from the tree until the new spring arrives and they sprout again.
This peculiar way of losing the leaf, which does not become perennial, but is not the usual way of losing deciduous leaves, is called marcescence —from ‘March’—, and is a peculiarity of some trees such as the gall oak ( Quercus pyrenaica ) or some populations of beeches ( Fagus sylvatica ). Trees from which Tolkien was inspired to create the mellyrn (plural of mallorn ).
The marcescence has several effects on the species that present it, and on the ecosystems that they form. The loss of the leaf causes an opening in the plant that is difficult to close, and that while it is open, allows the evaporation of water; By keeping the dry leaf on the branch throughout the winter, the marcescent tree evapotranspires much less and saves water. In addition, the taste and texture of the dry leaves are unpleasant for herbivores, who reject them as food, and the buds from which new leaves will sprout, come spring, will be better preserved .
From an ecological point of view, the loss of a normal deciduous leaf during the fall allows decomposing organisms to make all the nutrients available to the plants during the winter. In this situation, there is a risk that these nutrients will be lost due to the dragging of rainwater or snowfall. But in forests of marcescent trees, by the time the leaves reach the ground for the decomposers to do their work, the plants are already budding and blooming, ready and primed to get all the nutrients.
References:
El Baidouri, M. et al. 2017. Reconciling the evolutionary origin of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). New Phytologist, 213(3), 1477-1486. DOI: 10.1111/nph.14113
Escudero, A. et al. 1987. Ecological Significance of the Phenology of Leaf Abscission.
Oikos, 49 (1), 11. DOI: 10.2307 / 3565549
Hammond, W. G. et al. 2005. The lord of the rings: a reader’s companion.
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