It falls through the Sawing and Axe Violence,
The fresh, joyful free Forest;
What Wonder, when at last the Tree takes revenge.
And his Murderer is sawed in Pieces.
The World is inverted!
Fliegende Blätter – 1852
An illustrated weekly magazine published in Munich.
-Jeff Burks
I think Jeff found the tattoo design for me.
Ents! Have you seen the Entwives?
Why the tall side with the two ropes hanging down? Whatzitdo?
Those are not ropes, but rather rods that form a swing for the saw. They allow the sawyer to put more downward pressure on the saw without a helper. This was a popular firewood sawing appliance in continental Europe during the 19th century.
http://www.carpentryarchive.org/images/sagen.jpg
Wow! This may well be the inspiration for Tolkien’s Ents!
Alternate Title “Revenge of the Ent”
-Aaron
Felled by the power of saw and axe, the fresh, joyful free forest; Small wonder, when the tree finally avenges itself and saws his murderer to pieces. It’s a topsy-turvy world!
I’m really liking these old drawings. Any plans for a coffe table book?
At first it the picture seems so whimsical. But looking at it, one wonders at the energy put into an illustration of the poem. The poem is not a flippant ode to lost forests but states a common theme in the early industrial era: change is not good, it harms the things we love. One can even see the early stirrings of the anti-humanist, radical ecologist, Gaia worship that plagues us now. What is it about German culture that has caused it to produce some of the world’s most destructive philosophy?