Forests in Fantasy

Forests are almost an essential part of fantasy fiction. From the Greenwood of the Robin Hood legends, to Mirkwood and Fangorn in Middle Earth, the cool, richly scented shade of forests looms large across the genre. They are the home of monsters and wonders, the source of great magic and deadly enchantments. In the most cliché of examples, they are also home to elves, who will doubtless offer some useful bit of magic or knowledge to the hapless adventurer before sending them on their way.

It is very interesting that even I can’t quite get away from mixing forests with magic. Perhaps because it is a primal urge. Forests are mysterious places, and part of the mind of a fantasy writer is always thrilled with mystery. Particularly when that mystery is edged with the sense of danger the darkest parts of a forest can hold as the sun sets and we retreat to our cabins or campfires.

For thousands of years, forests were places that limited humanity’s growth. You can’t grow crops or farm animals in the middle of a forest - with the exception of pigs. Forests are the home of wild things, whether those things are men or beasts. I think that part of what draws fantasy writers to forests time and time again is just how liminal they are. Wild, yet tame enough to offer sanctuary. Beautiful, with carpets of wildflowers in spring and welcome shade in summer, yet terrifying. Unseen things move with only the cracking of twigs to say they were there. This quality intensifies as visibility drops. Let the forest become foggy, or undergrowth obscure our view forward, even now it is all too easy to imagine creeping Fair Folk out to trick us, or giant trolls lying in wait to grab their morsel of human flesh. And that is only speaking from my own experience of the forests of South Wales.

Part of what is making this article difficult to write - far more difficult than the last, which was a look at how deserts are used in fantasy - is that forests are far more alive than deserts, and I am planning other articles to look at creatures, their habitats, and how to create believable creatures of your own.

Change

It is very easy for a forest to represent natural change in a story. The cycle of the seasons is vividly represented by a deciduous forest, and even within coniferous forests the seasons are easily marked. This sense of change is far stronger in a forest than it is on a farm, and certainly than it is in the heart of a city. Forests are eternal, but constantly changing. Ever dying, ever growing. All without any need whatsoever for humans to take a hand in their constant, shifting, life.

So I’m not going to pick forests apart for being unrealistic in their representation in fantasy literature. That, in a very real way, is part of their charm. Instead, all I will ask is that you do more with your forests than simply have them as a green backdrop for your characters to ride through. Please, if you are going to have forests, give them the sense of wondrous danger that is theirs by right.