It is not that Europe's remaining forests are tame, but rather that they are not bestial in comparison. The American wilds demand a hardiness of body and fortitude of spirit whether your one or one hundred miles deep. The remaining European forests, due to the much longer amount of recorded history of man living beside and within them, have a degree of familiarity that makes them feel less antagonistic and more whimsical.
Or a different way - Europe has strong-armed the forest into coexistence, leaving but a small stronghold of mystic wildland. America's farmers, cowboys and mountain men have left the wilds unblemished, preferring to live as a defiant, unbowed neighbor.
As a 10th generation American who has spent much time in Western and Central Europe, I both agree and disagree with your premise. I've backpacked in the National Parks in Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and the great national parks here in the South like the Great Smoky Mountains (the latter being much closer to the "wilderness" of Western Europe" than the truly untamed wilds of the Mountain West). I've also travelled through and spent time backpacking in Sumava National Forest in the Czech Republic, Snowdonia in Wales, and the Peaks District in the Old World.
I found the forests of Europe to have a particular enchanting nature that seemed absent in most of the wilds of North America. Precisely because they have been, in large part, inhabited, cultivated, and shaped by man. Men have lived, died, killed, fought, and been buried in most of the forests in Western/Central Europe. All of the tiny footpaths that connect sleepy little villages to one another that run through the forests make me call to mind Tolkien or Beatrix Potter or even Milne. They seem to be more "alive" in that way. It's hard to find said footpaths in Central Europe that aren't littered with wayside shrines devoted to Our Lord Jesus Christ or one of His saints. The humanity, and the prescience of Christianity therein, makes them a comforting place as you alluded to—rather than one of hostility—though they are almost always "spooky" in the dickensian sense of the term.
Most of the truly remote NA forests I've spent time are as you've described here. They've never felt to me as familiar places of comfort (the forests of the Appalachian highlands being an exception for me), but an alien realm full of hostility and pain. This is something I miss about the forests of Europe, as tame as they may be in the 21st century. The wilds of Russia may be a bit of both.
Nice article, I love exploring America's wildernesses, even the inhospitable areas. To get a feel for some of North America's truly wild spaces from the point of view of a great discoverer, I recommend folks read William Bartram's Travels, which was published in 1791. William Bartram (and his father John Bartram), where Quaker naturalists from Philadelphia who explored the plants and wildlife of the United States, specifically in the Southeastern U.S., including Florida as far south as the Indian River near modern day Sebastian (There is a trail in Florida named for him, which goes along his path). William traveled alone as well, exploring the nature of the southern colonies and the newly acquired by England from Spain, Florida. Iin addition to keeping a journal, Bartram collected seeds and whole specimens of plants, and made some drawings as well (he preceded the renowned artist John James Audubon). Bartram kept a journal of his explorations which took place before the American Revolution. Bartram's specimens were sent to his patron John Fothergill and eventually make their way to scientists such as the famed developer of our current scientific nomenclature for all organism, the swede Karl Von Linne, aka Carolus Linnaeus, who would author their official names. Linnaeus latinized his own name as a marketing gimmick for his system of naming organisms. Although we take the current naming system for organisms by Linnaeus for granted today, at the time of its development, there were competing naming systems by other scientists. Bartram also had first person accounts of the American Indians he would encounter along his travels in Cherokee, Muscogulges, Creek, and Choctaw lands.
Bartram's Travels is an important piece of American literature, was very popular for its time and was printed in several languages. Travels would later greatly influence the writing styles and musings of American philosophers including Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It may be a bit of a boring read for non naturalists, as Bartram lists paragraphs of plant names in his discoveries, however, these sections could be skimmed over to the non enthusiast. Bartram was a delightful chap with a positive spirit, and an excellent early American figure who rubbed elbows with other Philadelphian men of talent such as Benjamin Franklin.
Our Germanic, Slavic, and Nordic ancestors partook in dark blood rituals and tortures in their primordial forests of the Bronze and Iron Ages. We know for a fact from primary sources that the modern rosy image of American Indians is a lie. From the Eastern Woodlands to the jungles of the Yucatan the Indians held torturous rituals and blood rites as brutal if not moreso than those of primordial Europe. Africans and Pacific Islanders in their jungles also had bloody cannibalistic rituals. It is not at all far-fetched that contact with primordial nature in the form of deep forests or jungles opens a people up to contact by very bloody spirits.
