What Is An 'Ent'?

'Ents' are a fictional race from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-Earth.

'Ent' is taken from Anglo-Saxon, and means 'giant'. Tolkien extracted the word from Anglo-Saxon poetry.

The oldest of the Ents is Treebeard. Treebeard is tall, stiff-limbed and has bark-like skin and leafy hair. In the second book of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy (The Two Towers), Treebeard befriends the hobbits Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin) after they escape from the orcs, who kidnapped them.

In Tolkien's stories, Ents are an old race who appeared in Middle-Earth the same time as the elves did, and were apparently created by Eru IIuvatar at the behest of Yavanna after she had learned of Aule's chidren, the Dwarves, knowing that they would want to fell trees.

Ents were seen as Shepherds of the Trees. They protected the forests from Orcs, Dwarves and other dangers.

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