The Lord of the (Tree) Rings

Others, however, seemed to stem more from Tolkien’s personal experiences—perhaps extrapolated as projections of what he imagined should have happened—in a figurative and rather fanciful manner. Take, for example, the Ents of Fangorn Forest.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Ents are mobile, treelike sentient beings that are immensely strong, able to speak (albeit quite slowly), and hold council with each other to plan and coordinate their activities.

Some have speculated the Ents in LOTR were a personification of nature that was able to fight back against the ravages of war, perhaps inspired by Tolkien’s experience of seeing countrysides (which he loved) being wantonly devastated during World War 1 and 2.

Described as tree shepherds in his book, these creatures are said to communicate, sympathize with, and protect the trees and other peaceful inhabitants of the forests they live in. Their connectivity and sensitivity to their earthly surroundings are demonstrated in this quote from their leader (known as Treebeard) at the end of Tolkien’s trilogy.

The world is changing. I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air.2

The World Wide Web

As otherworldly as these anthropomorphized tree avatars might be, what is truly amazing to find out is that Tolkien’s tales of talking, feeling, and smelling trees may not be as far out as one might first perceive them.

Modern science is showing that trees are now known to form vast communication networks that some scientists are describing as potentially providing more interconnectivity between living things than the World Wide Web that we call the internet.

It’s humbling to realize I’m now old enough to encounter young people who have no idea what the triple w’s at the beginning of a website even stand for, as the very first website was made available to the public on August 6, 1991, over 30 years ago now.3

And yet research into what is now being designated the “wood wide web” (as a tribute to the cohesive interconnected communications we now know occur throughout the vast number of forests found around the world) was first coined in a Nature magazine article in 1997, just six years after the establishment of the first website.4

Now, for those of us who saw the transition from when the internet was simply “not a thing” to where we are today, we understand that it has brought about the ability for the entire human population to connect in a way that no other single invention in earth’s history ever had previously.

Typewriters, telegraphs, and telephones all pale in comparison to the monolithic impact the internet has brought about in such a short time, allowing us to educate, entertain, perform transactions, conduct research, provide early warnings, conduct meetings, and share ideas like no human invention has ever done before.

According to the Statista website,5 there are around 5.3 billion internet users worldwide (which amounts to approximately 65.7% of the global population) as of October 2023, which is a lot of connectivity between that staggering amount of living human beings.

However, this “wood wide web” of life I mentioned makes man’s achievements absolutely pale in comparison to this much more ancient global network that also likely dwarfs it in size.

The Wood Wide Web

In a nutshell (pun intended), the wood wide web is a network that connects trees in such a way that they can share food, information, and even formulate specific plans to accommodate various conditions and even specific events that occur throughout their region.

So, what exactly connects and allows communication and cargo to travel between individual trees over an immensely wide area? Surprisingly, it is primarily the filaments (called hyphae) that flow from a wide variety of mere mushrooms that send their tendrils (mycelium) throughout the soil and attach and surround tree roots, fusing these branching nodes into a massive communication network called the “mycorrhizal network.”6

It is hard not to notice the similarity to the decision-making ability that our current AI programs have in comparison to what the mycelia network readily displays in the statements and conclusions expressed by researchers studying the wood wide web. For example, in a Science Direct article discussing the concept of mycelial consciousness, the abstract states,

Fungal mycelia show decision-making and alter their developmental patterns in response to interactions with other organisms. Mycelia may even be capable of spatial recognition and learning coupled with a facility for short-term memory.7

Based on the fact that hyphae and mycelia show decision-making capabilities and exhibit spatial recognition, they conclude these abilities are expressions of cellular consciousness, learning, and short-term memory, which is truly mind-blowing to consider when talking about an organism you typically chop up with butter and onions to garnish your dinner plate.

Quiet Cooperation

Tolkien’s intriguing idea of ancient tree shepherds overseeing the health of their forest community is now known to be amazingly accurate, as scientists have discovered that the largest and oldest trees in an area (named “mothers”) act as hubs in their community, actually nurturing their offspring directly by devoting extra resources to them through the network when needed.8

In effect, those trees with the most rings become the ring leaders in their areas. For example, should a small sapling growing in the shade of the surrounding taller trees be struggling from the effects of lack of sunshine (the lack of nutrients typically gained from photosynthesis), its mother will feed it more through the network in order for it to grow and eventually reach a height where it can receive regular sunlight.9

However, the interconnected cooperation observed through the wood wide web has been demonstrated to far exceed a simple mechanism for individual species to better reproduce.

