Villages in forests

[Zilo]

So I want there to be a Village in the middle of a forest in my story. And I keep thinking that building the village in an open are would be better. So here are some questions I need help with:

- What could be the reason for building a village in the middle of a forest?

- How would they get enough food for the village? I don't think that growing crops would be easy in a forest...

- Would there be attacks from animals/monsters living in the forest? For example, hungry animals would come to steal food.

- What kind of houses would they build in a forest? I mean to build house they would need to clear a bunch of trees and stuff.

 

[Bortasz]

- What could be the reason for building a village in the middle of a forest?

- Fur.
- It's on the trade route where merchants stop to rest.

- How would they get enough food for the village? I don't think that growing crops would be easy in a forest...

It depend.
Farms are must. They will also have some domesticated animals like cows chicken. If there are near river/lake (They should have acces to water) they can try fishing.

- Would there be attacks from animals/monsters living in the forest? For example, hungry animals would come to steal food.

Yes. If they have place where they keep chickens Foxes will try get there. The simplest example.
The bigger aggressive animals will be decimated in the beginning of creating the village. So any new big predator will be some travelling monster.

- What kind of houses would they build in a forest? I mean to build house they would need to clear a bunch of trees and stuff.

What level of technology they have?
The village will for almost certain will be behind palisade for protection.

You give little information about you village.

 

[Noma Galway]

Well, the village would have to be in a large clearing...possibly man made. As you say, trees would definitely have to be cleared. There will definitely be predators, but natural animals would most likely soon learn to keep away from the village. They don't necessarily have to farm. Look at ancient foraging societies. You'd have a hunter-gatherer system, I would guess. And I agree with Bortasz about the fur. It would be the most logical, I would think.

 

[thecoldembrace]

- What could be the reason for building a village in the middle of a forest?

Villages in the forest do not all have to be for the fur trade. The most common example is a simple logging community. Every civilization needs wood and usually in large supply and those that live on the periphery usually supply it. Fur could just but a luxury good that they export.

- How would they get enough food for the village? I don't think that growing crops would be easy in a forest..

As to food, it is not difficult to grow crops in the forest. When I was younger my family owned a large portion of land in the Sierras in California, covered in trees. We grew crops in certain areas, cleared of trees. The soil can be rich from the constant fall and decomposition of vegetation. All you need is light and water.

- Would there be attacks from animals/monsters living in the forest? For example, hungry animals would come to steal food.

This is true for most areas of high vegetation, animals are populous. Racoons, squirrels, foxes, badgers, bears can and will take advantage of easy food sources.

- What kind of houses would they build in a forest? I mean to build house they would need to clear a bunch of trees and stuff.

Like above, this depends on the level of technology. People often gravitate to using readily available resources. If this is a simple medieval village, it probably wouldn't be anything grand. Wood would of course be the most available resource.


-Cold

 

[Bruce McKnight]

It depends on why you want a village in the forest - could you provide more details?

If the village was there for logging or to export firewood, it wouldn't be long until the village was no longer in a forest. Maybe you could have a young village in the story and they slowly clear the forest. Maybe you have a city in the middle of the plains that started as a logging community when it was a forest. World history in this area could be very interesting.

If you need it to be in a forest for the purpose of your story, there's a lot of other options.

Maybe it's a place for practitioners of nature magic. If that were the case, it may be easy to keep dangerous animals away, they may even be friendly to the magicians. This would probably be a small village and they could import food if necessary, maybe in exchange for magical favors. A reasonable road would need to lead into and out of the forest village if they wanted to trade for all their food.

If the woods are large and between two cities or kingdoms, maybe a village could pop up midway through the forest for the sole purpose of giving travelers a place to rest. A trade city, full of inns and restaurants, could provide a unique dynamic for a story. Maybe they get all their food from travelers bartering for shelter and a safe place to rest in a forest. Maybe the villagers tell stories and play tricks to make others think the forest is dangerous, or even haunted, in an effort to drum up business.

For a more traditional village, a river, or at least a stream, could be helpful to supply fish and seaweed for food. Hunting would provide food and some revenue from furs. Gathering should be a little easier with nuts, berries, mushrooms, apples (or other climate-dependent fruits trees), slugs, snails, and the like all readily available in the forest.

Villagers could also have small planter box gardens outside of each house to grow more vegetables. A community chicken coop probably wouldn't be out of the question. You could probably get some interesting sub-plots around how the food is doled out from the communal resources.

If you need more inspiration, I would recommend the ewoks - they seem to have it all figured out.

 

[Butterfly]

It depend.
Farms are must. They will also have some domesticated animals like cows chicken. If there are near river/lake (They should have acces to water) they can try fishing.

