Arthedain » Ents

Treebeard

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:56:24 +0000

Treebeard also known as Fangorn was the oldest of the Ents still left in Middle-earth an ancient tree-like being who is a sort of “shepherd of trees”. Very tall and stiff-limbed, with bark-like skin and leafy hair.

History

Treebeard was the oldest Ent who ever lived, and a general consensus has him being the oldest living being in Middle Earth itself (The Top Trumps card game lists Treebeard as being 17,051 years old), but this refers only to the children of Eru — Tom Bombadil is also called oldest, and is an immortal spirit of some sort. He was so old, that he remembered the time of elves teaching the trees to speak, recalling how they wanted to talk to everything.

In the time when Middle Earth was a giant forest, Treebeard roamed the land, persumably with his love, Fimbrethil. But after the loss of the Entwives by the end of the Third Age, he and the remaining Ents dwelt in the Forest of Fangorn, essentially isolating them from the outside world. However, with the arrival of the Istari in the year TA 1000 of the Third Age, Saruman came to Fangorn and befriended Treebeard, and would often visit him. The two would talk, discussing various subjects, with Saruman gathering information about the forest itself, and in particular, it’s inter-twinning paths.

As the years passed, more and more of the original ents began to fade away, until only Treebeard, Finglas and Fladrif remained. When Sauron’s shadow began to spread across the land once more, Treebeard and the ents remained in Fangorn, continuing to tend the trees, and taking no part in the affairs of men, elves and wizards. However, they were brought into the war when Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took escaped from Saruman’s Orcs. Being the one to find them, Treebeard befriended the two, and, upon learning that Saruman was cutting down the forest for his war efforts, Treebeard called all the ents together for an Entmoot. After three days of deliberation, they decided to attack Isengard, in an event known as the Last March of the Ents.

Leading the attack, Treebeard helped to bring down it’s walls and utterly destroy it, save the tower of Orthanc, and Saruman himself. Once Isengard was cleansed, Treebeard remained to guard over Saruman, but was ultimitely unable to keep him, due to being persuaded by Saruman’s charm, and the power of his voice, to let him go.

After Aragorn was 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 once more, but the Ents would not, and he predicted that the few remaining Ents would remain in Fangorn forest until they slowly dwindled in number. However, he still held some hope for finding the entwives, as he asked Merry and Pippin to watch for them near the Shire, and to bring word if they were to find them.

Treebeard’s ultimate fate is not known. While he aged very slowly, and was extremely long lived, he was not immortal. He most likely underwent the same fate of all the ents: eventually settling down in one place, growing roots and leaves, and essentially becoming a tree himself, ceasing concious thought.

It has been theorised that many of Treebeard’s mannerisms were based on Tolkien’s friend C.S. Lewis, a loud, bombastic man known for his powerful stride and overwhelming presence.

Shepherds of the Trees

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:50:40 +0000

A name of the Ents, who were created at the prayer of Yavanna to protect the forests of Middle-earth.

Quickbeam

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:47:01 +0000

One of the younger Ents of Fangorn Forest belonging to the people of Skinbark. His name (a translation of Elvish Bregalad) was given because of uncharacteristic hastiness. The rowan-trees in his keeping suffered greatly at the hands of Saruman’s Orcs, and he played a great part in the Ents’resulting attack on Isengard.

Onodrim

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:44:45 +0000

The name given by the Elves to the giant tree-like beings that Men called Ents.

Finglas

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:20:30 +0000

‘Leaflock’; with Fladrif and Fangorn, one of the oldest of the Ents of Fangorn Forest.

Fangorn

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:19:24 +0000

The Elvish rendering of the name ‘Treebeard’; the old Ent who inhabited the great Forest at the southern feet of the Misty Mountains, and from whom that Forest took its name.

Entwives

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:17:21 +0000

The mates of the Ents, who had their gardens in the regions later known as the Brown Lands. When Sauron blasted that region, the Entwives escaped into the wilds of Middle-earth and were lost to the Ents (or so the Ents themselves believed).

Ents

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:17:15 +0000

A race of giant, tree-like people whose purpose was to protect the forests of Middle-earth. By the end of the Third Age, the great forests had dwindled, and so had the Ents, but they were still to be found in Fangorn Forest.

Entings

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:17:11 +0000

A name used by the Ents to refer to juvenile members of their own kind. At the time of the War of the Ring, due to the loss of the Entwives, there had been no new Entings for centuries.

Eldest

Kjell Arne Brudvik — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:15:16 +0000

A title used of two immensely ancient beings in Middle-earth: Tom Bombadil and Treebeard the Ent. At the end of the Third Age, both of these had lived in the World for many millennia, though by Bombadil’s own account he was by far the elder of the two (he said that he remembered the first acorn, so by definition he must have been older than even the oldest of the Ents).

Tom Bombadil was a mysterious magical being or spirit, whereas Treebeard was a living creature created in the distant past as a protector of the trees of Middle-earth. He did not in fact awaken until soon after the first Elves, but at the end of the Third Age, he may well have been the oldest living being in the mortal world. As such, when Celeborn addressed him as ‘Eldest’, that title seems to have been quite appropriate. kinglistWrapper”> Tom Bombadil Tom’s origins are clouded in mystery, but from his own account he was extraordinarily old. He seems to have been in the World even before the Valar entered it, which would make him the oldest being of any kind to inhabit Arda at the end of the Third Age (assuming, of course, that there weren’t others of his mysterious kind elsewhere in the World). Treebeard Treebeard was the eldest of the Ents, and that race of beings dated back into the ancient history of Arda; according to legend, they were created to counteract the Dwarves’need for wood, before either Elves or Men had awakened. Treebeard was therefore exceptionally old, dating back to the dim origins of the World, but even he was not so old as Tom Bombadil, who had apparently been within Arda since its first days.