Ents are a fictional race of humanoid trees from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. They appear to have been inspired by the talking trees of many of the world's folklores (see tree (mythology) for more information). At the time The Lord of the Rings takes place, there are no young ents (known as entings) because the entwives (female ents) were lost (see below).
The word "Ent" was taken from an Anglo-Saxon word for "giant". Tolkien...
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Ents are a fictional race of humanoid trees from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. They appear to have been inspired by the talking trees of many of the world's folklores (see tree (mythology) for more information). At the time The Lord of the Rings takes place, there are no young ents (known as entings) because the entwives (female ents) were lost (see below).
The word "Ent" was taken from an Anglo-Saxon word for "giant". Tolkien borrowed the word from the Anglo-Saxon phrases orþanc enta geweorc = "work of cunning giants" and eald enta geweorc = "old work of giants" (describing Roman ruins). In this sense, Ents are probably the most ubiquitous of all creatures in fantasy and folklore, perhaps second only to dragons; for the word can refer to a variety of large, roughly humanoid creatures, such as giants, trolls, orcs, or even the monster Grendel from the poem Beowulf.
Along with Old Norse Jötunn, "ent" came from Common Germanic *etunaz.
Treebeard, the oldest living...
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