SOURCE: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (1954)

DESCRIPTION:"...He lifted his heavy eyes and saw leaning over him a huge willow-tree, old and hoary. Ernormous it looked, its sprawling branches going up like reaching arms with many long-fingered hands, its knotted and twisted trunk gaping  in wide fissures that creaked faintly as the boughs moved...They 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 together, so that not a chink could be seen. Merry was trapped: another crack had closed about his waist..." (The Fellowship o the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien)

NOTES: Tom Bombadil saves the two hobbits from Old Man Willow's sleep spell and capture by singing him a song that calms him. Old Man Willow behaves as long as Bombadil is around but can't resist trying to catch an unwary traveller. Old Man Willow is related to the trees of Fangorn Forest.

HISTORY: The Old Man Willow scene and Tom Bombadil had to be cut from the movie. This was necessary but Peter Jackson did put a scene in Fangorn Forest that was similar.

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