Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Bashmeol
For some reason I don't associate any bad feelings with trees but large boulders in the woods always seemed to intrest me, especially the oddly shaped ones. I have run into a few which I don't like being near, something about the darkness underneath them and in the cracks that I don't like.
|
You have something in common with Icelanders, then. They don't have a lot of trees on this island (and thus no fears of trees, hmm!), but many people believe quite strongly in the "hidden people" who live in the large rocks around the island. The fear is so strong that sometimes, when road builders come to make a new road and have to move a large rock out of the way, and their backhoe keeps breaking down... they decide to just build the road around it. They have even called in seers of some kind to interpret the situation, and the seers say that the hidden people don't want their homes disturbed. So, there you go!
In any case, I grew up in the woods and was certainly scared of the dark and things that went bump in the night... but I wouldn't say I was scared of trees in particular. A feeling of general creepiness, yes, especially when alone. But if I had a friend or parent with me (or my dog), no problem at all. I think this is kind of a human thing... fear of the unknown, the dark, very primeval things.
I sense it even more in Iceland in the winter, when I am driving around these huge, lone mountains and the wind is whipping around and it's pitch black. Imagine people living here in the middle ages, with nothing but a sod house to "protect" them from whatever they thought was out there. Those circumstances gave birth to an incredible array of folk tales and beliefs in the supernatural... and I don't blame them. But that doesn't mean it's real.