Ent
Encyclopedia
Ents are a race of beings in J. R. R. Tolkien
's fantasy world Middle-earth
who closely resemble trees. They are similar to the talking trees in folklore around the world. Their name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon
word for giant
.
The Ents appear in The Lord of the Rings
as ancient shepherds of the forest and allies of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth during the War of the Ring
. The Ent who figures most prominently in the book is Treebeard
, one of the oldest creatures in Tolkien's world. At the time The Lord of the Rings takes place, there are no young Ents (Entings) because the Entwives (female Ents) were lost. The Ents are akin to Huorn
s, whom Treebeard describes as trees that have become animated or, conversely, as Ents who have grown more "treeish" over time.
Inspired by Tolkien and similar traditions, animated or anthropomorphic tree creatures appear in a variety of media and works of fantasy.
ruins). In this sense, Ents are probably the most ubiquitous of all creatures in fantasy and folklore, perhaps second only to dragon
s; for the word can refer to a variety of large, roughly humanoid creatures, such as giants
, troll
s, orc
s, or even the monster Grendel
from the poem Beowulf
.
Along with Old Norse
jǫtunn (Jötunn), "ent" came from Common Germanic *etunaz.
, the oldest living Ent, is described as being around 14 feet (4 m) tall:
Ents are an old race that appeared in Middle-earth
when the Elves
did. They were apparently created by Eru Ilúvatar
at the behest of Yavanna: when she learned of Aulë
's children, the Dwarves
, she foresaw that they would fell trees, and desired creatures to serve as Shepherds of the Trees to protect the forests from Dwarves and other perils. Although the Ents were sentient beings from the time of their awakening, they did not know how to speak until the Elves taught them. Treebeard said that the Elves "cured us of dumbness", that it was a great gift that could not be forgotten. ("They always wished to talk to everything, the old Elves did.") In the Third Age
of Middle-earth, the forest of Fangorn was the only place known still to be inhabited by Ents, although the Ent-like Huorn
s may have survived elsewhere, as in the Old Forest
.
Ents exhibit wide variation in personal traits (height, heft, colouring, even the number of digits), as they came to resemble somewhat the specific types of trees that they shepherded. Quickbeam, for example, guarded Rowan trees
and bore some resemblance to rowans: tall and slender, smooth-skinned, with ruddy lips and grey-green hair. Ents share some of the strengths and weaknesses of trees as well. Their skin is extraordinarily tough, and very much like wood; they can erode stone extremely rapidly, in the manner of tree roots - but they are vulnerable to fire and chopping blows from axes. Ents are also an extremely patient and cautious race, with a sense of time more suited to trees than short-lived mortals. For example, in the Entmoot regarding the attack on Isengard, their three-day deliberation was considered by some to be "hasty".
Ents are tall and very strong, capable of tearing apart rock and stone (though they only use their full strength when they are "roused"). Tolkien describes them as tossing great slabs of stone about, and ripping down the walls of Isengard "like bread-crust". Treebeard
boasted of their strength to Merry
and Pippin
; he said that Ents were much more powerful than Troll
s, which Morgoth
made in the First Age
in mockery of Ents.
The book further lays out the power of Ents; their bark-like skin and flesh make them difficult to harm even with axes, and a single punch from an Ent (they do not seem to use weapons, though they do hurl stones) can kill an Uruk-hai
. The only reliable means to kill an Ent is fire, for they burn easily.
The Sindarin word for Ent is Onod (plural Enyd). Sindarin Onodrim refers to the Ents as a race.
were put to sleep by Eru
to await the coming of the Elves, Aulë
told his wife Yavanna, "the lover of all things that grow in the earth," 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." She went to Manwë
and appealed to him to protect the trees, and they realized that Ents, too, were part of the Song 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". Treebeard
tells of a time when much of Eriador
was forested and part of his domain, but these immense forests dwindled over time. Treebeard's statement is corroborated by Elrond
: "Time was when a squirrel could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire to Dunland west of Isengard." Of this vast forest, according to Treebeard, Fangorn forest was "just the East End".
There is only a single reference in The Silmarillion to the Onodrim in Beleriand
. When Beren
Erchamion and a force of Green Elves waylay the force of Dwarves
returning from the sack of Doriath
, the Dwarves are routed and scatter into the wood – where the Shepherds of the Trees ensure that none escape. Perhaps this contributes to Treebeard's apprehension at Gimli
's entrance to Fangorn in The Two Towers.
