![]() She replied, "They will delve in the earth, and the things that grow and live upon the earth they will not heed. After the Dwarves 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. History Īlmost nothing is known of the early history of the Ents. Sindarin Onodrim refers to the Ents as a race. The Sindarin word for Ent is Onod (plural Enyd). 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 can kill they do not seem to use weapons, although they do hurl stones. ![]() Treebeard boasted of their strength to Merry and Pippin he said that Ents were much more powerful than Trolls, which Morgoth made in the First Age in mockery of Ents. Tolkien describes them as tossing great slabs of stone about, and ripping down the walls of Isengard "like bread-crust". For example, in the Entmoot regarding the attack on Isengard, their three-day deliberation was considered by some to be "hasty".Įnts are tall and very strong, capable of tearing apart rock and stone (though they only use their full strength when they are "roused"). Ents are also an extremely patient and cautious race, with a sense of time more suited to trees than short-lived mortals. 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 share some of the strengths and weaknesses of trees as well. ![]() Quickbeam, for example, guarded Rowan trees and bore some resemblance to rowans: tall and slender, smooth-skinned, with ruddy lips and grey-green hair. ("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 Huorns may have survived elsewhere, as in the Old Forest.Įnts 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. Treebeard said that the Elves "cured us of dumbness", that it was a great gift that could not be forgotten. Although the Ents were sentient beings from the time of their awakening, they did not know how to speak until the Elves taught them. 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. Įnts are an old race that appeared in Middle-earth when the Elves did. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating. But at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. Whether it was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether that was its hide, was difficult to say. large Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Treebeard, called by Gandalf the oldest living Ent and the oldest living thing that walks in Middle-earth, is described as being around tall: ![]() In this sense, Ents are probably the most ubiquitous of all creatures in fantasy and folklore, perhaps second only to dragons for the word can refer to a variety of large, roughly humanoid creatures, such as giants, trolls, orcs, or even the monster Grendel from the poem Beowulf.Īlong with Old Norse jǫtunn ( Jötunn), "ent" came from Common Germanic * etunaz. 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 Roman ruins). The word "Ent" was taken from the Anglo-Saxon ( Old English) word ent, meaning "giant".
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