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This article is about fictional tree people. For other uses, seeENT (disambiguation).

Ents
TreebeardandHobbitsbyTom Loback,2007
In-universe information
Other name(s)Onodrim, Shepherds of the Trees, Tree-folk
Creation dateFirst Age
Home worldMiddle-earth
Base of operationsFangorn Forest
LanguageEntish
LeaderTreebeard

Entsare a species of sentient beings inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sfantasyworld ofMiddle-earthwho closely resembletrees;their leader isTreebeardof Fangorn forest. Their name is derived from anOld Englishword for "giant".

The Ents appear inThe Lord of the Ringsas ancient shepherds of the forest and allies of the free peoples of Middle-earth during theWar of the Ring.The Ent who figures most prominently in the book isTreebeard,who is called the oldest creature in Middle-earth. At that time, there are no young Ents (Entings) because the Entwives (female Ents) were lost. Akin to Ents areHuorns,whom Treebeard describes as a transitional form of trees which become animated or, conversely, as Ents who grow more "treelike" over time.

Tolkien stated that he was disappointed byShakespeare's handling of the coming of "Great Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane hill"; he wanted a setting in which the trees would actually go to war. Commentators have seen this as wish-fulfilment, as he disliked the damage being done to the English countryside in his lifetime. Scholars have seen his tale of the Ents as a myth, mostly without analysing it.Corey Olseninterprets the song of the Ents and the Entwives as a myth which warns of the dangers of apathetically isolating oneself in nature, whereas the Ents' song "In the willow-meads of Tasarinan" is a lament.

Inspired by Tolkien and similar traditions, animated oranthropomorphictree creatures appear in a variety of media and works of fantasy.

Internal history[edit]

Treebeard,called byGandalfthe oldest living Ent and the oldest living thing that walks inMiddle-earth,[T 1]is described as being around 14 feet (4 m) tall, "Man-like, almostTroll-like ", and clad in something that might have been tree-bark, with seven toes, a bushy," almost twiggy "beard and deep penetrating eyes.[T 2]Ents vary widely in personal traits (height, heft, colouring, even the number of toes), having come to resemble somewhat the specific types of trees that they shepherded.Quickbeam,for example, guardedrowantrees and bore some resemblance to rowans: tall and slender, smooth-skinned, with ruddy lips and grey-green hair. Some Ents, such as Treebeard, were like[T 2]

beech-trees oroaks.But there were other kinds. Some recalled thechestnut:brown-skinned Ents with large splayfingered hands, and short thick legs. Some recalled theash:tall straight grey Ents with many-fingered hands and long legs; some thefir(the tallest Ents), and others thebirch,... and thelinden.[T 2]

Like the roots of trees, but far more rapidly, Tolkien's Ents could break stone.[T 3]

Ents are somewhat treelike, with extraordinarily tough skin; they can erode stone rapidly, but are vulnerable to fire and axe-strokes. They are patient and cautious, with a long sense of time; they considered a three-day deliberation "hasty".[T 2]

Ents are tall and very strong, capable of tearing apart rock and stone when "roused". Tolkien describes them as tossing great slabs of stone about, and ripping down the walls of Isengard "like bread-crust".[T 3]Treebeardboasted of their strength toMerryandPippin;he said that Ents were much more powerful thanTrolls,whichMorgothmade in theFirst Agein mockery of Ents, asOrcswere ofElves.[T 2]

First Age[edit]

Tolkien wrote almost nothing of the early history of the Ents. After theDwarveswere put to sleep byEruto await the coming of the Elves, the ValaAulëtold his wifeYavanna,"the lover of all things that grow in the earth,"[T 4]of the Dwarves. She replied, "They will delve in the earth, and the things that grow and live upon the earth they will not heed. Many a tree shall feel the bite of their iron without pity."[T 5]She went toManwëand appealed to him to protect the trees, and they realized that Ents, too, were part of theSong of Creation.Yavanna then warned Aulë, "Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at their peril." The Ents are called "the Shepherds of the Trees".[T 5]Much later, whenBerenand a force ofGreen Elveswaylay the force ofDwarvesreturning from the sack ofDoriath,the Dwarves are routed and scatter into the wood, where the Shepherds of the Trees ensure that none escape.[T 6] Ents did not know how to speak until the Elves taught them. Treebeard said that the Elves "cured us of dumbness", calling that a great gift that could not be forgotten.[T 2]At that time, much ofEriadorwas forested;Elrondstated that "a squirrel could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire toDunlandwest of Isengard. "[T 7][T 2]

Entwives[edit]

The Entwives began to move farther away from the Ents because they liked to plant and control things, while the Ents preferred forests and liked to let things take their natural course. The Entwives moved away to what became the Brown Lands across the Great RiverAnduin,although the male Ents still visited them. The Entwives interacted withMenand taught them the art of agriculture. The gardens of the Entwives were destroyed bySauron,and the Entwives disappeared. It was sung by the Elves that one day the Ents and Entwives would find each other. Treebeard indeed implored the Hobbits to send word to him if they had news of the Entwives.[T 8]

