Old man willow...

[Mumriken]

Hi I read on wikipedia about this malevolent old tree. I know wikipedia isn't the best source so that is why I'd like your opinion on this.

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, albeit a sentient and evil one with various powers including irresistible hypnosis and the ability to move his roots and trunk. Some characters of the story speculate that he may have been related to the Ents, or possibly the Huorns, as the Old Forest was originally part of the same primordial forest as Fangorn. However, unlike Ents or Huorns, Old Man Willow is portrayed more like a tree, with roots in the ground, and without the ability to uproot himself and move from place to place.

According to Tom Bombadil, long ago at the dawn of time in Middle-earth, long before even the Awakening of the Elves, trees were the only inhabitants of vast stretches of the world. Because the Elves awoke far in the East, it was still a considerable time before any other beings spread into the vast primeval forests of western Middle-earth. A handful of trees survived from this time until the present day, who are angered at the encroachment of Elves and Men and their dominion over the earth; trees who bitterly remember a time long ago when they were as Lords of vast regions of the world. Bombadil relates that of the corrupted trees of the Old Forest, "none were more dangerous than the Great Willow; his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning, and a master of winds, and his song and thought ran through the woods on both sides of the river. His grey thirsty spirit drew power out of the earth and spread like fine root-threads in the ground, and invisible twig-fingers in the air, till it had under its dominion nearly all the trees of the Forest from the Hedge to the Downs.

If I remember correctly it was Yavanna who created the ents to guard the forests of middle earth from the dwarves. So presumably old man willow was one of if not the last first born ent? For a long time he has spread his roots and given up walking around as an old ent like Treebeard. Yet Treebeard refers to himself as oldest doesn't he? However it seems like old man willow's power surpasses that of ordinary ents or rooted trees. It says that he is a master of the winds and that his song and thoughts run throughout the woods. He is the only tree as far as we know that has these abilities. Is it possible that he is unlike the others something more than just a rooted ent? I'm not sure if when Yavanna created the ents she had in mind to create something as sinister as old man willow because he is truly evil.

What exactly is he and is it possible that morgoth has anything to do with the sinister nature of the old willow? I don't think the ents and trees of middle earth would easily surrender to the forces of morgoth would they, maybe old man willow was one of morgoth's corruptions that after the destruction of the children would help him conquer the forests? A wild guess, but I find it hard to believe that such hatred could come out of the mind of Yavanna.