BMEM 2010: The Mysterious Hemlock

[lady_branwyn]

I used to be puzzled by the following lines in "The Lay of Luthien."

The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair..

A hemlock is a tall, evergreen tree, not a flower. Or is it? Some members of the parsley family bear umbels of white flowers and are called hemlocks (including the poison hemlock formerly used as a means of execution). Angelica and Queen Anne's Lace (a wild version of the carrot) are close relatives.

Comments

[roh-wyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd second-guess Tolkien's botany only very carefully, lol. He seems to have either known a great deal about local/British flora, or he did a lot of research.

(That said, I still don't know why he can't just say "holly" and not "ilex", lol!)

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

That is very odd that he, of all people, would prefer to use "ilex" over "holly"--the latter is an honest Anglo-Saxon word.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I believe Tolkien was referring to this British plant as I'd say a flower if anyone asked, I've never heard of the tree!
http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/hemlock.htm

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

I think that the tree is an American native, so it makes sense that you wouldn't know it. As for the hemlock flowers, I have never heard of them, so maybe they are not common in my part of the country?

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I just found this site with photos, which says they grow in Ilinois in your part of the world.Is the tree a deadly poison too?
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/photos/poison_hemlock1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/weeds/plants/poison_hemlock.htm&usg=__HL9qwOVvKQwKgzzDN6kbtnIYl3o=&h=427&w=320&sz=59&hl=en&start=18&sig2=TAMj8UOR1-1fc20jDVWpkw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=zN_28q0-D2CZcM:&tbnh=126&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhemlock%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADBF_en-GB%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=aZSUS4WdNYSA4Qae8KCRDQ

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I've always known this family of plants as umbellifers. All species occur throughout the British Isles with cow parsley being one of the most common. A field of umbellifers is indeed beautiful, like a sea of creamy white foam. I've always been able to imagine this scene from the Lay of Luthien quite vividly :)