Treebeard And The Ents’ Greatest Tragedy Fits Right In With The Rings Of Power Timeline – Looper

In the book, “The Two Towers,” as Treebeard, Merry, and Pippin talk on the way to Isengard to topple the Wizard Saruman, the venerable old tree says that it is “likely enough that we are going to our doom: the last march of the Ents.” A bit later, he adds the melancholic thought, “Still, I should have liked to see the songs come true about the Entwives. I should dearly have liked to see Fimbrethil again. But there, my friends, songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and their own way: and sometimes they are withered untimely.”

Treebeard’s mention of “Entwives” and “Fimbrethil” and untimely withering refer to one of the saddest and darkest chapters in all of the Ents’ very long history: the disappearance of the Entwives. Who are the Entwives? We’re glad you asked. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Contrary to what a casual viewer might suspect, Ents aren’t just trees that can talk. They’re created at the beginning of Middle-earth history as living, spirit-filled guardians who are tasked with protecting the flora of Middle-earth. The Ents are, for all intents and purposes, the male half of the race. They live wild lives and tend to watch over the trees and the untamed woods. In contrast, their significant others are the Entwives. They protect smaller growing things, like plants, bushes, crops, and grasses. They are lovers of order, too, and they become world-renowned gardeners. In fact, they are responsible for teaching the many Men in the surrounding regions the art of agriculture, and Treebeard says in “The Two Towers” that “Many men learned the crafts of the Entwives and honoured them greatly; but [the Ents] were only a legend to them, a secret in the heart of the forest.”