Legolas's Green Leaf Blower

[alatar]

Where have all the mallorns gone
Long time passin'
Where have all the mallorns gone
A long, long time ago

- with apologies to Pete Seeger.

Some time ago, summer turned cold and, as every year, the leaves turned color then fell to the ground. Though I have but one tree in the yard, the backyard lawn gets covered in leaves from the trees in the neighborhood, and I swear that there's some type of wind vortex that keeps stray leaves from, well, leaving the yard. When most of the trees are safely bare, I go out with the leaf blower and pile them up under the kids' tree swing so that they can enjoy the summer/fall for the few remaining days before winter appears. After the kids mulch and scatter the leaves, I go out and herd them back together (the kids and the leaves), and bag them (the leaves, not the kids ) for the garbage.

While 'enjoying' this fall ritual, it suddenly came to me: What do the Galadhrim of Lothlórien do with the fallen mallorn leaves? Yes, I know that the trees keep their leaves until Spring, but, when they fall, what?

I suppose if they were to be left where they'd fallen, eventually this would kill the lawns upon which the elves dance. Leaves can be composted, but I thought that in Lorien there is no stain or decay. Are they dumped into the Celebrant and Anduin? Trucked over to Dol Guldur and thrown in Sauron the Necromancer's lawn? Sent to Moria to be burned by the Balrog? And just how much mallorn leaf garland can you use?

[Lalwendë]

Living in (allegedly) Europe's greenest city, the leaves here just stay where they fall, eventually turning into mush on the pavements which can be very slippy seeing as we have so many steep hills, and eventually in the Spring, when the new financial year begins, the council send out some road sweepers to get rid of the forming compost...maybe Elves too just leave 'em?

Seriously, I thought Mallorns did not drop their leaves? Am I wrong?

[Bêthberry]

Well, either the leaves don't fall but just puff up again new-like for spring, or ...

the elves gather the fallen leaves and stuff them into great works of beauty and art, otherwise known as quilts. I suspect this latter option, as it is highly likely that the Hutterites, who are famous for their down-stuffed quilts, are the inheritors of the elven love of beautiful crafts.

Now, I bet no one ever imagined that the Barrow Downs could be about goose feathers, eh?

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Living in (allegedly) Europe's greenest city, the leaves here just stay where they fall, eventually turning into mush on the pavements which can be very slippy seeing as we have so many steep hills, and eventually in the Spring, when the new financial year begins, the council send out some road sweepers to get rid of the forming compost...maybe Elves too just leave 'em?

That just seems to be too 'untidy' for elves. Not all are of Peter Jackson's ilk who let leaves blow all about the place. And I think that Sauron, in the Third Age, released 'slip and fall' loyers/lawyers, and they looked to litigate whenever possible...why else did Galadriel and Elrond sail on the Last Ship? To escape judgment, methinks.

Seriously, I thought Mallorns did not drop their leaves? Am I wrong?

Originally Posted by The Professor

There lie the woods of Lothlórien!' said Legolas. 'That is the fairest of all the dwellings of my people. There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold. Not till the spring comes and the new green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden with yellow flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden, and golden is the roof, and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of the trees is smooth and grey. So still our songs in Mirkwood say. My heart would be glad if I were beneath the eaves of that wood, and it were springtime!'

And in regards to quilts, Lothlorien must have some immense closets!

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by The Professor
There lie the woods of Lothlórien!' said Legolas. 'That is the fairest of all the dwellings of my people. There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold. Not till the spring comes and the new green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden with yellow flowers; and the floor of the wood is golden, and golden is the roof, and its pillars are of silver, for the bark of the trees is smooth and grey. So still our songs in Mirkwood say. My heart would be glad if I were beneath the eaves of that wood, and it were springtime!'

You know what this means, don't you? Seasons gone to pot? Global warming! In Lothlorien! Run for the hills!

Can't wait for the Roland Emmerich film "The Age After Tomorrow" featuring Pippin holed up in the Caras Galadhon library burning volumes of Elven tax law to keep warm.

Originally Posted by Alatar

And I think that Sauron, in the Third Age, released 'slip and fall' loyers/lawyers, and they looked to litigate whenever possible...why else did Galadriel and Elrond sail on the Last Ship? To escape judgment, methinks.

This hints at why Sauron encouraged the Orcs to chop down trees. Like a teacher that fears to take his or her class on a school trip for fear of a litigious parent suing because little Johnny has sprained a fingernail, Sauron was merely seeking to protect himself from greedy clients of no win no fee lawyers, seeking to exploit the slimy leaf strewn byways of Middle-earth?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by alatar

And in regards to quilts, Lothlorien must have some immense closets!

Hardly, I would think. Up in those flets? Why, there's barely room for a proper habitation with decorous seating and sleeping arrangements. Surely those quilts are made to provide little privacy curtains--unless the elves went all New Yorker on each other way back in the third age. Then they wouldn't even need binoculars or telescopes--and maybe the leaves provided an elven form of fan dance. There's aesthetics and beauty in that, too.

[alatar]

I admit to knowing nothing of aesthetics or optics, but still wonder where the annual fallen foliage is deposited. If the leaves are left to rot, yet do not, then by the time of the finding of the One Ring, in Lothlorien we are barely seeing the tops of such mighty trees, which must grow tall indeed to stay above the piles of petioles.