Researchers have discovered cooperation between species, such as how extra nutrients will be provided to shorter evergreen trees that often end up in shaded environments in summer by the taller trees (as the deciduous trees are in full leaf), but that the favor is then reciprocated in the wintertime by the evergreens back to their now leafless neighbors who can’t produce as much during that time.10

Red Alert

Studies have also shown that trees can send detailed warnings to those around them via chemical messages sent through the network. For example, a tree attacked by insects may sound the alarm to trees nearby which will then activate specific enzymes to ward off that type of insect should the insects attempt to spread toward them.11

And some even send messages through the air by emitting puffs of ethylene gas in response to animals (like giraffes for example) that have approached to eat their leaves. Studies12 have shown trees that are targeted by such herbivores will not only activate defense processes to make their leaves taste bad (by accumulating increased amounts of tannins13 in their leaves) but will also warn other trees nearby via this airborne messaging to do the same, as if in anticipation of the long-necked leaf eaters visiting and munching on them as well.

This, of course, results in trees not being completely devastated in one shot by animals camping out and deciding to use them as an all-you-can-eat buffet by encouraging creatures to spread out their grazing over wider areas.

Of course, the fact that trees have the ability to change the taste of their leaves (especially that quickly) and somehow “know” that it will be distasteful to the herbivore and therefore benefit the trees is mind-boggling as well.

Although they don’t have our five senses exactly, they somehow must have a monitoring and sensory system that recognizes when they are being eaten, which then activates a normally inactive program that sends out a warning and causes a chemical change inside their leaves. And then, once the danger has passed, switches them back once the threat is gone.

Two Ways of Looking at It

I would say such incredible discoveries are truly a testament to our incredible Creator, as Romans 1:20 reminds us:

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Even in the remains of our fallen and sin-cursed world, we see evidence of incredible design such as this that is diametrically opposed to the ideology of naturalism (that matter and energy somehow constructed all that we see and study through a mindless process), the story of evolution.

The story of evolution commonly portrays our world as being born out of a competitive race for survival, red in tooth and claw, and the result of mindless natural selection rather than the remnant of a once very good creation that has been corrupted over time—a paradise lost.

However, a tree warning its neighbors conveys no direct survival benefit to them whatsoever. Why should a tree care or “want” to do that? What naturalistic, step-by-step process could slowly build a mechanism that would send a warning to others nearby—it’s not as if they will all come running over to help (even if they could).

What step-by-step process would allow mushroom filaments to connect to tree roots prior to there being any communication that could provide a survival benefit on either end? How did the communication language and system develop, seeing as how all code systems are arbitrary (i.e., why should any chemical mean anything to a tree and cause it to react in a specific way)?

Or why would a tree decide to lend an extra cup of sugar it had (so to speak) to its neighbor in the hopes of having it returned to it later when they run out? Why not just let them die in hopes you’ll inherit all their stuff to help you survive better?

How do you slowly build a sensor array that contains algorithmic equations such as “If A, then B” type programming? As in, if a giraffe starts eating your leaves, then start manufacturing more tannins and flush them through our system.

And again, if it’s just a dog-eat-dog world, why on earth would you want to design a mechanism that would puff out chemical messages to warn the neighbors they might want to start to cycle some protection? Why would you “want” to make your competition more fit to survive than you?

Making Sense of What We See and Study

Again, we see forethought, cooperation, incredible design, and biotechnology that includes software and hardware, so to speak, at a level that we can’t even fully comprehend yet, all the hallmarks we would expect to find from the hands of a master designer.

And yet, we also have many examples of disease and corruption as well, which point directly to the real history of the fall of man in Genesis. Oftentimes, non-Christians seem confused when they see believers oohing and aahing at examples of obvious intelligent design because they also see so many bad things going on all at the same time.

They often chide, “Is this the best your intelligent designer could do?”

And that’s why the world around us may seem strange to those who’ve never read the true history of our planet, because only the revealed Word of the God of the Bible can fully explain the paradoxical nature of the creation today. We must understand what Romans 8:22 says: we live in a fallen world that is reflected in the creation.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

The Return of Our King

Good and evil. Betrayal and heroism. Right and wrong. Corruption and redemption. Tolkien’s epic LOTR trilogy is rife with themes that inspire, and his final book in the series is aptly named The Return of the King, as it heralds the fallen king of men—Aragorn—rising to his rightful place, which ultimately leads to the defeat of the evil Lord Sauron.

For those familiar with Tolkien’s background and knowledge of Scripture, it’s quite easy to make the parallels and connections between the fallen first man (Adam) and the last Adam (Jesus) who we are awaiting to return in full triumph over evil.

We are truly awaiting King Jesus to return to see the glorious, fully restored, new heavens and new earth. And what will that be like?

Let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy. (Psalm 96:12, emphasis mine)

Perhaps Tolkien was influenced by the psalms as well.