, although the male Ents still visited them. The Entwives, unlike the Ents, interacted with the race of Men and taught them much about the art of agriculture.
Apparently the male Ents and female Entwives exhibited a marked degree of sexual dimorphism
; the male Ents all resemble wild forest trees that they guard (oaks, rowans, etc.), but the Entwives guarded agricultural plants, and it would thus seem to be implied that they resembled the various agricultural plants and trees they guarded: Treebeard remarks that their hair was the hue of ripe corn (grain).
The Entwives lived in peace until their gardens were destroyed by Sauron
(most likely during the War of the Last Alliance), and they themselves disappeared. The Ents looked for them but never found them. It was sung by the Elves (Ents were content to simply "chant their beautiful names") that one day the Ents and Entwives would find each other. Indeed, in The Return of the King
, Treebeard implored the Hobbits not to forget to send word to him if they "hear any news" of the Entwives "in your land".
In The Fellowship of the Ring
, Samwise Gamgee
mentions his cousin Hal claims to have seen a treelike giant, which resembled an elm not only in size but also in actual appearance, in the north of the Shire
. During the Fangorn episode, Merry
and Pippin
told Treebeard about the Shire. Treebeard said that the Entwives would have liked that land. This, combined with the giant-sighting by Sam's cousin Hal mentioned above, has led to some speculation by readers that the Entwives may have lived near the Shire. Tolkien himself spent much time considering what actually happened to the Entwives (at one point simply saying even he didn't know), but eventually he stated in Letters #144: "I think that in fact the Entwives have disappeared for good, being destroyed with their gardens in the War of the Last Alliance..."
At the end of the story after Aragorn
is crowned king, he promised Treebeard that the Ents could prosper again and spread to new lands with the threat of Mordor
gone, and renew their search for the Entwives.
However, Treebeard sadly lamented that forests may spread but the Ents would not, and he predicted that the few remaining Ents would remain in Fangorn forest until they slowly dwindled in number or became "treeish", saying: "Sheep get like shepherds, and shepherds get like sheep. [...] But it is quicker and closer, with trees and Ents."
According to Treebeard there are no Entings upon Middle-earth at the time of the Third Age, and there have not been any for quite some time. And there will never be any more Entings afterwards either "as there are no Entwives".
: they age with the passage of time, albeit very slowly (At the Entmoot, the hobbits notice that the Ents vary in age from their appearance. Also, when invited to sit down, Treebeard tells Merry and Pippin that he is not very 'bendable', while a much younger Ent, Quickbeam, could 'bend and sway like a slender tree in the wind'). And while they do not die of old age, older Ents often become 'treeish', settling down in one place and growing roots and leaves. Eventually, they cease to be conscious and become trees permanently. It is implied that this was the eventual fate of the Ents in Middle-earth.
, the second volume of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
, the Ents – usually a very patient, deliberate people – become angry at Saruman
, whose armies are cutting down large numbers of their trees. They convene an Entmoot, a meeting of the Ents of Fangorn forest at Derndingle.
After lengthy deliberation (three days; though from the perspective of the Ents, this is very quick action), they march on Saruman's fortress at Isengard
: the Last March of the Ents. They are led by Treebeard, the oldest Ent, and accompanied by the Hobbit
s Meriadoc Brandybuck
and Peregrin Took
. The Ents that marched against Isengard numbered about 50, plus Huorn
s. They destroy Isengard in an all-out assault, ripping down the wall around it, and eventually becoming so enraged the power of their voices alone causes great destruction — "If the Great Sea
had risen in wrath and fallen on the hills with storm, it could have worked no greater ruin." — and trap Saruman in the tower of Orthanc. Tolkien later noted that the Ents were partly founded in his disappointment "with the shabby use made in Shakespeare of the coming of 'Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill'" in Macbeth
.
, six Ents are identified by name. The main Ent character, and the first encountered by the readers and the hobbits, is Fangorn
(Treebeard). The other ents are Beechbone, Bregalad, Fimbrethil, Finglas, and Fladrif.
of Treebeard
by Tim Tolkien
, J.R.R. Tolkien's great-nephew, near his former home in Moseley
, Birmingham
. It is possible that nearby Moseley Bog
may have been one of the first places where the young Tolkien regularly encountered trees of various species.
has a song entitled "The Last March of the Ents" on their self-titled debut album released in 2003.
