# Ents



## Elennainie (Nov 6, 2002)

*Anybody Seen an Ent?*

Fellow tree lovers! Tolkien was a great lover of trees and nature - the ents, er...Old Man Willow..ahem...Lothlorien, o.k. the WHOLE BOOK, etc! So, my question is, which trees today remind you most of the ents? Which tree would you pick to be Fangorn?  

P.S. Any tree activists out there who just DREAM of ents coming today and smashing up construction tractors demolishing forest for that new WalMart?


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## ltas (Nov 6, 2002)

.

In a slightly melancholy tone... There's this old willow growing right next to the main street in my home town. It stands alone amid cold office- and industrial buildings, its roots trapped under the asphalt. 
I have always thought of him as the last guard of the long-forgotten forest, the one who still remembers the meadows and woods that once were.


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## Anamatar IV (Nov 6, 2002)

nah. No ents where I live. I mean sure there are lots of trees, trees inhabited by spirits, hurons, but no ents


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## Elennainie (Nov 6, 2002)

> nah. No ents where I live. I mean sure there are lots of trees, trees inhabited by spirits, hurons, but no ents


Anamatar IV, what are hurons? Are they a type of tree spirit? I really like the idea of tree spirits!!  



> There's this old willow growing right next to the main street in my home town. It stands alone amid cold office- and industrial buildings, its roots trapped under the asphalt.


Ltas, you have me crying here.  That's so sad.

Anyway, my choice for an ent tree would be a majestic old oak tree, with a huge crown of branches for its hair and roots growing up through the earth for feet. My second choice would be the weeping beeches like in Newport, RI, which have huge branches so big and long that they curve down into the ground and then grow back up again. Those arms could do some serious damage to Isengarde!!


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## Anamatar IV (Nov 6, 2002)

They are called Hurons, right?

The "evil" ents, the ones who went past the rohan people after helms deep, they were called Hurons, right?


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## Rangerdave (Nov 6, 2002)

Well you Ent seen nothin' yet
B-B-B-Baby you just Ent seen nothin' yet
Here's somethin' here's somthin' you never will forget
B-B-B-Baby you just Ent seen n-n-nothin' yet

by Bachman Turner Orthanc 

RD 


I am so sorry for that, I couldn't help myself


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## Elennainie (Nov 6, 2002)

You are right. I had forgotten about those, Anam. - yes, the "dangerous" trees who used to be ents. I think they are called _huorns_.



> It was the Huorns, or so the Ents call them in "short language." Treebeard won't say much about them, but I think they are Ents that have become almost like trees, at least to look at. They stand here and there in the wood or under its eaves, silent, watching endlessly over the trees....There is a great power in them....They still have voices and can speak with the Ents...but they have become queer and wild.


 Oh ya, those are the ones I want for stopping the developers! (evil cackle)
.........................
edit: Oh, I just caught RangerDave's crazy song...I love it!!


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## entbabe (Nov 7, 2002)

yay! a post for tree lovers! 

well, speaking generally...here in australia there are two very entish trees, the antarctic beech in the highlands of southern queensland (as well as chile and argentina) which used to cover all antarctica in lush forests before the continent froze over.

...and the huon pine in tasmania which not only lives to be tens of thousands of years old but has incredibly light but strong wood (they were nearly made extinct last century from logging and even now are still under threat) 

is it a coincidence that huons is one of the oldest and slowest-growing trees in the world is called *huon* and tolkien called his rogue ents *huorn*?

thanks for the thread Elennainie 

i forgot to include some pics...

BEECH IMAGES:
http://www.oreillys.com.au/develop/arctic_beech.htmhttp://www.listeningearth.com.au/pa...
[url]http://www.huonpiner.com/wilderness.htm
http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-5494LA?open
http://www.webtrenz1.com/huonpine.htm

love live the trees!

 entbabe x


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## Grond (Nov 7, 2002)

I must agree. This picture of a Huon Pine does indeed remind me of an Ent. Good job finding that one!


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## FREEDOM! (Nov 7, 2002)

Is it just me or are you people crazy!! Who really cares??

I don't meen to be attacking anybody (which i am not) but this seems kinda pointless, don't u think.

Somebody agree with me!


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## ltas (Nov 7, 2002)

entbabe, thank you for the information and links, those pictures are fantastic!! I've rarely seen images of such grandeure and majestity, it's hard to believe that those trees are real... To think that one could actually walk in a forest among such trees... We are very fortunate that some of this beauty has survived!


Oh, and I agree that in the current situation we definetly need more huorns around...


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## Elennainie (Nov 7, 2002)

Thanks, entbabe & Grond, for those beautiful pictures!    I especially want to go to Australia now and walk beneath the Antarctic Beech!! I had a good picture of a huorn (it was really a blue Atlas cedar), but my scanner is being quite difficult today  so it wouldn't work.


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## Asha'man (Nov 8, 2002)

> _Originally posted by William Wallace _
> *Is it just me or are you people crazy!! Who really cares??
> 
> I don't meen to be attacking anybody (which i am not) but this seems kinda pointless, don't u think.
> ...



