The Forests of Dante’s Inferno

In the Weeds

If you hear a story that begins “in a dark wood,” you’re instantly transported to a place of fear, of danger and disorientation. Where does this come from? One important, early source is Dante’s Inferno. In the first of our series on fictional forests, Peter Olson and I discuss the two principal forests of the Inferno, the “dark wood” of the opening, where the pilgrim is lost, and the “brooding wood” of Canto XIII, in which those who committed suicide have been transformed into bushes and trees which can speak and bleed. Peter Olson, the Provost of North Central Michigan College, has a Ph.D. in Comparative from the University of Michigan and is the former chair of the Department of English at Hillsdale College where he frequently taught Dante. He guides me in a close reading of these two sections of Dante’s famous descent into hell.
For related links see https://in-the-weeds.net/podcast/the-forests-of-dantes-inferno/