Cows need pastures to graze. Chickens will be eaten by predators. Your villager's meat would most likely have come from the forest itself such as wild boars, small game animals such as pheasants and rabbits. They would likely have kept a herd of domesticated pigs, though. They are animals that can eat practically anything and big enough to fend off predators like foxes. Iron age villages kept them close by. They also kept sheep for meat and wool. Wool being a serious commodity right through history. Used for clothes, blankets, can even be used for mattresses and tents. If they live a region that can sustain a lot of sheep they could become very wealthy.

Take into consideration as well the environment. It is unlikely your villagers will be able to forage all year round. Blackberries would have been a seasonal main. They come in around mid August and end around mid September.

In winter, food could have been stored by burying it. It keeps most scavengers from finding it, and in winter would have kept perishables fresh through freezing. Also through smoking meat and fish.

Consider the size of your village. It will create an increased level of demand for resources such as firewood. So likely your forest village will have a cleared are surrounding it. The cleared area would also be useful for seeing the approach of attacking enemies, human and animal. Fire barrier... as well as many predators (depending on where the village is) are unlikely to approach open areas where they can be seen by bigger predators. For them, your villagers would likely have kept a pack of hunting dogs around.

Water sources - river, lake, well, spring. Needed for irrigation, drinking, bathing, so a reliable source is needed.

Trade routes - roads, rivers. Maybe there is an area close by where several villages gather to trade and share information.

 

[Butterfly]

Maybe you have a city in the middle of the plains that started as a logging community when it was a forest. World history in this area could be very interesting.

Reminds me... One of the world's first environmental disaster came about this way.

Took place on Dartmoor, an area that was once all forest until over time people had cut it away to leave open farmland. The climate became colder and wetter, the soil lost its fertility and was eventually turned into a desert.

I found a link...

BBC One - British Isles: A Natural History, Taming the Wild, Wet desert Dartmoor

 

[skip.knox]

As others have said, there's no reason not to site a village in a forest. The trees would have to go. They don't have to be chopped down; plenty of people practiced slash and burn. Since the goal of most villages was self-sufficiency, you don't need to worry about trade routes or even being on a road. The larger your village, the less true that will be. Demographers call a settlement with about 25 to 50 families a hamlet. Bigger than that is a village. The numbers are somewhat arbitrary and highly Euro-centric, but they've facilitated academic discussion for fifty or sixty years now.

 

[Waz]

- What could be the reason for building a village in the middle of a forest?

I've given some thought to this question seeing as I have forest villages in my work-in-progress story as well. I'll avoid answers given by others above (which are also good) and add fresh ones.

They might build in a forest to hide, perhaps getting out of the sight of the government. It could be a cultural or spiritual things, like Wiccans or Tolkien's elves being close to nature. It could be a mysterious, magical cause, such as the forest growing up around the village literally or figuratively overnight. Romans created villages on the long roads between towns to give soldiers and travelers a place to rest, so perhaps the village was a stop setup along a road through the forest. Finally, perhaps the first settlers found a cleared area in the forest, likely along a river.

- How would they get enough food for the village? I don't think that growing crops would be easy in a forest...

Just because they're forest all-around, doesn't mean there aren't clearings for crops/grazing, plus a river for fishing. Also, do provide a lot of unique food opportunities to those who know how to get them. Wild berries and vegetables like blackberries and onions, animals for hunting and trapping, and truffles. Any area with forests and a decent summer is also good enough for an orchard.

- Would there be attacks from animals/monsters living in the forest? For example, hungry animals would come to steal food.

This all depends and you and your world. Keep in mind that any common animal that steals food, such as a bear or raccoon, also risks becoming dinner and a coat.

- What kind of houses would they build in a forest? I mean to build house they would need to clear a bunch of trees and stuff.

Almost certainly they would use wood, but the other building materials depend on resources around them. Stone from a quarry or river, clay, wattle and daub if they have grazing fields, dried grasses or reeds, animal furs, etc.

 

[evanator66]

Some suggestions:
Reason:
1. Started as military outpost, grew.
2. Trade route.
3. Hunting.
Food:
1. Hunting.
2. Cleared land.
3. Fishing.
Attacks:
1. Wall.
2. Guarded storehouses.
3. Guard patrol.
Houses:
1. Log cabins (cut down trees and build a house there).
2. Treehouses (if very big trees).
3. Cut down trees and use for walls.

 

[SeverinR]

Its alot of work to cut down a tree, even more so if you have to cut down alot.
So they would use the wood to build stuff.
Water is a must, a large water mass would provide a way to get wood down to other cities/ towns. (export)
Depending on tech, it could also provide power for a saw mill. If a saw mill then a food mill could be made also.

