The Wicked Willow of Withywindle

[Inziladun]

I'm reading through LOTR for the ?th time, and it's a testament to these works, in my opinion, that I'm always finding new things to ponder upon each reading.
I've been thinking lately about Old Man Willow. Not necessarily his nature, because I'm pretty well convinced he's a Huorn. What I'm wondering is this: what were his intentions when he trapped Merry and Pippin (and attempted to do the same to Frodo and Sam)?

[Frodo and Sam] went round to the other side of the tree, and then Sam understood the click that he had heard. Pippin had vanished. The crack by which he had laid himself had closed altogether, so that not a chink could be seen, Merry was trapped: another crack had closed about his waist; his legs lay outside, but the rest of him was inside a dark opening, the edges of which gripped like a pair of pincers.

LOTR The Old Forest

Later, Tom suggests the Willow had done that to Hobbits before.

'Old Grey Willow-man, he's a mighty singer; and its hard for little folk to escape his cunning mazes.'

LOTR In the House of Tom Bombadil

So what was the Willow after? If he had simply wanted to kill the Hobbits (as he threatened to do when Sam lit a fire against him), why didn't he do it straight away? Was he going to eat them? Ents and Huorns don't seem to be carnivorous. Did the Ring play a factor? Was the Willow obeying some other will in trying to hinder the Hobbits?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Quite an interesting question, Inzil. Well, as for me, it seems obvious that Old Man Willow's ultimate motive was that he "hated all that walked on two legs", as those evil trees do. But what exactly was the point with Merry and Pippin, well... not that the trees would be carnivorous, but when you make the soil fertile with some organic remains, it is always more nutritious... well, hm, I think you get the point. Disgusting.
Or for that matter, it could be simply trapping them. The malicious intent. That actually sounds even more plausible and "in character" for the Old Man Willow. For the tree, it does not matter how long he keeps them trapped, eventually, they will die of starvation or something. Enough for the evil tree to be content: two more of the terrible disgusting walking things destroyed. Why didn't he kill them straight away? He wanted to enjoy mocking them (and Frodo, who was totally helpless and could not do anything) and make them suffer for a while. That would quite fit. Once again, so lonely in the forest for such a long time, I doubt he had encountered Hobbits in a long time, he wanted to enjoy the moment.

[Morsul the Dark]

Well personally I feel Old Man Willow and Tom were at one point the same creature, that is not the discussion.

I think Not only did Old Man Willow hate those who walked on two legs, there are two reasons he would take on Merry and Pippin:

1: These horrid two-legged creatures Dared to Sleep against him using him like some common pillow. Willow doesn't like being used in such a manner.

2: Depending on his age, He could remember the old battle between Hobbits and the ld Forest. The great burning in the middle of it. Revenge is oh so sweet.

Ok there Is a third less likely option
3:Old Man Willow, somehow knew they were on an important quest. He felt they were being too aloof about the entire thing and needed a little bit of teaching about be cautious. I mean he didn't seem to want to Kill them. just punish them a little.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark

I think Not only did Old Man Willow hate those who walked on two legs, there are two reasons he would take on Merry and Pippin:

1: These horrid two-legged creatures Dared to Sleep against him using him like some common pillow. Willow doesn't like being used in such a manner.

2: Depending on his age, He could remember the old battle between Hobbits and the ld Forest. The great burning in the middle of it. Revenge is oh so sweet.

Ok there Is a third less likely option
3:Old Man Willow, somehow knew they were on an important quest. He felt they were being too aloof about the entire thing and needed a little bit of teaching about be cautious. I mean he didn't seem to want to Kill them. just punish them a little.

The first option is the most unlikely, I think. The Hobbits had been diverted to the Withywindle against their will, and the implication is that the Willow was responsible. He was certainly the reason they fell asleep.

The third is also improbable. Their intention was to get out of the Forest as quickly as possible, and avoid the Withywindle Valley, as well as the Downs. If Bombadil hadn't come along, at the very least the Hobbits would have been lost, and been obliged to waste time finding their way again. It doesn't seem any altruistic motives were involved.

The second option, that he was still smarting about the Bonfire, could have played into it. Merry did say that after that event, the trees became very unfriendly (as if moving right to the Hedge and leaning over it in a menacing fashion was not 'unfriendly' enough).
If that's all it was about though, he certainly went to a lot of trouble to get them to his location, when it seems the message 'Get out of here, you're not wanted!', had already been clearly received by the Hobbits.
I was musing whether he might not have been actively aiding the Nazgûl. In UT, there is a version of the events occurring during the Hobbits' flight from the Shire, which brings up that very idea. The Witch-king had made a temporary base between the Barrow-downs and the South Downs. At one point he had gone to the Downs in person.

In notes on the movements of the Black Riders at that time, it is said that the Black Captain stayed there for some days, and the Barrow-wights were roused, and all things of evil spirit, hostile to Elves and Men, were on the watch with malice in the Old Forest and on the Barrow-downs.

The Hunt For the Ring (emphasis added)

If the Willow was in league with the Witch-king, I wonder what the plan was? The Willow didn't succeed in capturing all four of the party at any rate. Was it simply a delaying tactic? Would the Witch-king have gotten word somehow that a party of Hobbits had been located leaving the Shire?

[Rumil]

I reckon Old Man Willow was a huorn gone bad and had taken up carnivorous tendancies, a bit like a giant Venus fly trap.

Tom also mentions the 'black alder' at some stage, presumably another huorn-ish baddie?

WitchKing had been in the area of the Barrow Downs stirring up the denizens, I'd guess that he knew nothing of Old Man Willow, after all the Forest was on Tom's patch. Maybe though the 'evil vibes' made OMW rather more active than usual?

Did OMW sing a 'sleep spell' (like Luthien etc) ? Or was it a subconscious thing?

[Boromir88]

I don't think Old Man Willow is a Huorn, I simply think he was a nasty-spirited tree. Of course in reality, a tree won't try to trap you and gobble you up, but we are talking about Tolkien's world, where typically inanimate things can have a spirit, whether for good or evil. Was Caradhras a normal, just very nasty storm? Or was there a dark, evil will that was trying to hinder the Fellowship, for the sport of it? Were those 'normal' wolves looking for some food that attacked the Fellowship? Gandalf didn't think so.

Old Man Willow was a tree, just a down-right mean one:

"...and in it there lived yet, aging no quicker than the hills, the fathers of the fathers of trees, remembering times when they were lords. The countless years had filled them with pride and rooted wisdom, and with malice. But none were more dangerous than the Great Willow: his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning, and a master of winds, and his song and thought ran through the woods on both sides of the river."~The Old Forest

The fathers of the fathers of trees...doesn't that make him a tree? He wouldn't be a pumpkin.

This also gets you thinking about Morsul's #2. He was obviously an old tree, and a po'ed one because the trees were no longer great "lords." So, when little halflings stroll in to take a nap, the prideful, cunning, nasty tree wants revenge.

And in Letter 212:

The Fall or corruption, therefore, of all things in it and all inhabitants of it, was a possibility if not inevitable. Trees may "go bad" as in the Old Forest...

"Corruption" re-occurs throughout Tolkien's books, and not just in living, animate people, but everying in and of Middle-earth can become corrupted. This includes trees, which are different from Huorns, as well as arguably mountains deciding to "go bad."