Mirkwood

Mirkwood (in Sindarin called 'Taur-nu-Fuin') was the biggest forest left in Middle-earth, east of the river Anduin and south of the Grey Mountains. Here the Sindarin princes established their realm. The trees growing here were mainly oaks and beeches.
Early in time the forest still reached the Lonely Mountain, but when the dwarves came from Moria they felled many trees and later, the dragon kept them from growing back.
The original name of Mirkwood was 'Eryn Galen' (=Greenwood the Great). About 1050 TA Sauron cast a shadow over the forest by building his fastness Dol Guldur in it's southern part. One and a half millenia later the Dark Lord retreated into Mordor, but Eryn Galen had already been infested by dangerous creatures of all kinds and was therefore renamed. Only in the north Thranduil and his subjects were able to keep evil at bay.
In 'The Hobbit' we learn about the enchanted Forest River: Everyone who touched its waters fell into a deep sleep which lasted several days. Mentioned in the same book and doubtless among to the most dangerous inhabitants of Mirkwood were the Giant Spiders. They were of Shelob's brood, the beast known from 'The Lord of the Rings'.
During the War of the Ring, Thranduil's realm was attacked and in southern Mirkwood the Lórien Elves were battling with the enemy's forces. When finally victory was achieved, Thranduil and Celeborn met in the heart of the forest. They, again, changed its name to 'Eryn Lasgalen' which means 'Wood of Greenleaves' and divided it into three parts: the whole north to be ruled by Thranduil, the south to be under Celeborn's leadership and its center part for the Beornings and Woodmen.

My favorite quotations:
Now of old the name of the forest was Greenwood the Great, and its wide halls and aisles were the haunt of many beasts and birds of bright song; and there was the realm of King Thranduil under the oak and the beech. ... Then the name of the forest was changed and Mirkwood it was called, for the nightshade lay deep there, and few dared to pass through it, save only in the north where Thranduil's people still held the evil at bay. [The Silmarillion]

Occasionally a slender beam of sun that had the luck to slip in through some opening in the leaves far above, and still more luck in not being caught in the tangled boughs and matted twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them. But this was seldom, and it soon ceased altogether. [The Hobbit]

Suddenly on the path ahead appeared some white deer, a hind and fawns as snowy white as the hart had been dark. They glimmered in the shadows. [The Hobbit]

Bilbo's eyes were nearly blinded by the light. ... The sun was shining brilliantly, and it was a long while before he could bear it. When he could, he saw all round him a sea of dark green, ruffled here and there by the breeze; and there were everywhere hundreds of butterflies. [The Hobbit]

In a great cave some miles within the edge of Mirkwood on its eastern side there lived at this time their greatest king. Before his huge doors of stone a river ran out of the heights of the forest and flowed on and out into the marshes at the feet of the high wooded lands. This great cave, from which countless smaller ones opened out on every side, wound far underground and had many passages and wide halls; but it was lighter and more wholesome than any goblin-dwelling, and neither so deep nor so dangerous. [The Hobbit]

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