Guardians of the Seeds
Gro smiles with the leaves. Photo: Paul VanDerWerf from Brunswick
Scattered throughout the woods of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, live the five Guardians of the Seeds. Roskva, Lilja, Birk, Soren, and Gro are magical creations from Danish artist Thomas Dambo are constructed of recycled materials. Considered one of the world’s leading artists whose work is based in recycled materials, Dambo is famous for his troll sculptures. Each one of these particular sculptures represents a certain part of a tree and as a group, tells the story of why each part of the tree is important to the entire forest.
Constructed in pieces, each troll is made from recycled wood. The heads, hands, and feet were made in Dambo’s studio in Denmark and brought to Maine in a shipping container. Once on-site, a crew of 10 people from across the world and over 150 local volunteers and staff finished the construction in about two months. The trolls are part of a global family in places like China, Australia, Belgium, and Mexico and are all connected by Dambo’s global fairytale (click here to learn more). You can visit the trolls to learn their teachings and discover their secrets at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
Guardians of the Seeds
Somewhere between the mountains and the rocky coast
lies a forest of pristine green, forgotten by most.
Deep in this forest is a secret place
with 10 golden seeds at the end of a maze.They were hidden by five giant forest trolls
protecting each part of the forest so old.
It was told that the trolls spoke the tongue of the trees
and had sworn to protect them from war and disease.Birk had roots. Roskva was wide as the trunks.
Gro was like the leaves, breathing life with her lungs.
Søren, like branches, would wave in the wind,
and Lilja, like the flowers, each year would spring.The forest was ancient, had stood for millions of years,
but recently the trolls had seen just what they had feared.
Little people came plenty, across and over the seas,
to cut, fell, and break down tree after tree after tree.So, in fear of a day when all the trees would be gone,
they collected every seed forever and on—
chestnut, cherry, elm, spruce, and hazel,
oak, ash, beech, birch, and, last, a little maple.The five trolls then held around all of the seeds
and harder and harder they started to squeeze—
so hard that stars started flashing and shaking,
so hard the ground started rumbling and quaking.Then 10 golden seeds appeared in a haze.
The trolls took them and hid them at the end of a maze,
where in secret and safe all the trees could grow tall,
Because a future with no trees is no future at all.So, the question is now, do you want to help?
Because a secret is lost if kept to itself.
Please run, find the seeds, and hold them in your heart,
and if everything gets lost, you’ll know where to start.
