MIRKWOOD MICROSCALE: “Flies and Spiders” (From Tolkien,The Desolation of Smaug)

Hi! ¿Do you like J R R Tolkien books and movies? I'm a great fan and I hope you too.

Welcome to Mirkwood, a dangerous forest and a captivating landscape at the same time. The construction is made with great detail for the biggest fans of Lego and LOTR.

Mirkwood was a great forest in Middle-Earth located in the eastern region of Rhovanion between the Grey Mountains and Gondor. It was also known as Greenwood the Great, Eryn Galen or Taur-e-Ndaedelos, and was later re-named Eryn Lasgalen, the Wood of Greenleaves.It was a dense and heavy woodland that made up much of the eastern portion of Rhovanion or the Wilderland, that maintained its borders and relative shape for many ages. Its natural land features included (in the northern part of the forest) the Mountains of Mirkwood, a sizable river referred to in Tolkien's map as the Forest River, that ran from the Grey Mountains down to Long Lake, and a smaller rive that ran from the Mountains of Mirkwood to join with the Forest River west of the Elven-king's Halls. This smaller river was enchanted (or polluted) to such an extent that it caused slumber and forgetfulness to anyone who fell into it.

Mirkwood's climate was relatively mild. Except for ways through the thickets of the forest, there were very few commonly used routes through Mirkwood save the Old Forest Road and the Forest Path. Mirkwood was approximately 600 miles long from north to south and 250 miles across from west to east at its width. During the events of The Hobbit it was home to giant spiders, and the kingdom of King Thranduil and his woodland elves; The Woodmen of Mirkwood also inhabited a small part of the forest.

Bilbo Baggins, along with Thorin Oakenshield and his band of Dwarves, ventured into Mirkwood during their quest to regain the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug, taking the elven path. There, the dwarf Bombur fell into the Enchanted river (causing him to fall asleep). Later, they came across many great Giant Spiders also known as the Spawn of Ungoliant. Shortly after the Dwarves' escape, they were captured by the elves. After or during these events the White Council attacked Dol Guldur, and Sauron fled to Mordor, his influence in Mirkwood diminished for a while. Years later Gollum, after his release from Mordor, was captured by Aragorn and brought as prisoner to Thranduil's halls. He escaped during an Orc raid, and fled south to Moria.

After Sauron was vanquished at the conclusion of the Third Age, the darkness was lifted from Mirkwood, Dol Guldur was utterly destroyed by Galadriel and Thranduil gave the forest the name Eryn Lasgalen (Sindarin for wood of green leaves), similar to it’s old name Eryn Galen, or Greenwood.

I like Minifigure’s scale-building but for this specific case it was impossible to cover the entire forest without exceeding the brick limit. What to do then? Microscale was the perfect answer as a tool to give it a fantasy illustration look.

Besides the main places, since the idea represents a complete forest partially ill or delighted, it has to include lots of vegetation of all kinds and different types of large trees. The varieties of trees are: medium-sized trees with cobweb trunk (10), large trees with autumnal colored crowns (with lots of butterflies as we watch in the movie) and cobwebs between their trunks (5), Holy Tree of Thranduil’s elves with fountain, elven vines full of grapes (3), medium green leaf trees (3) and medium yellow leaf trees (3) And best of all: easy-removable tree tops!

I've added peripheral shrubs and grasses to mark the forest boundaries well. You will find also: skeletons and spiders (among other forest classic animals).

Thranduil’s Halls.

Ruins of Dol Guldur: with towers, walls and hanging cells.

(Enchanted) Forest River

Mirkwood Mountains

Rhosgobel, home of wizard Radagast, The Brown.

Spider Ungoliant Lairs: with, skeletons, weapons and their palpitating green eggs.

Full forest’s trail.

BRICKS: 2.362

(A lot of time and effort choosing each one carefully, trying not to “lose sight of the path” and resisting the vivid illusions and the intense steams of the enchanted river, from the hidden depths of the forest)

Bilbo Baggins with the Ring and his sword Sting

Gandalf, The Grey, riding Shadowfax, his noble steed

Thranduil, The Elven King of Mirkwood riding his Elven elk,

The Necromancer (Human Form)

The Witch King (In the shadow-world form) 

As always it’s a pleasure for me to share my new best creation with you because you give the true meaning to so much effort and so many hours dedicated. I am quite hopeful that true TLOTR fans will recognize the merit of this work. Attention to every detail has been my premise since I decided to choose microscale format in this idea.I hope you judge it sufficiently realistic and achieved. It would be an excellent set either decorative or to increase the stock and the variety of collector’s vegetation/Halloween topic related pieces. Having a Lego set to build a whole forest would be a great inclusion in the Ideas product catalog.

Hopefully this idea (and future set if you make it possible, of course) will also serve to raise awareness about how important it is to take care of our green spaces, which play a transcendental role in the balance of the planet.This fantasy forest is an example of reality: even in adverse conditions, life prevails: you will see lots of animals here!

Be sure you comment! Greetings