I won't. I'll admit that I'm the first to call POST-******* on certain threads, but this ain't. 

Or rather, it Ent.  

Asha'man

stop it!


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## entbabe (Nov 9, 2002)

*...ent no tower strong enough...*

this is how i saw orthanc looking after the ents moved in:
http://www.ssdec.nsw.edu.au/Acesasia/cambodia/taprom.html

here is a fantastic painting by David Wyatt of *The Ents at Isengard*:
http://www.nightrunner.com/cgi-bin/show_image.py?id=1512&pn=0

you have to check Ted Nasmith's *Wrath of the Ents*! 
http://www.nightrunner.com/cgi-bin/show_image.py?id=2528&pn=1

and then there's Rodney Matthews version of Treebeard...awesome: 
http://www.nightrunner.com/cgi-bin/show_image.py?id=1888&pn=0

a bit of visual stimuli for you...

eb


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## Caerlin (Nov 10, 2002)

Hey folks


When i was living in Malawi (central Africa) some years ago, we travelled up the side of lake Malawi to go to one of the big national Parks and drove through an Ent Forest.....yes my dears a truly Ent forest. they were Boab trees...Giants of things and I actually recognised a few of them (they are VERY long lived). Had no camera ( and it wouldn't have captured the esse anyway) so only have my memory.

Tolkein lived in Malawi (then it was Nyasaland) for many years and i would bet that the Ent forest we saw was in fact the one he wrote about. The venearble ones could have spoken and it would not have phased me at all. Wonderful wonderful Ents...I re-read about Bilbo just for them.

Trees are very special and need to be respected always.

Cheers Caerlin


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## Elennainie (Nov 12, 2002)

Oh man!....That first pic of the monastery tree is *awesome*!!! Telperion & Laurelin may be gone, but there's a sacred tree for you. Those were great, Entbabe, really, just what I was looking for!!



> "Though Isengarde be strong and hard, as cold as stone and bare as bone, We go, we go, we go to war, to hew the stone and break the door!" -TT


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## Frodorocks (Nov 15, 2002)

Welcome to the forum! I love trees too. Whenever I'm unhappy (or even when I am happy) I go and sit in my favorite beech tree. The other day it was really unseasonably warm for where I live and the stars were beautiful, so I went and spent half the night sitting in my tree looking at the stars.


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## ltas (Nov 15, 2002)

Hi and welcome Caerlin 
I'm sorry that you couldn't take any photos in that forest, I really would have liked to see those pictures. I must admit I'm a bit envious of your chance to visit an ent-forest .

One of the most impressive real-life ent-images I've seen was posted in this thread by entbabe (on page two). As she (entbabe) said, on that photo we can see what Orthanc must have looked like after the ents' attack. I hope you like those pictures, they're really breathtaking.


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## entbabe (Nov 16, 2002)

*no malawi but plENTy of boabs!*

Hi Caerlin (and Frodorocks and Itas) I'm back with more pics!

Well Caerlin I think you're onto something here...I didn't know Tolkien lived in Malawi. I looked around for the ent forests in malawi but no pics ...yet... 

BUT i have found that these boab giants are also here in Oz up in the Kimberley (north western Australia)...there is even one called The Prison Tree from the days of the British colonies when they had nowhere to lock people up so they literally locked prisioners up inside the boab tree!

now is this old man willow or what?!
http://www.abc.net.au/kimberley/stories/s522126.htm

or maybe this...
http://farrer.csu.edu.au/ASGAP/jpg1/boabpri.jpg

this one is naughty but check out the size of it!...the tree i mean 
http://users.bigpond.net.au/newlynewds/04.html 

or these guys could very well be merry and pippin fanging out with fanghorn:
http://www.worldtrippersaol.com/australia/010826a.jpg

but this one is Tolkien all over! 
http://www.kimtafe.wa.edu.au/Induction/images/Copy_of_Boab_Tree1.GIF

I thank Tolkien all the time for creating the Ents and (hopefully) showing the world why we should love our trees! 

eb


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## ltas (Nov 17, 2002)

I still can't believe those photos are real !! They're incredible!! I've never seen anything like that in real life and so far, when reading TTT, I've always imagined ents somehow... in smaller scale... not that I'm lacking imagination or anything, but those pictures really make the vision of ents so much more vivid and colourful.

I've never actually seen paintings or drawings of ents before either. That painting by Ted Nasmith was so powerful it will probaly be burned to my mind forever .


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## ltas (Nov 17, 2002)

Another set of excellent pictures. Thanks again, entbabe . Those boab trees look a bit scary  ... I'm not used to such big trees . But actually, when you get used to them, they do look very majestic. And that "Pip and Merry" pic is funny.


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## Frodorocks (Nov 18, 2002)

Wow they're so pretty.


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## Elennainie (Nov 18, 2002)

Wow, entbabe, more great pictures, as usual! For all you fellow tree lovers, you have to check out the book Meetings with Remarkable Trees by Thomas Pakenham. It has simply glorious huge trees in it! I'll try to post one of them later - definately ent candidates!


