The new forest of Warriors by Erin Hunter is fictional, but the original forest, featured in books 1-6 in Warriors and 1-2 in Warriors: The New Prophecy has elements of fiction, including the Warriors cat Clans of course. But the original setting is based upon New Forest National Park in England. If you've never heard of New Forest, you're in luck, because this article will explore the origins of the setting in the Warriors series.
New Forest is a National Park in Hampshire, United Kingdom. It covers approximately 571 kmē (141,097 acres), and was originally established in 1079, though gained it's National Park designation in 2005. New Forest is a beautiful landscape, pertaining of pasture land, valley bogs, wet heaths, dry heaths, deciduous woodland and old-growth forests, the two rivers which drain it are the Lymington and Beaulieu.
There are many small towns and villages near and within New Forest, as Erin Hunter mentions, the inspiration for Twoleg Place. These include Lyndhurst, Hythe, Fordingbridge, Ringwood, Brockenhurst, Bransgore, Totton, Beaulieu, and Lymington.
The wildlife within New Forest is exceptionally diverse, and not fully represented within the series. However, many of the species do make appearances in the books, such as the poisonous adder snake, which Ravenpaw catches in Into The Wild.
The foliage mentioned in the books matches those types found in New Forest. Tree types include alder and beech trees, firs, pines, cedars, larch, ash, sycamore, birch, willow and oak. Species not mentioned in the series include hawthorn, chestnut and buckthorn. Other types of foliage found within the books are holly, gorse, clover, bramble, ferns, and sorrel.
Finally, most of the medicine cat herbs within the series can be found in New Forest. Common herbs include: poppies, chamomile, yarrow, horsetail, lavender, daisy, nettle, ragwort, and broom.
Animals which are abundant in New Forest, but do not make appearances include cattle, ponies, lizards, buzzards, donkey and deer. Birds of many species make their home in New Forest, only a handful mentioned in Warriors, such as larks, thrushes, hawks, pheasants, crows, pigeons, swifts, magpies, robins, black birds, warblers, jays, chaffinch, sparrows, and starlings. Other species not mentioned in the books are tits, egrets, nuthatches, jackdaws, geese, ducks, martins, doves, swans, and herons. The owl tree is realistically inhabited by an owl; both Tawny and Long-eared as well as others, can be found in New Forest.
Mammals are fairly well-represented in the books. Foxes, rabbits, squirrels and mice inhabit New Forest, as well as do a few species of deer, which are never encountered by the cats. Another animals seen in the books and also appearing in New Forest are toads.
The tourism in New Forest is large, making the appearances of Twolegs well represented in the books. There is a large road, which is converted as a thunderpath in the books. People also cycle, hike, picnic, and ride horses on the many paths.
It's easy to see why Warriors fans fell in love with the semi-fictional setting of warriors, by seeing how so many people before us have fallen in love with the real setting of New Forest. Where picnickers and ponies romp in the real setting, in our minds eye, WindClanners will always be hunting on 35% of New Forest that is grassland and steppes, ShadowClanners will be lurking on the 17% that is coniferous, and the 7% that is marsh and bogland. ThunderClanners will battle in the woodlands overing 29%, and RiverClan will always find prey in the rivers of the Lymington and Beaulieu.
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