If tech also allowed travel up river, then trade routes could be established. Meat for wood, grain for flour.

Hunting wildlife will provide some meat, but as others said, livestock would probably be kept. Because wildlife couldn't support a very large town for long. Fishing also would be a limited resource if the town over fished the river.

Forgot the tree houses, They would have to still chop down trees, but it would be in one general area, so that growth in the trees would not be limited. It takes hundreds of years to grow trees tall enough to be a defensive area. So you don't want to cut down the neighboring tree, it could cut off an expansion in the future. They have to have building material to build the homes. Depending on climate. If it gets cold in the winter, tree houses will be hard to heat, and dangerous. Since a fire could destroy the whole town. I believe tree people would have excellent fire response.

Tree houses have to be defended. Arrows and drop weapons would be manditory. Also a quick way to get up and down without the enemy also using them, is needed. If the enemy can get to the base of a treehouse, they could chop it down or burn it. So defenses must be in place to prevent this attack.

Man traps, drops, swinging traps to kill the enemy would be part of the defenses. But must be able to disarm them in peacetime so the townspeople wouldn't accidently get killed by them.
Also a way to get water up to the trees would be needed. Water wheel dumping into a large cistern or aquaducts? Water would be the key to laying seige to the town. Stop water flow and the town will die in the trees.

 

[arboriad]

Another reason for a village in a forest could be a midway point, or resting point along a particularly long stretch of forest road. I could imagine military benefits of that; replenishing, etc. Relay runners/riders for communication.

If a village were to be established, then as other commenters have indicated, the forest would probably disappear. Unless, they are a people who reverence trees, and have found other things to burn; e.g., peat moss, local coal mine, heating magic. If they are logging, perhaps they've established careful logging laws' e.g.; every fifth tree after a 100 yards from camp.

There's also the random/fun idea of it being a semi-village-in-the-trees, by having it on stilts. This allows them to live a couple of feet off the ground, platforms braced between trunks and support poles. They can then maximize the use of ground space for growing, and avoid half the issues with local predators by all being out of the way.

Or perhaps the village is a wood-harvest facility, fully intending to enlarge its footprint, and is swallowing expensive wood into sawmills and floating them down river to a large city. There could be a system of magic to regrow the trees in a fraction of the time (perhaps for a dark cost...)

 

[aliens]

The village could be somewhat protected by the expanse of forest around it, possibly protected from the outlying war laden world.
Could be situated within a reasonable sized valley, I'd imagine that has a river flowing through it. The residents would be extremely sheltered from the outside world, however, if the forest was so vast.

With a large enough population I wouldn't say larger predators would be a problem, but I agree with the fox and chicken example.

 

[Jabrosky]

What could be the reason for building a village in the middle of a forest?

Why not? I believe that as long as humans have the means to colonize a piece of habitable land, they'll do it. Even the Sahara and the Amazon have people living in them.

How would they get enough food for the village? I don't think that growing crops would be easy in a forest...

They could try the "terra preta" solution of mixing charcoal, bone, and manure into the soil as fertilizer. Or maybe they could build the village close to a floodplain saturated with fertile silt. One setting I've constructed takes the latter approach, with the fertile silt ultimately coming from volcanoes which the rivers cascade from.

Would there be attacks from animals/monsters living in the forest? For example, hungry animals would come to steal food.

Depends on your forest's particular ecosystem. I like to have lots of big fierce animals running around my forests and jungles, but there are forests which don't have so much in the way of megafauna.

What kind of houses would they build in a forest? I mean to build house they would need to clear a bunch of trees and stuff.

Personally I am fond of tree-houses such as those built by the Korowai people in New Guinea:

Not only would they allow people to live in sedentary villages without clearing so many trees, but they could also provide protection from predators and human enemies prowling in the forest understory.

 

[marcdangerousworlds]

The people living in the forest may have settled in a secure and hidden location after fleeing an enemy or persecution. They may have been exiled there and are carrying a terrible but well concealed affliction, cut off from the outside world they may hold fast views or practices that are at odds with more well connected settlements.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

Tree top village

Your village can be built on the trees themselves (like the Ewoks in Star Wars). have walkways and ropes that go from tree to tree and at different levels. You can also have the home and other building be made into the trees themselves, with the tree still being alive (like the way a woodpecker does it). You can even make it that new homes are built on young trees and the older the home the higher it will be, use it as a sign of status.

As for food, having the inhabitants be vegetarians and eating fruit from the trees is easy or even hydroponically grow food hanging down. Eating wild animals is an option; if deers and bea0sr routinely walk into major urban areas in the real world, they will definelty walk through near your forest village. Best of luck to you.