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## entbabe (Nov 30, 2002)

i found some african boababs!
http://www.theafricaguide.btinternet.co.uk/images/library/scenes/baobab.jpg
http://www.alm-it.freeserve.co.uk/country/senegal/
http://www.bestsecrets.com/images/postcard/boabab.jpg
http://www.gallo-images.co.za/gifs/scans/Flowers/flo2.jpg
http://www.gallo-images.co.za/gifs/scans/Landscapes/land11.jpg
http://www.africaontap.com/images/boab.jpg

and these ones are in barbados:
http://www.barbados.org/baobab.htm

and this one is very Laurelin wouldn't you say?
http://www.simicro.mg/voyageur/images/pictures/boabab.gif

are you all getting sick of me posting tree pics yet?

eb


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## Athelas (Nov 30, 2002)

*I travelled through a giant Redwood forest in California at night.*

There is a vast sense of time, like an outdoor Cathedral, like towering silent watchers. So many of California's magnificent forests have fallen to the axe, it always reminds me of Loreena McKennit's Bonnie Portmore.

"All the birds in the forest, they bitterly weep,
saying "where shall we shelter, where shall we sleep,
for the oak and the ash are all cutten down
and the walls of Bonnie Portmore are all down to the ground.

Oh Bonnie Portmore, you are shining where you stand, 
and the more I think on you, the more I think long."


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## Elennainie (Nov 30, 2002)

> it always reminds me of Loreena McKennit's Bonnie Portmore.



I just listened to that song for the first time about a week ago and it was very touching to me, also. It's cool to meet other tree lovers on TTF.  Doesn't Loreena McKennit have another song about the death of trees on her newer album? I can't remember for certain.



> are you all getting sick of me posting tree pics yet?


No way, you find great ones, entbabe! I wish I could post those beautiful trees from Pakenham's book, but they are huge and I don't know how to shrink them properly. Anyway, he has a brand new book out called Remarkable Trees of the World. I'm not trying to sell his books or anything...I just think his photographs are spectacular from a nature lover's point of view, and capture the soul of the trees. Also, he is poetic about them and in the new book he even mentions Tolkien's ents and their destruction of Isengarde, while talking about the quinault lake red cedar in Washington State.


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## entbabe (Dec 1, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Elennainie _
> *I wish I could post those beautiful trees from Pakenham's book, but they are huge and I don't know how to shrink them properly. *


_Meetings.._ is one my of my most treasured books. Great to know that he has a new one out! 

check this article....Pakenham is an earl and even looks a bit like Tolkien!!!!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/w...node=&contentId=A4824-2002Oct23&notFound=true

eb


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## Elennainie (Dec 2, 2002)

> Meetings.. is one my of my most treasured books. Great to know that he has a new one out!



Cool - hope you like it!! I'm thinking about asking for it for Christmas. I saw it at the library. I love how he organizes the different trees by their "personality" - goddesses, giants, etc.  Thanks for that article, btw.


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## ltas (Dec 3, 2002)

> _Athelas:_So many of California's magnificent forests have fallen to the axe, it always reminds me of Loreena McKennit's Bonnie Portmore.



I've never heard that song, but those lyrics are beautiful. They sound a bit Tolkienish in my opinion. Thank you, Athelas, for providing them, and thanks, entbabe, for another set of excellent pic's . I think I'll check my library for Pakenham's books...


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## entbabe (Dec 4, 2002)

i was just rereading a page from one of those links i posted on the Huon Pines and came across this extract that may just support my half-fancy belief that there are indeed Ents in Tasmania:



> The Huon pine can reach prodigious ages, often in excess of 2000 years, making it among the longest-lived organisms on Earth. Only the bristle-cone pine of North America exceeds it in age. International headlines were made with the discovery of a stand of Huon pines on Mt Read that was widely quoted as being in excess of 10 000 years of age. All the individuals in this population are genetically identical, and are all males. The stand arose from one or a small number of individuals, and has maintained itself by vegetative reproduction. It is important to remember that no individual tree in the Mt Read stand is 10 000 years old -- rather, the stand itself has been in existence for that long.



woah!

Now that summer has arrived here I am going to go check out Mt Read myself to take some photos and record any conversations I have with our green friends (teehee) Does anyone want to come on this Entour with me...it's kind of like a detour but you deliberately get lost in the forest  

I will keep you all posted.


eb


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## Elennainie (Dec 4, 2002)

I just thought of another ent-like book for my fellow ent & tree lovers. It's Whisper from the Woods by Victoria Wirth, with way cool illustrations by A. Scott Banfill. It's a child's picture book, but with these marvellous adult style paintings of trees with human faces in them. The faces are covered with brown bark, and even the acorns have little baby's faces in them. They are very different from any other fantasy art conceptions I've seen of what ents look like. My favorite picture shows the trees asleep in winter, holding hands underground with their roots. Hope someone out there checks it out!


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## Dáin Ironfoot I (Dec 4, 2002)

Where I live, we have a lot of "pologna trees" on my property. Supposedly they are on the Japanese black market... thought that was kinda cool...


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