#that's obviously not the pine that's me sitting beneath a magnolia tree

[shadow13dickpistons]

Tolkien's black pine, a possible inspiration for the ents, was cut down in 2014 due to storm damage. It seemed another kick in a bad trip, but as I walked towards Merton College, where he taught literature from 1945 to his retirement in 1959, I realized:

Trees die in the Legendarium all the time, due to all kinds of tragedies and evil. His best characters mourn their loss deeply. And regeneration happens when new seeds are planted. The last seed of sacred Laurelin becomes the sun. Aragon plants a new White Tree of Gondor and becomes King of the Reunited Kingdoms. Sam plants Galadriel's malorn after the scouring of the Shire.

And while it may not be quite as inspiring, in 2021, then Prince Charles planted a new black pine - from a seed of the near two hundred years old black pine.

And the sun is shining in the Oxford Botanical Garden.