The small town of Buckland lies to the east of the Shire, just over the Brandywine Bridge. The different types of hobbits who live in the two separate areas find each other strange, and want little to do with each other. As for the hobbits in The Shire, their weariness of the Bucklanders comes, at least in part, from their close proximity to the trees of the Old Forest, which lies just beyond their borders. But hobbits are known to love nature, and want to care for things that grow, so why are they all so afraid of this particular woodland?
The Old Forest is just a small patch of a much wider, larger woodland that used to stretch across the whole of Eriador until it was desecrated and cut down by the men of the west, the Numenorians upon whom the two great statues of The Argonath are based. The trees in the land used to be peaceful and were at one time even guided by the Ents like the other talking trees of Fangorn Forest. But the more wood the humans stole, the more malevolent the trees became, to the point where the entire province became dark and twisted and dangerous for anyone to enter. The trees began hating strangers, and the Huorns, a type of ancient spirit who lived among them, developed the powers to bathe themselves in shadow, becoming almost impossible to detect at night. This of course made them deadly, because they were able to pursue and crush their victims before the unsuspecting travelers were even aware of their presence.
The hobbits of Buckland and of Bree became particular enemies of the forest when the trees within decided to attack their homes. All around Buckland, there lies a great hedge that was grown to protect the borders and keep evil things out of the land, and late one night the trees tried to climb the hedge with the aim of waging war on the hobbits. The Bucklanders responded by cutting down and burning vast numbers of trees, creating a clear and cursed space with the forest known as the Bonfire Glade. Although it worked, and the trees retreated, it of course only made them more malevolent and sinister, until they became the stuff of nightmares and ghost tales for young hobbits as far as the shire. Fatty Bulger, a friend of Frodo and Sams says: ‘I am more afraid of the Old Forest than of anything I know about: the stories about it are a nightmare.’
There is one particular Huorn that still lives within the Old forest, who causes Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo, the four hobbits who later become members of the fellowship of the ring, a great deal of trouble on their journey, and his name is Old Man Willow. He starts by directing the trees to shift and change as the hobbits journey past, so that they quickly lose the path and end up lost. They are then guided towards the Withywindle river, the centre from which the weird and uncanny things that take place in the forest come. Old Man Willow sits on the edge of the river, and he sings a sort of melodic song to lull the hobbits to sleep.
Once they have drifted off, he tries to drown them in the river, almost succeeding with Frodo who is dragged out of the water from underneath one of Willow’s roots just in time by Samwise. But when this plan doesn’t succeed, he tries instead to crush them. The scene later shown in the 2001 film adaptation by Peter Jackson, in which Merry and Pippin are almost swallowed by the tree’s roots, actually takes place in the Old Forest in the book. It is Old Man Willow who tries to squeeze them to death, and when Frodo and Sam light a fire to try to make him release them, they hear strange words within the creaking branches, warning them to put the flames out or he will kill their two hobbit friends.
Luckily the group is saved by the appearance of Tom Bombadil, a kindly spirit who also lives in the woods, and taken back to his house for food and refreshment where they can spend the night away from the fear of the forest. The Huorns are later called to arms by the Ents, and help fight in the war of the ring. They aid in destroying the Orc army and forges at Isengard, where Pippin later finds the Palantir, the seeing stone of the evil lord Sauron. And when Aragorn becomes the rightful king of Gondor, taking over the long-failing rule from Denethor, the Steward, he is able to make peace with the trees of the old forests, promising that they will no longer be harmed or touched by men. Once they have a safe space where they feel less defensive of their territory, they are able to return to their days of tranquillity and quietude.