Sacred Groves - Sacred Woods, Groves and Trees in Fiction

Sacred Woods, Groves and Trees in Fiction

J. R. R. Tolkien included many magical trees and woods in his fictional writings which he based on English and Norse mythology. George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire features "weirwoods", a fictional tree species that is worshipped, particularly ancient groves holding extra significance. In The Legend of Zelda series there is a location called the Sacred Grove in Hyrule, usually depicted as a gateway to the Temple of Time and thus the Sacred Realm, one of the most important locations in the series' backstory.

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Famous quotes containing the words sacred, groves, trees and/or fiction:

    “I want the necessity of supplying my own wants. All this costly culture of yours is not necessary. Greatness does not need it. Yonder peasant, who sits neglected, carries a whole revolution of man and nature in his head, which shall be a sacred history to some future ages.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Now the bright morning star, day’s harbinger,
    Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her
    The flow’ry May, who from her green lap throws
    The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.
    Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire
    Mirth and youth and warm desire!
    Woods and groves are of thy dressing,
    Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.”
    —John Milton (1608–1674)

    “Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish,
    A vapor sometimes like a bear or lion,
    A towered citadel, a pendant rock,
    A forked mountain, or blue promontory
    With trees upon ‘t that nod unto the world
    And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs;
    They are black vesper’s pageants.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “If one doubts whether Grecian valor and patriotism are not a fiction of the poets, he may go to Athens and see still upon the walls of the temple of Minerva the circular marks made by the shields taken from the enemy in the Persian war, which were suspended there. We have not far to seek for living and unquestionable evidence. The very dust takes shape and confirms some story which we had read.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)