# What are Ents?



## gandalfthegreat (Jan 3, 2003)

I do not completely understand the chapter Treebeard in TTT. So the Ents are trees...but not all trees are Ents, they are dormant. I don't know this is very confusing. Someone please fill me in on the main idea of what a Ent is.


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## Calimehtar (Jan 3, 2003)

Yavanna (<- From The Silmarillion) created Ents to take care of the trees and to protect them from pretty much exactly what Saruman ended up doing.... cutting down lllloooootttssss of them. Ents are trees that can walk and talk. That's about all that I can say about them... They are the "Sheperds of the Trees".


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## Aragorn21 (Jan 3, 2003)

lol gandalf have you read LOTR?


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## Finduilas (Jan 3, 2003)

Yes,they were a part of the olvar created by Yavanna(she created kelvar as well).In the apendix in the LOTR it written about ents but mostly about their language.
So let's start with that the ents were spirits that dwell among olvar:



> When the Children awake,then the thought of Yavanna 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.


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## Calimehtar (Jan 3, 2003)

What is the difference between Kelver and Olvar? Or what is the K & O?


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## Finduilas (Jan 3, 2003)

olvar:


> growing things with roots in the earth



kelvar:


> animals,living things that move


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## FoolOfATook (Jan 3, 2003)

Ents are NOT trees- they are the shepherds of the trees. They tend to resemble trees (some Ents more than others) but they are most certainly not trees.


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## Lantarion (Jan 4, 2003)

I think it's pretty safe to say that Ents (the Onodrim) were Maiar; yes, sent by Yavanna to protect the trees from the axes of the Dwarves, and the evils of Melkor. 
Welcome to TTF, GandalftheGreat! I suggest you get your hands on the Silmarillion, it's better than the LotR IMHO, and Tolkien's main work of literature. A true mythos, a collection of legends; only thing is that these actually took place in the world of the LotR, which makes it even more intriguing!


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## j0n4th4n (Jan 4, 2003)

What are Huorns then? and Old Man Willow?

didn't treebeard say something about some ents becoming more tree-ish and some trees becoming more entish? i think these in-between types are huorns

re. ents being maiar, i think they are not. when treebeard says that rhyme he talks of the four races - men, elves, dwarves and ents (he added an extra verse for the hobbits bcause for some reason they weren't in the rhyme) so i think ents are a 'race' rather than maiar.


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## gandalfthegreat (Jan 4, 2003)

Thanks everyone for your help. I can now say I have a better understanding of what Ents are. I have only read LoTR and The Hobbit, and soon as suggested I am going to read The Simarillion. I just didn't understand the explanation of Ents in TTT chapter 4 treebeard.

*-Gandalf-*


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## Ceorl (Jan 5, 2003)

I do not think that ents are Maiar or that Yavanna created them, not whilst in Ea at any rate. Yavanna after she had made the Kelvar and Olvar went to Manwe because she was fearful for the thing s she had created that had been left in ME to the will of Morgoth. And she said that though the animals could run and hide, the Olvar could not and she wished that they could protect themselves and Manwe said that it was a strange thought, and she said

'none the less it was in the song, for while you were in the clouds with your brother Ulmo, some of the trees reached upward...."

and so on, therefore I think that the ents were created in the Song, and that they were not vreated by Yavanna but are part of the substance of the world, or else are trees that are different by the will of destiny.


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