Robot Chicken
featured Ents in four separate skits. One featured an Ent being cut down with a chainsaw. Another featured a member of The Surreal Life
, in a parody of Lord of the Rings, relieving himself on an Ent, which angered it, prompting it to step on him. Another had a forest ranger showing kids a sap faucet, and tried to get sap out of it, unaware that he was really touching an Ent. A fourth featured several Ents running, and a girl shouting "Run, Forest! Run!!", parodying the famous quote from the film Forrest Gump
.
Treebeard's song, "In The Willow-Meads of Tasarinan", was sung by William Elvin to the music of Donald Swann
on their 1968 recording: The Road Goes Ever On
, released on Camedon. The lyrics and music were published in a song book by Allen & Unwin
.
Similar creatures
In other fantasy and role-playing game
s such as Dungeons & Dragons
(D&D, see plant creatures), EverQuest
, Thief 2: The Metal Age, Magic: The Gathering
, Games Workshop
's Warhammer Fantasy Battle
, Square Enix
's Final Fantasy
series, Warlords
series and the Warcraft
PC game series, Tolkien-like Ents are known as "Treants", "Treemen" or "Treefolk", for trademark
reasons, much like Hobbit
s are only referred to as Halfling
s in such works. Similar creatures are also depicted in the MMORPG
s RuneScape
, Rift and Rubies of Eventide
, as well as the real-time strategy game Myth: The Fallen Lords, among other games. Wesnoth has units based on the fictional race wose (similar to ents). In some incarnations, these tree-people are very close in spirit to their Tolkienesque forebears, although others, like D&D, have explored the concept of corrupt trees and tree-like monsters (akin to Old Man Willow
and the Huorn
s of Fangorn). For instance, in the MMORPG
Shadowbane
, Treants are mid-level monsters.
The Wood comes alive to save the Narnians in the final battle of Prince Caspian
, which was written by C. S. Lewis
, a fellow member with Tolkien of the Inklings. In the film adaptation of the book, these trees resemble Huorns more than Ents.
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's fantasy world Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
who closely resemble trees. They are similar to the talking trees in folklore around the world. Their name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
word for giant
Giant (mythology)
The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
.
The Ents appear in The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
as ancient shepherds of the forest and allies of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth during the War of the Ring
War of the Ring
In the fictional high fantasy-world of J. R. R. Tolkien, the War of the Ring was fought between Sauron and the free peoples of Middle-earth for control of the One Ring and dominion over the continent. The War of the Ring took place at the end of the Third Age. Together with the Quest of Mount Doom,...
. The Ent who figures most prominently in the book is Treebeard
Treebeard
Treebeard is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The eldest of the species of Ents, he is said to live in the ancient Forest of Fangorn and stands fourteen feet in height and is tree-like in appearance, with leafy hair and a rigid structure. Fangorn Forest...
, one of the oldest creatures in Tolkien's world. At the time The Lord of the Rings takes place, there are no young Ents (Entings) because the Entwives (female Ents) were lost. The Ents are akin to Huorn
Huorn
The Huorns are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They are described as "trees" that can speak to Ents and are capable of locomotion.- Description :...
s, whom Treebeard describes as trees that have become animated or, conversely, as Ents who have grown more "treeish" over time.
Inspired by Tolkien and similar traditions, animated or anthropomorphic tree creatures appear in a variety of media and works of fantasy.
Etymology
The word "Ent" was taken from the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) word ent, meaning "giant". Tolkien borrowed the word from the Anglo-Saxon phrases orþanc enta geweorc = "work of cunning giants" and eald enta geweorc = "old work of giants" (describing RomanAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
ruins). In this sense, Ents are probably the most ubiquitous of all creatures in fantasy and folklore, perhaps second only to dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
s; for the word can refer to a variety of large, roughly humanoid creatures, such as giants
Giant (mythology)
The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
, troll
Troll
A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
s, orc
Orc
An orc is one of a race of mythical human-like creatures, generally described as fierce and combative, with grotesque features and often black, grey or greenish skin. This mythology has its origins in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien....
s, or even the monster Grendel
Grendel
Grendel is one of three antagonists, along with Grendel's mother and the dragon, in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf . Grendel is usually depicted as a monster, though this is the subject of scholarly debate. In the poem, Grendel is feared by all but Beowulf.-Story:The poem Beowulf is contained in...
from the poem Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
.
