Ents

In Middle Earth, deep in the forests, there live Ents.   They are very old... like thousands of years old!

They are very treelike.  If you didn't look carefully, you would think that they were trees. Description from book: "large Man-like, almost Troll-like...at least fourteen feet high, very sturdy, with a tall head, & hardly any neck." ...it was clad in stuff like green and grey bark or .. that was its hide. The arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but coverd wit a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, busy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at he ends." His eyes were brown, shot with a green light.

They take care of the trees. In fact they are  tree herders.

The ENTS do everything very slow. They move slow and talk very slow. They consider everything before speaking. They have been  around for such a long time that they have been around all through history. Their language is so complicated that only they and the trees can understand it. So.. talking casually, as us Hobbits do, would be considered being "hasty".

The ENTS usually keep only to themselves & the trees (of course). They did have a liking to Elves. Elves are the ones that taught them to talk many, many years ago.. And Treebeard knew Gandalf. Treebeard liked and respected Gandalf. Back during the war in Middle Earth, they became involved with men & Hobbits.

They became acquainted with Hobbits when Pippin and Merry got lost in the forest escaping from some ORCS. An ENT named TREEBEARD  (his hasty name) found them & took care of them.   They became very good friends. Merry & Pippin told him about what was going on in Middle Earth at the time. Treebeard was very interested in what was going on with Gandalf.

Treebeard told them about the  Entwives that have been missing for many years.   The Entwives didn't like this forest and left to find a different kinds of trees, like fruit trees. The HOBBITS told him they would keep an eye out for the ENTWIVES.

Treebeard called a meeting among all the ENTS and explained to them about what was going on with Gandalf,  Saruman and the war of the ring.  The ENTS decided to help "the cause". They were mostly concerned with the effects of the war on the trees, but if it helped trees and men also, so much the better.

One thing... you don't want to make an ENT mad. The wrath of an Ent could only be described by J.R.R. Tolkien and I think he held back a little.

If the ENTS had not helped to defeat "Saruman The White" (a good wizard gone bad), the outcome of the war may not have turned out as it did. All things considered the ENTS are a very important  in the history of Middle Earth.

You can read all about them in the trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien . The ENTS are written about mostly in the second book "The Two Towers".

This graphic set comes from: