History Main / TheHedgeOfThorns

** ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': Thorns are often seen as a mark of sin, and the Aberrant sorceries discovered by the Guilty call forth thorny thickets in exchange for the caster's blood.[[spoiler: The Erdtree has also sealed itself away with a barrier of impassible thorns. To actually get to the Elden Ring to fix it, the player will have to burn them with the Flame of Ruin enhanced with Destined Death.]]

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': A tangle of giant thorny vines is one of Mechanisburg's outer defenses, and can be induced to burst from the ground and form an impassable wall around the city. After the TimeSkip, the vines have overrun most of the outer town, preventing outsiders from entering it and growing back as fast as they are cut.

* "VideoGame/TheWitch'sHouse" The whole reason Viola has to enter the titular house is because the Witch has cast a spell blocking her way out of the forest around it with a hedge made of thorny rosebushes. The house is the only place with weedkiller to kill the roses.

* In variants of tale type Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) 425B, "The Son of the Witch" (e.g., ''Myth/CupidAndPsyche''), after the heroine finds her husband at the end of her arduous quest, her mother-in-law forces her on hard tasks, one of which is to pay a visit to another witch. The path to the witch is fraught with dangers, among which thorny branches in some variants.

* In variants of tale type Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) 425B, "The Son of the Witch" (e.g., ''Myth/CupidAndPsyche''), after the heroine finds her husband at the end of her arduous quest, her mother-in-law forces her on hard tasks, one of which is to pay a visit to another witch. The path to the witch is fraught with dangers, among which a path of thorny branches in some variants.

* ''Anime/SaintSeiya'': in the non-canon movie ''Saint Seiya: Warriors of the Final Holy Battle'', Saori Kido, who is the reincarnation of Greek goddess Athena in the setting, walks up the stairs of Lucifer's Pandemonium palace. At the end of the palace, in the steps leading to Lucifer's throne, Saori has to traverse a thick hedge of thorns, all the while bleeding and giving her divine blood to power up Lucifer', Abel', Eris and Poseidon's cosmos.

Physically, it is a place of painful passage, thorns and brambles, that acts as a hazard for the main character(s) as they try to either pass it, or escape it. More often than not, it is connected to [[OurFairiesAreDifferent fairies]] or some other mysterious group of creatures, as the trope is linked to the idea of a natural barrier to some greater prize (or terrible horror). Fantasy-wise, the Hedge usually appears within enchanted forests. However, sometimes the Hedge is conjured by a "higher power," and thus can appear anywhere the summoner demands. Also, the thorns tend to quickly eat whatever dies or lets its guard down within it.

** In the 5th Edition, black and green dragons cause plant life to warp into this in the vicinity of their lairs. The effect only fades after the dragon has been killed or driven off.%%Portions of the Feywild are also described as this, as is the entirety of the Shadowfell.%%ZCE

** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', Maleficent recreates her thorn hedge on a much smaller scale in a tower in Hollow Bastion, where it's possible to run up some of the thorny vines to avoid some of her dragon form's attacks.
** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', Maleficent fills Disney Castle's Hall of the Cornerstone with thorns as the start of her attempt to corrupt the place with darkness.

* ''VideoGame/ZorkGrandInquisitor'' has one blocking the way to the Dungeon Master's Lair. The rank undergrowth prevents eastward movement!

* ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'': The Hyperia Pantheon temple grounds are encircled by a magic hedge that mainly consists of thick, thorny vines. The various vines and branches of the hedge move out of the way for the protagonists when they want to enter or leave, a curtesy granted by Hyperion and Leilusa, the pantheon’s deities (and the protagonists bosses) who enchanted it.