Along with Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
jǫtunn (Jötunn), "ent" came from Common Germanic *etunaz.
Description
TreebeardTreebeard
Treebeard is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The eldest of the species of Ents, he is said to live in the ancient Forest of Fangorn and stands fourteen feet in height and is tree-like in appearance, with leafy hair and a rigid structure. Fangorn Forest...
, the oldest living Ent, is described as being around 14 feet (4 m) tall:
Ents are an old race that appeared in Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
when the Elves
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
did. They were apparently created by Eru Ilúvatar
Eru Ilúvatar
Eru Ilúvatar is a fictional deity in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Silmarillion as the creator of all existence . In Tolkien's invented language of Elvish, Eru means "The One", or "He that is Alone" and Ilúvatar signifies "Father of All"...
at the behest of Yavanna: when she learned of Aulë
Aulë
Aulë is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, who is primarily discussed in The Silmarillion, but appears also in Tolkien's other works. In Tolkien's pantheon of Middle-earth, Aulë is a knowledge deity, sometimes worshipped as a god by men, representing skill and craftsmanship,...
's children, the Dwarves
Dwarf (Middle-earth)
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting the world of Arda, a fictional prehistoric Earth which includes the continent Middle-earth....
, she foresaw that they would fell trees, and desired creatures to serve as Shepherds of the Trees to protect the forests from Dwarves and other perils. Although the Ents were sentient beings from the time of their awakening, they did not know how to speak until the Elves taught them. Treebeard said that the Elves "cured us of dumbness", that it was a great gift that could not be forgotten. ("They always wished to talk to everything, the old Elves did.") In the Third Age
Third Age
The Third Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The history of Middle-earth is to be taken fictionally as a history of the real Earth....
of Middle-earth, the forest of Fangorn was the only place known still to be inhabited by Ents, although the Ent-like Huorn
Huorn
The Huorns are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They are described as "trees" that can speak to Ents and are capable of locomotion.- Description :...
s may have survived elsewhere, as in the Old Forest
Old Forest
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Old Forest is a small forested area which lies east of the Shire in Buckland....
.
Ents exhibit wide variation in personal traits (height, heft, colouring, even the number of digits), as they came to resemble somewhat the specific types of trees that they shepherded. Quickbeam, for example, guarded Rowan trees
Rowan
The rowans or mountain-ashes are shrubs or small trees in genus Sorbus of family Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the mountains of western China and the Himalaya, where numerous apomictic microspecies...
and bore some resemblance to rowans: tall and slender, smooth-skinned, with ruddy lips and grey-green hair. Ents share some of the strengths and weaknesses of trees as well. Their skin is extraordinarily tough, and very much like wood; they can erode stone extremely rapidly, in the manner of tree roots - but they are vulnerable to fire and chopping blows from axes. Ents are also an extremely patient and cautious race, with a sense of time more suited to trees than short-lived mortals. For example, in the Entmoot regarding the attack on Isengard, their three-day deliberation was considered by some to be "hasty".
Ents are tall and very strong, capable of tearing apart rock and stone (though they only use their full strength when they are "roused"). Tolkien describes them as tossing great slabs of stone about, and ripping down the walls of Isengard "like bread-crust". Treebeard
Treebeard
Treebeard is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The eldest of the species of Ents, he is said to live in the ancient Forest of Fangorn and stands fourteen feet in height and is tree-like in appearance, with leafy hair and a rigid structure. Fangorn Forest...
boasted of their strength to Merry
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually referred to as Merry, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings....
and Pippin
Peregrin Took
Peregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Pippin is introduced as a Hobbit who plays a major role as one of the companions of Frodo Baggins, in his quest to destroy the One Ring.Peregrin was the only son of...
; he said that Ents were much more powerful than Troll
Troll (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Trolls are large humanoids of great strength and poor intellect.While in Norse mythology, the Troll was a magical creature with special skills, in Tolkien's writings they are portrayed as evil, stupid, with crude habits, although still intelligent enough to...
s, which Morgoth
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...
made in the First Age
First Age
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the First Age, or First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar is the heroic period in which most of Tolkien's early legends are set...
in mockery of Ents.
