Mirkwood
the Great Wood; the Forest of the spider and the shadow
Name and History
Mirkwood — in its age of light the Greenwood the Great — is the vast forest east of the Anduin in the later ages. As the Shadow of Dol Guldur grew, the tale says the woods darkened and were called Mirkwood, “the forest of the… shadow”, where the spiders bred and the Wood-elves withdrew behind the power of the Elvenking’s halls. Its creature-haunted darkness, the path of the Dwarves’ journey, and its king (Thranduil) belong to the world of The Hobbit.
The Forest of the Fall
- The western-eaves connection: Radagast dwelt at Rhosgobel on its rim, friend of its birds and beasts; the great spiders of Mirkwood (kin of Shelob and, far back, of Ungoliant) spun among its boughs. In the War of the Ring, the Shadow of the Wood was broken at the fall of Dol Guldur; the forest passed in time again into the keeping of the Elves and the light.
Significance
Mirkwood is the Second-and-Third Age heir of the dark woods of the First (it is even given the echoing name of the darkened Taur-nu-Fuin); its spiders, its enchantments and its winding paths preserve the old legend of the “forest of the shadow” through the later tales.