Tolkien spent much time considering the fate of the Entwives, stating inLetters#144: "I think that in fact the Entwives have disappeared for good, being destroyed with their gardens in the War of the Last Alliance...some may have fled east, or even have become enslaved..."[T 9]

AfterAragornis crowned king, he promised Treebeard that the Ents could prosper again and spread to new lands with the threat ofMordorgone, and renew their search for the Entwives. Treebeard lamented that forests may spread but the Ents would not, and he predicted that the few remaining Ents would remain in Fangorn forest and dwindle or become "treeish".[T 2]

The Last March of the Ents[edit]

The Ents, angry atSarumanfor cutting down their trees, convene an Entmoot.[T 2]They decide to march on Saruman's fortress atIsengard- 'the last march of the Ents'. Led by Treebeard and accompanied by thehobbitsMeriadoc BrandybuckandPeregrin Took,the Ents numbered about 50, plus an army of Huorns.[T 2]They destroy Isengard, tearing down the wall around it:[T 3]"If theGreat Seahad risen in wrath and fallen on the hills with storm, it could have worked no greater ruin ".[T 10]Saruman is trapped in the tower ofOrthanc.[T 3]

Analysis[edit]

Etymology[edit]

The phraseOrthanc enta geweorc,on the second line of the Old EnglishMaxims IImanuscript, seems to have inspired Tolkien.[1]

The word "Ent" is from theOld Englishentoreoten,meaning "giant". Tolkien borrowed the word from a phrase in the Anglo-Saxon poemsThe RuinandMaxims II,orþanc enta geweorc( "cunning work of giants" ),[1]which describesRomanruins.[T 11][2]

InSindarin,one of Tolkien's inventedElvish languages,the word for Ent isOnod(pluralEnyd). The Sindarin wordOnodrimmeans the Ents as a race.[T 12]

Improving on Shakespeare[edit]

Further information:Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien
Tolkien wrote that he "longed to devise a setting in which the trees might really march to war", unlike the "shabby" treatment of the story inShakespeare'sMacbeth.[T 13]
Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane, in the form of branches carried by the soldiers, as described by Shakespeare.

Tolkien noted in a letter that he had created Ents in response to his "bitter disappointment and disgust from schooldays with the shabby use made inShakespeare'sMacbethof the coming of 'GreatBirnam Woodto high Dunsinane hill': I longed to devise a setting in which the trees might really march to war ".[T 13]The Ents ensured victory at theBattle of Helm's Deepby herding a forest of angry, tree-like Huorns there, to destroy Saruman's army ofOrcs.[T 14]

Wish-fulfilment and environmentalism[edit]

Further information:Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings

Commentators have observed that having the Ents march to war against the tree-destroyers represented a wish-fulfilment on Tolkien's part, concerned as he was with the increasing damage to the English countryside in the 20th century.[3][4]In their bookEnts, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien,Matthew T. DickersonandJonathan Evanssee Treebeard as vocalizing a vital part ofTolkien's environmental ethic,the need to preserve and look after every kind of wild place, especially forests.[5] Corey Olsenhowever criticises Dickerson and Evans's use of the Ents as "mere symbols".[6]

Mythic value: song of the Ents and the Entwives[edit]

C. S. Lewisdescribed Tolkien's tale of the Ents as a myth, "a story which has a value in itself".[7]Ruth Noel likened the Ents toGermanic legendsof "huge, wild, hairywoodsprites".[8]

From the "Song of the Ents and Entwives"

Ent:

When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold,
When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!

Entwife:

When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown;
When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town;
When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West,
I'll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!

Olsen sees in Tolkien's song of the Ents and the Entwives, supposedly written by Elves, "compelling insights on the complexities and conflicts of life in a fallen world."[6]The song goes through the four seasons of the year, each time with a stanza by the Ent and then one by the Entwife. Olsen comments that the Ent is passive, even "languid and somnolent" in summer, the only active process being dreaming; whereas the Entwife's summer season is "simply bursting with activity". These are perhaps, Olsen reflects, not in competition; both contemplation and action are "valuable ways of celebrating natural beauty".[6]He suggests that Treebeard's view of the song is however biased, and that the Ent is not as humble as he claims to be, especially with respect to the Entwives. If the Ents and the Entwives were to be "unified", they would "balance and complete each other", but they face "moral dangers" without such balance: in the case of the Ents, the danger is of letting their life in nature "lapse into mere lassitude". He gives as examples the "apathetic isolationism" of Skinbark, who refuses to come out of his hills, and Leaflock's "somnolent oblivion", just standing in the long grass all summer doing nothing. Olsen calls it "a cautionary tale" and "tragic", quite unlike Treebeard's "In the willow-meads of Tasarinan", again covering the four seasons, but which is a lament.[6]

Anne Petty comments that the song follows traditional gender stereotypes, the Ents liking wild nature, the Entwives preferring the more domestic realm of tamed nature and gardening.[9]

Adaptations[edit]

In other media[edit]