The book further lays out the power of Ents; their bark-like skin and flesh make them difficult to harm even with axes, and a single punch from an Ent (they do not seem to use weapons, though they do hurl stones) can kill an Uruk-hai
Uruk-hai
The Uruk-hai are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth. They are introduced in The Lord of the Rings as an advanced breed or breeds of Orcs that serve Sauron and Saruman...
. The only reliable means to kill an Ent is fire, for they burn easily.
The Sindarin word for Ent is Onod (plural Enyd). Sindarin Onodrim refers to the Ents as a race.
First Age
Almost nothing is known of the early history of the Ents. After the DwarvesDwarf (Middle-earth)
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting the world of Arda, a fictional prehistoric Earth which includes the continent Middle-earth....
were put to sleep by Eru
Eru Ilúvatar
Eru Ilúvatar is a fictional deity in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Silmarillion as the creator of all existence . In Tolkien's invented language of Elvish, Eru means "The One", or "He that is Alone" and Ilúvatar signifies "Father of All"...
to await the coming of the Elves, Aulë
Aulë
Aulë is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, who is primarily discussed in The Silmarillion, but appears also in Tolkien's other works. In Tolkien's pantheon of Middle-earth, Aulë is a knowledge deity, sometimes worshipped as a god by men, representing skill and craftsmanship,...
told his wife Yavanna, "the lover of all things that grow in the earth," 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." She went to Manwë
Manwë
Manwë is a god or Vala of the Elven pantheon imagined by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is described in The Silmarillion.Manwë was the King of the Valar, husband of Varda Elentári, brother of the Dark Lord Melkor, and King of Arda. He lived atop Mount Taniquetil, the highest mountain of the world, in the...
and appealed to him to protect the trees, and they realized that Ents, too, were part of the Song of Creation
Ainulindalë
The Ainulindalë is the first part of the fantasy work The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien. In Tolkien's legendarium, the Ainur are Eä's divine beings. In Heaven, before Time, they compose a Great Music. This Music is revealed to be the template, or blueprint, commensurable with the entire history...
. 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". Treebeard
Treebeard
Treebeard is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The eldest of the species of Ents, he is said to live in the ancient Forest of Fangorn and stands fourteen feet in height and is tree-like in appearance, with leafy hair and a rigid structure. Fangorn Forest...
tells of a time when much of Eriador
Eriador
Eriador is a large region in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth. In the Second Age, and possibly much earlier, it was largely forested, but the Dúnedain felled most of the forests to build ships. Much of it was encompassed in the early Third Age by the kingdom of Arnor, which...
was forested and part of his domain, but these immense forests dwindled over time. Treebeard's statement is corroborated by Elrond
Elrond
Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
: "Time was when a squirrel could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire to Dunland west of Isengard." Of this vast forest, according to Treebeard, Fangorn forest was "just the East End".
There is only a single reference in The Silmarillion to the Onodrim in Beleriand
Beleriand
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium, Beleriand was a region in northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his work The Silmarillion, which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales of Nordic...
. When Beren
Beren
Beren is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in The Silmarillion. Huan spoke to him.-Character overview:...
Erchamion and a force of Green Elves waylay the force of Dwarves
Dwarf (Middle-earth)
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting the world of Arda, a fictional prehistoric Earth which includes the continent Middle-earth....
returning from the sack of Doriath
Doriath
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, Doriath is the realm of the Sindar, the Grey Elves of King Thingol in Beleriand. Along with the other great forests of Tolkien's legendarium such as Mirkwood, Fangorn and Lothlórien it serves as the central stage in the theatre of its time, the First Age...
, the Dwarves are routed and scatter into the wood – where the Shepherds of the Trees ensure that none escape. Perhaps this contributes to Treebeard's apprehension at Gimli
Gimli (Middle-earth)
Gimli is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured in The Lord of the Rings. A Dwarf warrior, he is the son of Glóin ....
's entrance to Fangorn in The Two Towers.
Entwives
Treebeard says that the Entwives began to move farther away from the Ents because they liked to plant and control things, while the Ents liked to let things take their natural course, so they moved away to the region that would later become the Brown Lands across the Great River AnduinAnduin
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, Anduin is the Sindarin name for the Great River of Wilderland, the longest river in the Third Age . The ancestors of the Rohirrim called it Langflood. It flowed from its source in the Grey and Misty Mountains to the Mouths of Anduin in the Great Sea...
