What is the former name of Mirkwood in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth?

Mirkwood was formerly called Greenwood the Great in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Greenwood the Great was originally a vast and important forest in the north of Middle-earth. After the Necromancer established himself at Dol Guldur, a shadow spread across the woodland, and its name changed to Mirkwood. In The Hobbit, the forest becomes a dangerous part of Bilbo’s journey toward the Lonely Mountain.

The name change reflects Tolkien’s recurring idea that places can be altered by evil, fear and historical memory. The forest is not simply an unchanging wilderness: its political and supernatural history affects how different peoples understand it.

Mirkwood is sometimes confused with Fangorn Forest, where Treebeard lives, or the Old Forest near the Shire. Those are separate locations. Greenwood the Great is the earlier name of the same forest later known as Mirkwood, and the woodland’s southern region is eventually associated with the Kingdom of Lothlórien after Sauron’s defeat.