Why is the Stinking Forest named that?

[Brootse]

Is it because elves think that the trolls stink?

[jajagappa]

53 minutes ago, Brootse said:

Is it because elves think that the trolls stink?

Because the stench from the Ivory Plinth and the bloody sacrifices made by the Tusk Riders fills the woods.

[soltakss]

1 hour ago, Brootse said:

Is it because elves think that the trolls stink?

Officially yes, because there are too many trolls there.

15 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Because the stench from the Ivory Plinth and the bloody sacrifices made by the Tusk Riders fills the woods.

Also yes.

[Brootse]

Sounds like vile elvish propaganda. Why not use the trollish name Veg Buffet?

[Jape_Vicho]

I think I read somewhere it's because of the incessant war the elves fight with the Uz and Tusk riders there, that makes the forest ground to be always filled with rotting corpses. 

[coffeemancer]

smells like shit

[Leingod]

Elves probably use the name "Arstola Forest," and it's humans who call it the Stinking Forest because it's home to the Ivory Plinth, trolls, and Snakepipe Hollow.

[metcalph]

3 hours ago, Leingod said:

Elves probably use the name "Arstola Forest," and it's humans who call it the Stinking Forest because it's home to the Ivory Plinth, trolls, and Snakepipe Hollow.

Arstola forest is south in Maniria.  The Aldryami name of the Forest is Newbloom (KoS p89)

[Leingod]

1 hour ago, metcalph said:

Arstola forest is south in Maniria.  The Aldryami name of the Forest is Newbloom (KoS p89)

Ah, my mistake.

[Akhôrahil]

"'Hmmm! it smells like elves!' thought Bilbo"
—J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

[Montellano]

Thought it also had something to do with the humungous flowers growing there.

[Brootse]

1 minute ago, Montellano said:

Thought it also had something to do with the humungous flowers growing there.

Isn't that a bit south?

[Ian Absentia]

I have another entry for the Your Dumbest Theory thread (or maybe a new thread, "Your Dumbest Misinterpretation of Glorantha"): For some reason I had it in my head that the Stinking Forest was a term applied by non-Aldryami to the particular flora cultivated in the forest.  Great, vulgar, malodorous blooms producing a perfume intoxicating to elves and the insects that pollinate them, but wretch-inducing to others, even the Uz.  And I am totally wrong.  Another decades-long blind spot punctured.

My misinterpretation underscores the curious intersection between Aldryami and Uz -- insects.  The Uz love 'em, of particular note the giant varieties, as semi-domesticated beasts and as food.  Aldryami surely appreciate them, even the giant varieties, for their crucial roles in supporting plant pollination.  Can't they see their common ground?

!i!

 

[Baron Wulfraed]

2 hours ago, Montellano said:

Thought it also had something to do with the humungous flowers growing there.

Do these grow there? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphophallus_titanum

[Ian Absentia]

20 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

Do these grow there? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphophallus_titanum

One of the candidates I had in mind!  Also, orchids came to mind (though the climate this far north probably isn't right) -- sometimes attracting pollinating beetles by producing odors that mimic breeding females or rotting meat.

!i!