, although the male Ents still visited them. The Entwives, unlike the Ents, interacted with the race of Men and taught them much about the art of agriculture.
Apparently the male Ents and female Entwives exhibited a marked degree of sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is a phenotypic difference between males and females of the same species. Examples of such differences include differences in morphology, ornamentation, and behavior.-Examples:-Ornamentation / coloration:...
; the male Ents all resemble wild forest trees that they guard (oaks, rowans, etc.), but the Entwives guarded agricultural plants, and it would thus seem to be implied that they resembled the various agricultural plants and trees they guarded: Treebeard remarks that their hair was the hue of ripe corn (grain).
The Entwives lived in peace until their gardens were destroyed by Sauron
Sauron
Sauron is the primary antagonist and titular character of the epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.In the same work, he is revealed to be the same character as "the Necromancer" from Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit...
(most likely during the War of the Last Alliance), and they themselves disappeared. The Ents looked for them but never found them. It was sung by the Elves (Ents were content to simply "chant their beautiful names") that one day the Ents and Entwives would find each other. Indeed, in The Return of the King
The Return of the King
The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.-Title:...
, Treebeard implored the Hobbits not to forget to send word to him if they "hear any news" of the Entwives "in your land".
In The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It takes place in the fictional universe Middle-earth. It was originally published on July 29, 1954 in the United Kingdom...
, Samwise Gamgee
Samwise Gamgee
Samwise Gamgee, later known as Samwise Gardner and commonly as Sam, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Samwise is one of the chief characters in Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, in which he fills an archetypical role as the sidekick of the protagonist, Frodo...
mentions his cousin Hal claims to have seen a treelike giant, which resembled an elm not only in size but also in actual appearance, in the north of the Shire
Shire (Middle-earth)
The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in The Lord of the Rings and other works. The Shire refers to an area settled exclusively by Hobbits and largely removed from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is located in the northwest of the continent, in...
. During the Fangorn episode, Merry
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually referred to as Merry, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings....
and Pippin
Peregrin Took
Peregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Pippin is introduced as a Hobbit who plays a major role as one of the companions of Frodo Baggins, in his quest to destroy the One Ring.Peregrin was the only son of...
told Treebeard about the Shire. Treebeard said that the Entwives would have liked that land. This, combined with the giant-sighting by Sam's cousin Hal mentioned above, has led to some speculation by readers that the Entwives may have lived near the Shire. Tolkien himself spent much time considering what actually happened to the Entwives (at one point simply saying even he didn't know), but eventually he stated in Letters #144: "I think that in fact the Entwives have disappeared for good, being destroyed with their gardens in the War of the Last Alliance..."
At the end of the story after Aragorn
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
is crowned king, he promised Treebeard that the Ents could prosper again and spread to new lands with the threat of Mordor
Mordor
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Mordor or Morhdorh was the dwelling place of Sauron, in the southeast of northwestern Middle-earth to the East of Anduin, the great river. Orodruin, a volcano in Mordor, was the destination of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to...
gone, and renew their search for the Entwives.
However, Treebeard sadly lamented that forests may spread but the Ents would not, and he predicted that the few remaining Ents would remain in Fangorn forest until they slowly dwindled in number or became "treeish", saying: "Sheep get like shepherds, and shepherds get like sheep. [...] But it is quicker and closer, with trees and Ents."
Entings
Although never seen and only briefly mentioned, Entings are young Ents. There are almost no descriptions of Entings, but it can be presumed from descriptions of Quickbeam (a young and hasty Ent) and Treebeard's comments about younger Ents as being more "bendy" than older ones, that they are much like saplings and perhaps even seedlings at their youngest. It is not at all made clear if they are born similar to the trees they shepherd, or they become that way, or even how they are born at all.According to Treebeard there are no Entings upon Middle-earth at the time of the Third Age, and there have not been any for quite some time. And there will never be any more Entings afterwards either "as there are no Entwives".
Fate
While Ents are extremely long-lived, they are not immortal in the same sense as the ElvesElf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
: they age with the passage of time, albeit very slowly (At the Entmoot, the hobbits notice that the Ents vary in age from their appearance. Also, when invited to sit down, Treebeard tells Merry and Pippin that he is not very 'bendable', while a much younger Ent, Quickbeam, could 'bend and sway like a slender tree in the wind'). And while they do not die of old age, older Ents often become 'treeish', settling down in one place and growing roots and leaves. Eventually, they cease to be conscious and become trees permanently. It is implied that this was the eventual fate of the Ents in Middle-earth.
