Name of several European forests
In Germanic mythology, Myrkviðr (Old Norse "dark wood" or "black forest") is the name of several European forests. 
The direct derivatives of the name occur as a place name both in Sweden and Norway. Related forms of the name occur elsewhere in Europe, such as in the Black Forest ("Schwarzwald"), and may thus be a general term for dark and dense forests of ancient Europe.
The name was anglicised by Sir Walter Scott (in "Waverley") and William Morris (in "The House of the Wolfings") and later popularized by J. R. R. Tolkien as "Mirkwood".
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Etymology.
The word "myrkviðr" is a compound of two words. The first element is "myrkr" "dark", which is cognate to, among others, the English adjectives "mirky" and "murky". The second element is "viðr" "wood, forest".
Attestations.
The name is attested as a mythical local name of a forest in the "Poetic Edda" poem "Lokasenna", and the heroic poems "Atlakviða", "Helgakviða Hundingsbana I" and "Hlöðskviða", and in prose in "Fornmanna sögur", "Flateyjarbók", "Hervarar Saga, Ála flekks saga". 
The localization of Myrkviðr varies by source:
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Theories.
J. R. R. Tolkien comments on Myrkviðr in a letter to his eldest grandson:
Regarding the forests, Francis Gentry comments that "in the Norse tradition 'crossing the Black Forest' came to signify penetrating the barriers between one world and another, especially the world of the gods and the world of fire, where Surt lives [...]."
Modern influence.
It was first anglicized as "Mirkwood" by Sir Walter Scott in "Waverley", followed by William Morris in "A Tale of the House of the Wolfings" from 1888, and later by J. R. R. Tolkien in his fiction.
Notes.
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References.
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