Mirkfruit

[Nerdanel]

In The Wounded Land we met the plant called mirkfruit. Mirkfruit was clearly not a natural part of the land. I think the implication was that Lord Foul had made it in order to make the Sunbane a little more survivable, so that there is fresh water to be had at least half the time, and also to make capturing sacrifices alive more doable for the people of the Land. But since Foul strives to maximize evil and suffering, the mirkfruit plant is nasty epiphyte that strangles the trees that it grows on.

That's it about the mirkfruit... except I've started to suspect there is a far more sinister purpose behind the plant. Lord Foul is the master schemer who is careful to have several backup plots available. Foul was prepared for the good guys defeating the Sunbane. The first backup plot for that eventuality was the arghule one about bringing a magical winter to the Land where people would be entirely unprepared for it. That was foiled, but I think the second backup plot wasn't. When Linden healed the Land, she did not restore the Law and the Land as it was in the time of the Lords. I think along with everything else she... brought back mirkfruit.

Now, while the Sunbane was in force, the mirkfruit was constrained. At brief intervals, a desert sun would come and melt all the plants to gray goo. As a result, the mirkfruit would have to start its growth and strangling all over again at the next sun of fertility. In the normal course of things the mirkfruit - much like the real life strangler fig - would have been slow to take over its host. Under the Sunbane the process was accelerated greatly, but there still wasn't enough time for the mirkfruit to disrupt the ecosystem that badly. Without the Sunbane all such limits would have been removed. If the mirkfruit was an efficient enough parasite (and it was crafted by Lord Foul), during the centuries it could have strangled all the trees in the Land! Then it would have either died out itself, giving room for the One Lawn, or if it was more like the strangler fig, taken the place of the trees it replaced, so that we could by now have a Mirkwood!

Perhaps the mirkfruit is another of those things that could be described as a Fatal Revenant!

[wayfriend]

Nerdanel, I have to hand it to you on this one. Sinister fruit? A fatal vegetable revenant?

[wayfriend]

Oops. Did I just fall for something?

[Creator]

... I think along with everything else she... brought back mirkfruit.

If the mirkfruit was an efficient enough parasite (and it was crafted by Lord Foul), during the centuries it could have strangled all the trees in the Land! ...

Sorta like an evil vegetable tribble!!

[High Lord Tolkien]

Then it would have either died out itself, giving room for the One Lawn, or if it was more like the strangler fig, taken the place of the trees it replaced, so that we could by now have a Mirkwood!

[MrKABC]

Nerdanel...

I think you need to get out more often...

[Whitey Gold]

A true stroke of evil genius would be Foul introducing heroin or crack to The Land.

[MrKABC]

I was thinking that a denizen of the Land could dry out the mirkfruit pulp and roll it in Gilden leaves and smoke it...

Earthpowerful, man!!! Take another hit!

[Variol Farseer]

A little more seriously . . .

Did mirkfruit have seeds, or was it propagated by the Sunbane itself? If the latter, it probably couldn't reproduce in a place with Law.

[MrKABC]

The books only referred to "pulp", not seeds... but that doesn't mean they weren't there...

[I'm Murrin]

I remember Sunder clearing a patch of ground and planting something under the Fertile sun so he could grow the fruit. Seemed like he was using seeds.

[Avatar]

Good spot Murrin.

He did indeed plant something...Mirkfruit though? I want to say ussumiel or something like that...(closest I can come from memory.)

--A

[wayfriend]

He planted ussusimiel ("Use-a-meal", as in, I could use a).

He found mirkfruit (as a source of water).

[I'm Murrin]

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Mirkfruit was the fruit from the big vine that grew on trees, right?

[Avatar]

I was close.

--A