I was entirely inspired by the depths of Tolkien's Mirkwood for this one. As a child I loved two things most of all: Exploring the forests near my town with my brothers, and reading. Mirkwood's gloomy depths have stayed with me, and I wanted to try capture the ancient roots … (read more)

I was entirely inspired by the depths of Tolkien's Mirkwood for this one. As a child I loved two things most of all: Exploring the forests near my town with my brothers, and reading. Mirkwood's gloomy depths have stayed with me, and I wanted to try capture the ancient roots gnarled by Sauron's Shadow here. Mirkwood was also known as Taur-nu-Fuin by the elves, or the Forest Under Nightshade/Gloom. "Thonnath" is Sindarin for 'roots' (coll.pl.)

A quote from The Hobbit when Bilbo and the dwarves enter Mirkwood:

"The entrance to the path was like a sort of arch leading into a gloomy tunnel made by two great trees that leant together, too old and strangled with ivy to bear more than a few blackened leaves. The path itself was narrow and wound in and out among the trunks. Soon the light at the gate was like a little bright hole far behind, and the quiet was so deep that their feet seemed to thump along while all the trees leaned over them and listened.
    As their eyes became used to the dimness they could see a little way to either side in a sort of darkened green glimmer. Occasionally a slender beam of sun that had the luck to slip in through some opening in the leaves far above, and still more luck in not being caught in the tangled boughs and matted twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them. But this was seldom, and it soon ceased altogether. [...]
    But they had to go on and on, long after they were sick for the sight of the sun and of the sky, and longed for the feel of wind on their faces. There was no movement of air down under the forest-roof, and it was everlastingly still and dark and stuffy. ..[Bilbo].. felt that he was being slowly suffocated."