Sycamore Gap

 

I'm sad to report that the famous sycamore tree beside Hadrian's Wall has been cut down. The three hundred year old tree was a major landmark, standing alone in a gulch through which the wall passed. Hadrian's Wall is one of the oldest, and certainly the biggest, building in Britain; it is a world heritage site. The vista of the tree standing in the dip has become a classic one and there are many photographs of it; and it is often an outdoor setting for films and TV programmes. It was felled by a sixteen year old boy with a chainsaw. His motives are currently unknown. Source:  https://news.sky.com/story/sycamore-gap-tree-second-person-arrested-in-connection-with-felling-of-iconic-landmark-12972772. JRR Tolkien grew up on the outskirts of what at the time was the fastest growing city in the world, Birmingham. He spent his childhood watching forests and copses being knocked over to make way for roads, houses and factories. This is probably why he seemed to regard the destruction of trees as the very essence of barbarism. We see this in the Lord of the Rings films, for example when Saruman pulls down all the trees in the parkland around Isengard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qK7cweKy64. There are many scenes of tree destruction in the book that are not reproduced in the films. Recently I reported on how a proud and ancient tree was cut apart because it stood in the way of the HS2 track, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/10/tree-felled-for-hs2.html. In that case it was big government and globalist multinationals giving orders to what Heathcote Williams called "blind dwarves", the eastern European immigrants employed on the minimum wage to wield chainsaws without thought or feeling. Why did this young boy cut the Sycamore at Hadrian's Wall? For fun? For the prestige he will enjoy among his schoolmates for "doing a dare"? He has grown up in a meaningless world alien to his ancestors. People in the past understood meaning because they lived in sacred times. Maybe his stupidity is inevitable as we witness the triumph of profane, nihilistic, mercenary and degenerate times. If only there were real Ents! The good news is that the vandal left the stump and roots still standing. They appear to be viable for coppicing, meaning the tree will regrow. However it will be a couple of centuries before it can regain its former glory.

See here for more information: https://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-stag-and-stones-poem.html.