Troldeskoven-North Zealand, Denmark

In North Zealand, along the shores of Tisvildeleje, lies a small forest known as Troldeskoven, the Troll Forest. Its name comes from folklore, a response to the coiled and serpentine shaped woodland it has become.

The Scots pines that inhabit this stretch of coastline were planted in the 18th century. More than a century later, pine shoot moth larvae destroyed the trees’ terminal shoots, disrupting their natural vertical growth. Exposed to the harsh coastal winds and salt air coming in from the Kattegat, these young shoots were gradually bent, twisted, and fixed into the warped forms they still retain today.

I wandered for hours through a labyrinth of twisting trunks and contorted branches. Some trees were more straight, while others seemed to bend toward the earth, almost as if longing to return to where they came from…back to stability. A carpet of moss covered the ground, absorbing nearly every sound. Beyond the dunes, the soft rhythm of waves could be heard along the shore.

What struck me most was how abruptly this part of the forest ended. Barely two hundred feet inland, the Scots pines resumed their familiar upright forms, as though nothing unusual had ever occurred. It is only within this narrow ribbon of forest that they abandon convention, creating a landscape of coiled silhouettes.