It is not that Europe's remaining forests are tame, but rather that they are not bestial in comparison. The American wilds demand a hardiness of body and fortitude of spirit whether your one or one hundred miles deep. The remaining European forests, due to the much longer amount of recorded history of man living beside and within them, have a degree of familiarity that makes them feel less antagonistic and more whimsical.
Or a different way - Europe has strong-armed the forest into coexistence, leaving but a small stronghold of mystic wildland. America's farmers, cowboys and mountain men have left the wilds unblemished, preferring to live as a defiant, unbowed neighbor.
Spot on. This is what I attempted to relay in my own comment.
As a 10th generation American who has spent much time in Western and Central Europe, I both agree and disagree with your premise. I've backpacked in the National Parks in Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and the great national parks here in the South like the Great Smoky Mountains (the latter being much closer to the "wilderness" of Western Europe" than the truly untamed wilds of the Mountain West). I've also travelled through and spent time backpacking in Sumava National Forest in the Czech Republic, Snowdonia in Wales, and the Peaks District in the Old World.
I found the forests of Europe to have a particular enchanting nature that seemed absent in most of the wilds of North America. Precisely because they have been, in large part, inhabited, cultivated, and shaped by man. Men have lived, died, killed, fought, and been buried in most of the forests in Western/Central Europe. All of the tiny footpaths that connect sleepy little villages to one another that run through the forests make me call to mind Tolkien or Beatrix Potter or even Milne. They seem to be more "alive" in that way. It's hard to find said footpaths in Central Europe that aren't littered with wayside shrines devoted to Our Lord Jesus Christ or one of His saints. The humanity, and the prescience of Christianity therein, makes them a comforting place as you alluded to—rather than one of hostility—though they are almost always "spooky" in the dickensian sense of the term.
Most of the truly remote NA forests I've spent time are as you've described here. They've never felt to me as familiar places of comfort (the forests of the Appalachian highlands being an exception for me), but an alien realm full of hostility and pain. This is something I miss about the forests of Europe, as tame as they may be in the 21st century. The wilds of Russia may be a bit of both.
Very good article. I'm writing something for my own publication that echoes some of the same thoughts. This is good food for thought.
Lookup needed for this article
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Nice article, I love exploring America's wildernesses, even the inhospitable areas. To get a feel for some of North America's truly wild spaces from the point of view of a great discoverer, I recommend folks read William Bartram's Travels, which was published in 1791. William Bartram (and his father John Bartram), where Quaker naturalists from Philadelphia who explored the plants and wildlife of the United States, specifically in the Southeastern U.S., including Florida as far south as the Indian River near modern day Sebastian (There is a trail in Florida named for him, which goes along his path). William traveled alone as well, exploring the nature of the southern colonies and the newly acquired by England from Spain, Florida. Iin addition to keeping a journal, Bartram collected seeds and whole specimens of plants, and made some drawings as well (he preceded the renowned artist John James Audubon). Bartram kept a journal of his explorations which took place before the American Revolution. Bartram's specimens were sent to his patron John Fothergill and eventually make their way to scientists such as the famed developer of our current scientific nomenclature for all organism, the swede Karl Von Linne, aka Carolus Linnaeus, who would author their official names. Linnaeus latinized his own name as a marketing gimmick for his system of naming organisms. Although we take the current naming system for organisms by Linnaeus for granted today, at the time of its development, there were competing naming systems by other scientists. Bartram also had first person accounts of the American Indians he would encounter along his travels in Cherokee, Muscogulges, Creek, and Choctaw lands.
Bartram's Travels is an important piece of American literature, was very popular for its time and was printed in several languages. Travels would later greatly influence the writing styles and musings of American philosophers including Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It may be a bit of a boring read for non naturalists, as Bartram lists paragraphs of plant names in his discoveries, however, these sections could be skimmed over to the non enthusiast. Bartram was a delightful chap with a positive spirit, and an excellent early American figure who rubbed elbows with other Philadelphian men of talent such as Benjamin Franklin.
Our Germanic, Slavic, and Nordic ancestors partook in dark blood rituals and tortures in their primordial forests of the Bronze and Iron Ages. We know for a fact from primary sources that the modern rosy image of American Indians is a lie. From the Eastern Woodlands to the jungles of the Yucatan the Indians held torturous rituals and blood rites as brutal if not moreso than those of primordial Europe. Africans and Pacific Islanders in their jungles also had bloody cannibalistic rituals. It is not at all far-fetched that contact with primordial nature in the form of deep forests or jungles opens a people up to contact by very bloody spirits.