InPeter Jackson's filmsThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers(2002) andThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003), Treebeard is a combination of a largeanimatronic modeland aCGIconstruct; he is voiced byJohn Rhys-Davies,who also portraysGimli.[10]The Fall of Troyhas a song entitled "The Last March of the Ents" on their self-titled debut album released in 2003.[11]Permission was granted for astatueofTreebeardbyTim Tolkien,near his great-uncle J. R. R. Tolkien's former home inMoseley,Birmingham.[12][13]

In popular culture[edit]

A "treant" fromWorld of Warcraft

Ents appeared in the earliest edition of the roleplaying gameDungeons & Dragonsin the1974 white box set,where they were described as tree-like creatures able to command trees, and lawful in nature.[14]In 1975, Elan Merchandising, which owned the game licence to the Tolkien estate, issued a cease-and-desist order regarding the use of the word "ent", so theDungeons & Dragonscreatures were renamed "treants".[15][16]Heroes of Might and Magic Vincludes Treants as a part of the Elven alliance; however, due to copyright infringement issues, their look was changed[17]between the beta phase and the retail version, making themquadrupedal.[18]The TV seriesThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,set in theSecond Age,features Ents.[19]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Primary[edit]

  1. ^Tolkien 1954,book 3, ch. 5: "The White Rider".
  2. ^abcdefghijTolkien 1954,book 3, ch. 4: "Treebeard".
  3. ^abcdTolkien 1954,book 3, ch. 9: "Flotsam and Jetsam".
  4. ^Tolkien 1977,Valaquenta
  5. ^abTolkien 1977,"Quenta Silmarillion" ch. 2: "Of Aulë and Yavanna"
  6. ^Tolkien 1977,"Quenta Silmarillion", ch. 22 "Of the Ruin of Doriath"
  7. ^Tolkien 1954a,book 2, ch. 2: "The Council of Elrond".
  8. ^Tolkien 1955,book 6, ch. 6 "Many Partings"
  9. ^Carpenter 2023,#144 toNaomi Mitchison,25 April 1954
  10. ^Tolkien 1954,book 3, ch. 8: "The Road to Isengard"
  11. ^Carpenter 2023,#163 toW. H. Auden,7 June 1955
  12. ^Tolkien 1980Index, entries forEnt,Enyd,andOnodrim.
  13. ^abCarpenter 2023,No. 163, footnote, pp. 211–212.
  14. ^Tolkien 1954,book 3, ch. 7 "Helm's Deep"

Secondary[edit]

  1. ^abShippey, Tom(2001).J. R. R. Tolkien – Author of the Century.Houghton Mifflin.p. 88.ISBN978-0-618-12764-1.
  2. ^Shippey 2005,p. 149.
  3. ^Shippey 2005,p. 184.
  4. ^Niiler, Lucas P. (1999). "Green Reading: Tolkien, Leopold and the Land Ethic".Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.10(3 (39)): 276–285.JSTOR43308393.
  5. ^Dickerson & Evans 2006,pp. 119–144, 250.
  6. ^abcdOlsen, Corey(2008). "The Myth of the Ent and the Entwife".Tolkien Studies.5(1).Project Muse:39–53.doi:10.1353/tks.0.0013.ISSN1547-3163.
  7. ^Lewis, C. S.(2004). "The Dethronement of Power". In Rose A. Zimbardo; Neil D. Isaacs (eds.).Understanding The Lord of the Rings.Boston:Houghton Mifflin.pp. 11–15.
  8. ^Noel, Ruth S. (1977).The Mythology of Middle-earth.Boston:Houghton Mifflin.p. 130.
  9. ^Petty, Anne (2003).Tolkien in the Land of Heroes: Discovering the Human Spirit.Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Press. p. 242.
  10. ^Nathan, Ian (23 October 2012) [2002]."The Making Of The Two Towers".Empire Cinemas.Retrieved28 March2020.Treebeard will mainly be a CGI creation; this animatronic version is used for the close-ups with Hobbit actors Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan.
  11. ^"The Fall of Troy at AllMusic".AllMusic.
  12. ^"Moseley Statue".5 September 2007. Archived fromthe originalon 3 November 2005.Retrieved25 March2014.
  13. ^"Tolkien statue gets the go ahead".BBC News.2 March 2007.The statue was approved by Birmingham City Council planners at a meeting on Thursday [1 March 2007] night.
  14. ^Gygax, Gary,andDave Arneson.Dungeons & Dragons(3-Volume Set) (TSR, 1974)
  15. ^Witwer, Michael; Newman, Kyle; Witwer, Sam (2018).Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History.Ten Speed Press.p. 71.ISBN978-0399580949.
  16. ^Gygax, Gary."Gary Gygax (Interview)".TheOneRing.net.Retrieved7 October2008.
  17. ^"Mods and fixes".Heroes of Might and Magic.Retrieved2 October2020.
  18. ^"Sylvan creatures".Heroes of Might and Magic.Retrieved2 October2020.
  19. ^Skrebels, Joe (6 July 2022)."Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - New Teaser Shows Off Ents and More".IGN.Retrieved7 October2022.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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