** In "[[Recap/TotalDramaThatsOffTheChain That's Off the Chain!]]", Izzy steers her bike through a wall of thornbushes. It doesn't wipe the smile off her face, but Leshawna, her co-rider, is less amused. The chipmunk they picked up along the way loses all its fur from being cut by the sharp branches.
** In "[[Recap/TotalDramaTheTreasureIslandOfDrMcLean The Treasure Island Of Doctor McLean]]", the trail from the swamp to the clearing where Sam and Gwen are to be found is blocked by a thornbush forest. There is no way through it, but Dakotazoid clears a path by clocking a mutant alligator through the bushes.

Physically, it is a place of painful passage, thorns and brambles, that acts as a hazard for the main character(s) as they try to either pass it, or escape it. More often than not, it is connected to [[TheFairFolk fairies (Fae)]] or some other mysterious group of creatures, as the trope is linked to the idea of a natural barrier to some greater prize (or terrible horror). Fantasy-wise, the Hedge usually appears within enchanted forests. However, sometimes the Hedge is conjured by a "higher power," and thus can appear anywhere the summoner demands. Also, the thorns tend to quickly eat whatever dies or lets its guard down within it.

* ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'': The saberleaf savannahs are a variant: due to the abundance of efficient grazing herbivores on the planet, the saberleaf grass evolves razor-sharp leaves and stems that can injure herbivores trying to eat it, and in grasslands where saberleaf dominates the only animals that can survive are those equipped with tough skins and hard hooves the protect their bodies from injury.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Serina}}'': The cactaiga, a biome that develops during the glaciation of the Ultimocene, consists of a dense growth of cactus-like sunflower descendants that covers a good quarter or so of the world's sole remaining habitable continent. They endure the powerful winds of their environment, which can snap trees like toothpicks, by growing in an interlocking mass of plants all mutually supporting each other. This makes the cactaiga very difficult to live in, as the whole thing consists of a solid mass of slashing spines and vicious thorns, with virtually no open space between individual plants. Most of the area's megafauna goes extinct once the cactaiga forms, as it literally squeezes out both edible plants and animal populations; this only changes with the arrival of the thorngrazers, who can chew their way through the plants using their massive tooth plates and keratinized spikes that defend their faces from the thorns, and which literally eat their way through the mass to create open spaces and paths that allow other plants and animals to find shelter from the ice age storms within the resulting maze of thorn-walled pocket environments.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfHearts'': The legend central to the story is a fairy tale about a sleeping princess in a forest of thorns. However, the twist is that it is not, in fact, a literal hedge. [[spoiler:the Forest of Thorns is a codename used to identify an ancient control unit known as the Mysticete. It also happens to be the Flying Whale worshiped by the church and the place where Lithia's physical body has been preserved in stasis, since it's a remnant of a very advanced alien civilization that was destroyed 2,000 years before the game's time.]]

[[folder: Fairytales]]

* In variants of tale type Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) 425B, "The Son of the Witch" (e.g., ''Myth/CupidAndPsyche''), after the heroine finds her husband after an arduous quest, her mother-in-law forces her on hard tasks, one of which is to pay a visit to another witch. The path to the witch is fraught with dangers, among which a path of thorny branches in some variants.

* In some variants of tale type Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) 425B, "The Son of the Witch" (e.g., ''Myth/CupidAndPsyche''), after the heroine finds her husband after an arduous quest, her mother-in-law forces her on hard tasks, one of which is to pay a visit to another witch. The path to the witch is fraught with dangers, among which a path of thorny branches.

* In some variants of tale type Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) 425B, "The Son of the Witch" (e.g., ''[[Myth/{{CupidAndPsyche}} Cupid and Psyche]]''), after the heroine finds her husband after an arduous quest, her mother-in-law forces her on hard tasks, one of which is to pay a visit to another witch. The path to the witch is fraught with dangers, among which a path of thorny branches.

* In some variants of tale type Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) 425B, "The Son of the Witch" (e.g., ''[[Myth/{{CupidAndPsyche}} Cupid and Psyche]]''), after the heroine finds her husband after an arduous quest, her mother-in-law forces her on hard tasks, one of which is to pay a visit to another witch. The path to the witch is fraught with dangers, among with a path of thorny branches.