The Last March of the Ents
In The Two TowersThe Two Towers
The Two Towers is the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It is preceded by The Fellowship of the Ring and followed by The Return of the King.-Title:...
, the second volume of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, the Ents – usually a very patient, deliberate people – become angry at Saruman
Saruman
Saruman the White is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the tale, but later on aims at gaining...
, whose armies are cutting down large numbers of their trees. They convene an Entmoot, a meeting of the Ents of Fangorn forest at Derndingle.
After lengthy deliberation (three days; though from the perspective of the Ents, this is very quick action), they march on Saruman's fortress at Isengard
Isengard
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Isengard , a translation of the Sindarin Angrenost, was a large fortress. Both names mean "Iron fortress" In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Isengard , a translation of the Sindarin Angrenost, was a large fortress....
: the Last March of the Ents. They are led by Treebeard, the oldest Ent, and accompanied by the Hobbit
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
s Meriadoc Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually referred to as Merry, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings....
and Peregrin Took
Peregrin Took
Peregrin Took, more commonly known as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Pippin is introduced as a Hobbit who plays a major role as one of the companions of Frodo Baggins, in his quest to destroy the One Ring.Peregrin was the only son of...
. The Ents that marched against Isengard numbered about 50, plus Huorn
Huorn
The Huorns are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They are described as "trees" that can speak to Ents and are capable of locomotion.- Description :...
s. They destroy Isengard in an all-out assault, ripping down the wall around it, and eventually becoming so enraged the power of their voices alone causes great destruction — "If the Great Sea
Belegaer
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Belegaer, the Great Sea or the Sundering Seas, is the sea of Arda that is west of Middle-earth....
had risen in wrath and fallen on the hills with storm, it could have worked no greater ruin." — and trap Saruman in the tower of Orthanc. Tolkien later noted that the Ents were partly founded in his disappointment "with the shabby use made in Shakespeare of the coming of 'Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill'" in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
.
Named Ents
In the narrative of The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, six Ents are identified by name. The main Ent character, and the first encountered by the readers and the hobbits, is Fangorn
Treebeard
Treebeard is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The eldest of the species of Ents, he is said to live in the ancient Forest of Fangorn and stands fourteen feet in height and is tree-like in appearance, with leafy hair and a rigid structure. Fangorn Forest...
(Treebeard). The other ents are Beechbone, Bregalad, Fimbrethil, Finglas, and Fladrif.
Statue
There are plans to erect a statueStatue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
of Treebeard
Treebeard
Treebeard is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The eldest of the species of Ents, he is said to live in the ancient Forest of Fangorn and stands fourteen feet in height and is tree-like in appearance, with leafy hair and a rigid structure. Fangorn Forest...
by Tim Tolkien
Tim Tolkien
Tim Tolkien is an English sculptor who has designed several monumental sculptures, including the award-winning Sentinel.His other claim to fame is as the great-nephew of J. R. R. Tolkien, the famous author of the fantasy book The Lord of the Rings...
, J.R.R. Tolkien's great-nephew, near his former home in Moseley
Moseley
Moseley is a suburb of Birmingham, England, two miles south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. It is possible that nearby Moseley Bog
Moseley Bog
Moseley Bog is a nature reserve in the Moseley area of Birmingham in England, at .It was once a secondary reservoir to feed the millpond of Sarehole Mill. Although now drained, the embankment on its eastern side remains...
may have been one of the first places where the young Tolkien regularly encountered trees of various species.
In popular culture
The Fall of TroyThe Fall of Troy
The Fall of Troy was an American progressive math rock trio from Mukilteo, Washington. The trio consisted of Thomas Erak , Andrew Forsman and Frank Ene...
has a song entitled "The Last March of the Ents" on their self-titled debut album released in 2003.
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
featured Ents in four separate skits. One featured an Ent being cut down with a chainsaw. Another featured a member of The Surreal Life
The Surreal Life
The Surreal Life is a reality television series that sets a select group of past-their-prime celebrities and records them as they live together in Glen Campbell's former mansion in the Hollywood Hills for two weeks...
