When were the Ents born......

[zifnab]

I have always been curious about Ents and their beginning. Im no expert(of course or I wouldn't have ask this), but when did the Ents come about?

Here are some quotes from Fangorn/Treebeard in The Two Towers:

Learn now the lore of Living Creatures!
First name the four, the free peoples:
Eldest of all, the elf-children;
Dwarf the delver, dark are his houses;
Ent the earthborn, old as mountains;
Man the mortal, master of horses:

"Some of my kin look just like trees now, and need something great to rouse them; and they speak only in whispers. But some of my trees are limb-lithe, and many can talk to me. Elves began it, of course, waking trees up and teaching them to speak and learning their tree-talk. They always wished to talk to everything, the old elves did. But then the Great Darkness came, and they passed away over the sea, or fled into far valleys, and hid themselves, and made songs about days that would never come again. Never again.

Now I have only read through half of the Silmarillion but it seems to me, that the Ents should have been mentioned. Maybe they are and Im rushing into this question, but my curiousity got the better of me.

Were they "created" by Eru/Iluvatar or the Valar or by something else and when? This may be a silly question with a simple answer but I seem to be at a lose at the moment!

Thanks!

[Elrian]

It was the Elves that taught the trees to talk.

[Inziladun]

The Silmarillion speaks of the beginning of the Ents, though they are called there the Shepherds of the Trees.
They were created by Ilúvatar (as were all things) in response to the prayer of the Vala Yavanna. She was concerned that the coming Children of Ilúvatar would have no respect for trees or other growing things. The Ents were to protect these things that were otherwise defenseless.

[Gollumm]

Inziladun is correct. Also, Ents awoke upon Middle-earth as soon as, or shortly after the Elves awoke.

Ents were also giving mastery over stones, though I dunno why.

[zifnab]

That makes sense, The shepards of trees, sounds very familiar. I guess I should re-read that section.

But now I have a question about Old Man Willow in the Old Forest. Was he an Ent that had "rooted" himself and gone bad, or just your normal "Grumpy Willow".

Tom's words laid bare the hearts of trees and their thoughts, which were often dark and strange, and filled with a hatred of things that go free upon the earth, gnawing, biting, breaking, hacking, burning: destroyers and usurpers. It is not called the Old Forest without reason, for it was indeed ancient, a survivor of vast forgotten woods; and in it there lived yet, ageing no quicker than the hills, the fathers of the fathers of trees, remembering times when they were lords. The countless years had filled them with pride and rooted wisdom, and with malice. But 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 thristy 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.
Tom Bombadil

Some of us are still true Ents, and lively enough in our fashion, but many are growing sleepy, going tree-ish, as you might say. Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake. Some are quite wide awake, and a few are, well, ah, well getting Entish. That is going on all the time.
'When that happens to a tree, you find that some have bad hearts. Nothing to do with their wood: I do not mean that. Why I knew some good old willows down the Entwash, gone long ago, alas! They were quite hollow, indeed they were falling all to pieces, but as quiet and sweet-spoken as a young leaf. And then there some trees in the valleys under the mountains, sound as a bell, and bad right through. That sort of thing seems to spread. There used to be some very dangerous parts in this country. There are still some very black patches.'
'Like the Old Forest away to the north, do you mean?' asked Merry.
'Aye, aye, something like, but much worse. I do not doubt there is some shadow of the Great Darkness lying there still away north; and bad memories are handed down.
Treebeard

This may be far out there and Im not even sure if I believe it, but is this what might have happened to the Entwives, since no one seems to know otherwise(at least as far as I know, but I havent read HOME series). It seems to me that the Entwives went away after the Darkness came, and then later were praised by men, and then they land turned to desert and disappeared altogther.

Just more Ent questions that puzzle me!

[zifnab]

Well I just found some answers about Old Man Willow here:Old Man Willow

[Samwise]

Wow! Pretty deep stuff, Zinfab!

"Well, I'm back."
Sam Gamgee

[zifnab]

I came across this when re-reading some things in FOTR(The Shadow of the Past)….

‘But what about these Tree-men, these giants, as you might call them? They do say that one bigger than a tree was seen up away beyond the North Moors not long back.’

etc, etc, etc

‘But this one was as big as an elm tree, and walking- walking seven yards to a stride, if it was an inch’
‘Then I bet it wasn’t an inch. What he saw was an elm tree, as like as not.’
‘But this one was walking, I tell you; and there ain’t no elm tree on the North Moors.’

It seems to me that these might be Ents, or maybe even the so called Ent-Wives? What does
everybody else think?

[Elrian]

Here is how Ents came into being in the First Age: from The Silmarillion.

Then Manwe awoke, and went down to Yavannah upon Ezellohar, and sat beside her beneath the Two Trees. And
Manwe said; O Kementari, Eru hath spoken, saying: "Do then any of the Valar suppose that I did not hear all the Song, even the least sound of the least voice? Behold! When the children awake, then the thought of Yavannah will awake also, and it will summon spirits from afar, and they will go among the kelvar. and the olvar, and some will dwell therein, and be held in reverence, and their just anger shall be feared.

Olvar means growing things with roots in the earth. Kelvar is animals; living things that move.

[zifnab]

Yes Elrian, I have figured that much out.

[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]