Squirrels of Middlearth

[bunn]

I am painting a scene showing Greenwood the Great before the return of the Necromancer.   I wish to include a squirrel.
[Poll #1886532]

Comments

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

I'm saying grey because Tolkien implies that the squirrels have become black because the forest is tainted, and the black squirrels I've seen in Vancouver are big and fluffy, like grey squirrels, so...

But red might look nicer :-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Google tells me that red squirrels can come in black too. It also tells me that grey squirrels are more edible than red ones, which might be a vote in the direction of the Mirkwood squirrels being melanistic red, rather than melanistic grey. Although I suppose it's equally possible that the Necromancer did something horrid to the flavour :-D

[marycatelli]

Melanism, like albinoism, is a mutatation that can arise in all sorts of species.

I say so even though here, too, the black squirrels are like the gray ones. (I saw the mutation proliferating in the local population.)

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

Because they have black squirrels in Illinois and I don't think they've ever had necromancers there. They are melanistic grey squirrels there.

[adaese.livejournal.com]

Red are certainly the kind that JRRT would have thought of as standard when writing in the 30s.

[sibila-cantus.livejournal.com]

I'll admit I chose red because of the adorable tufts of hair at their ears. :P

[bunn.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much my thinking too, but I couldn't quite decide!