, in a parody of Lord of the Rings, relieving himself on an Ent, which angered it, prompting it to step on him. Another had a forest ranger showing kids a sap faucet, and tried to get sap out of it, unaware that he was really touching an Ent. A fourth featured several Ents running, and a girl shouting "Run, Forest! Run!!", parodying the famous quote from the film Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic comedy-drama romance film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise...
.
Treebeard's song, "In The Willow-Meads of Tasarinan", was sung by William Elvin to the music of Donald Swann
Donald Swann
Donald Ibrahím Swann was a British composer, musician and entertainer. He is best known to the general public for his partnership of writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders .-Life:...
on their 1968 recording: The Road Goes Ever On
The Road Goes Ever On
The Road Goes Ever On is a song cycle that has been published as sheet music and as an audio recording. The music was written by Donald Swann, and the words are taken from poems in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, especially The Lord of the Rings.The title of this opus is taken from "The...
, released on Camedon. The lyrics and music were published in a song book by Allen & Unwin
Allen & Unwin
Allen & Unwin, formerly a major British publishing house, is now an independent book publisher and distributor based in Australia. The Australian directors have been the sole owners of the Allen & Unwin name since effecting a management buy out at the time the UK parent company, Unwin Hyman, was...
.
In other fantasy and role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s such as Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
(D&D, see plant creatures), EverQuest
EverQuest
EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...
, Thief 2: The Metal Age, Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
, Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
's Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop. It is the origin of the Warhammer Fantasy setting....
, Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
's Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
series, Warlords
Warlords (game series)
Warlords is a computer game series created by Steve Fawkner, in which role-playing elements are combined with strategy in a fantasy setting. The series has been split into two different games lines, the traditional turn-based strategy Warlords series , and a newer real-time based strategy Warlords...
series and the Warcraft
Warcraft
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game , developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Blizzard and Interplay Entertainment. The MS-DOS version was released in November 1994 and the Macintosh version in late 1996. Sales were fairly high, reviewers were mostly impressed, and the...
PC game series, Tolkien-like Ents are known as "Treants", "Treemen" or "Treefolk", for trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
reasons, much like Hobbit
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
s are only referred to as Halfling
Halfling
Halfling is another name for J. R. R. Tolkien's Hobbit which can be a fictional race sometimes found in fantasy novels and games. In many settings, they are similar to humans except about half the size. Dungeons & Dragons began using the name halfling as an alternative to hobbit for legal reasons...
s in such works. Similar creatures are also depicted in the MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
s RuneScape
RuneScape
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio. It is a graphical browser game implemented on the client-side in Java, and incorporates 3D rendering...
, Rift and Rubies of Eventide
Rubies of Eventide
Rubies of Eventide was a "free" to play massively multiplayer online role-playing game previously published by Mnemosyne, LLC. Powered by the Lithtech Jupiter engine, Rubies of Eventide is set in the quasi-medieval fantasy world of Vormis represented by a 3D world...
, as well as the real-time strategy game Myth: The Fallen Lords, among other games. Wesnoth has units based on the fictional race wose (similar to ents). In some incarnations, these tree-people are very close in spirit to their Tolkienesque forebears, although others, like D&D, have explored the concept of corrupt trees and tree-like monsters (akin to Old Man Willow
Old Man Willow
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Old Man Willow is a fictional character, appearing in The Lord of the Rings. He was a willow tree in the Old Forest from which much of the Forest's hatred of walking things came. He is portrayed in the story as a tree, though a sentient and evil one with various...
and the Huorn
Huorn
The Huorns are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They are described as "trees" that can speak to Ents and are capable of locomotion.- Description :...
s of Fangorn). For instance, in the MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
Shadowbane
Shadowbane
Shadowbane was a free fantasy computer role-playing game created by Wolfpack Studios and published on March 25, 2003 by Ubisoft for Windows and Mac platforms. Originally commercial and subscription-driven, Shadowbane was launched in March 2003, and was the creation of text-MUD veterans J...
, Treants are mid-level monsters.
The Wood comes alive to save the Narnians in the final battle of Prince Caspian
Prince Caspian
Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia is a novel for children by C. S. Lewis, written in late 1949 and first published in 1951. It is the second-published book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, although in the overall chronological sequence it comes fourth.-Plot summary:While standing on a...
, which was written by C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
, a fellow member with Tolkien of the Inklings. In the film adaptation of the book, these trees resemble Huorns more than Ents.