Meeting the Ents

The search begins.

There were myths and legends that said they might still exist in the world, the tree-men and walkers-of-the-wood.  But, we discounted the stories as part of the over-active imaginations of fans of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.  Or, maybe it wasn't so hard to decide they were not real.  After all, we'd read the stories and we understood that they were fictional creations.

And yet, I think we kind of hoped we might prove the truth behind the fiction, at least where the Ents, or tree people, were concerned.  So, we took walks in the woods, looking for a sign - any sign - that they walked the earth.

But, the problem we had from the beginning is that we weren't sure exactly what an Ent looked like.  Should we rely on the drawings of artists like Alan Lee or the written descriptions of Tolkien?  Were these based on fact or only imagination?

For that matter, we weren't sure if Ents even moved in a way that made sense within our own sense of time.  After all, Ents are supposed to be ancient creatures who are anything but 'hasty.'  Tolkien tells us in the Two Towers that ents are slow to act, in part because there is so much history to them.  In the words of Treebeard he writes:

"...my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time saying anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.”

Tammy and I went looking for ents anyway.

We didn't know Entish, so that wasn't going to help.  For that matter, there was no telling if they would speak fast enough for us to tell that words were being said at all?  How big were they?  What did they eat?  Where were the best places to look for them?  We just didn't know.



But, Tammy and I went looking for them anyway.

There were all sorts of trees in the places we walked.  It made sense to us that we should try all types of woods.  After all, both Lewis and Tolkien ascribed different characteristics to tree-people that matched tree types.

"Lucy ... saw that it was a crowd of human shapes. Pale birch-girls were tossing their heads, willow-women pushed back their hair from their brooding faces ... the queenly beeches stood still ... shaggy oak-men, lean and melancholy elms, shock-headed hollies (dark themselves, but their wives all bright with berries) and gay rowans"  C.S. Lewis - Prince Caspian
 
Maybe some Ents would be more willing to be seen than others?  Perhaps some would very much prefer not to be noticed, while others might not mind.  Lewis' descriptions made us wonder if we should avoid some of the tree types because they sounded a little less welcoming.  Would a 'queenly' beech deign to recognize us?  And, what, exactly were the willows brooding over?

A fine tree friend!

We found many beautiful trees on our hikes.  Some might well have been Ents, but we could not tell for certain.  The forest was full of the sound of trees, but that was likely just the wind playing a tune with their leaves and branches.  Tammy found one impressive tree that was willing to pose for a photograph.  Maybe it was an Ent, or maybe it was a Huorn - an Ent that has gotten tree-ish?  Or maybe, it was just a tree. 

In the end, it didn't matter, because we still thought well of it, whether it was an Ent or not.  We will never know whether it thought well of us, but that probably doesn't matter anyway.

In fact, there were many magnificent trees that we 'met' on our travels.  We thought no less of them for being tree-ish.  In fact, it is the tree-ishness of Ents that makes us want to meet one.  But, it is the Entish part that is necessary for us to understand them.  At least, that's what we thought.

An Ent looking over the ridge?

At one point, we thought we saw an Ent looking over a ridge in the valley.  At first glace, we didn't see it and the next, it was there.  Did we just miss it the first time, or had it actually moved into place from one moment to another?  It didn't move again while we watched, but is it possible it was aware of our gaze and it didn't want to give itself away?  We couldn't tell.  And we weren't patient enough to wait it out.

Yes, we talked a little about staying and watching to see if it would move again until we realized that trees have a bit more time to spend on patience than we do.  So, we moved on without our answer to our question.  If it was an Ent, we wished it well.  For that matter, if it was a tree, we also wished it well, which is what the Ents would want us to do anyway.

We think there is an ent here!  Look to the right of Tammy!

After one of our walks, we looked at our pictures and found the photo you see above.  There it was.  A face in a tree.  Could that be an Ent?  Did we move past too quickly before it could form its slow greeting for us?  Or maybe it was a warning?  We'll likely never know because we were too quick and we didn't know what we were listening or looking for.

We waited for it to speak

We walked some more and came upon a tree that had a face.  At least it was close enough to what we would call a face that we thought maybe it was an Ent.  We stopped and talked to it.  We were as polite as we could be because we know the trees are dangerous when they are roused.  Maybe it understood us.  Perhaps it was considering whether it should wake itself enough to greet us - or maybe tell us to get off its roots.

We told it that we were hoping that Ents were real in this world and that they were continuing to care for the trees in the forests as they had in prior ages.  We assured it that we would continue to look for the Ent-wives.  We waited for it to speak.  The tree, Huorn or Ent did not respond to us.  But, when we looked back, we thought we saw it wink in our direction.

An ENT!

It was late on yet another walk and we were getting tired.  We were no longer so keen to look for Ents.  After all, one gets discouraged when there is little reward for what is perceived as great effort - even if that effort is not great enough.  So, we trudged up the path on the way back home.  Thoughts of taking shoes off and rubbing sore feet and something cold to drink kept us moving forward.

And then we both stopped.

Because something was moving around the bend ahead of us.

It could be a wild pig or a feral goat or....  But, it sounded big.  Very big. And yet, it didn't sound so big as all that.  What could it be?

I looked at Tammy and she looked back at me.  Do we go on?  If we don't go on, what do we do?  Neither of us was going to outrun anything if that was called for on this trail.

We listened a bit more and decided that the sound was moving away from us.  So, we cautiously rounded the corner.

And saw....
An ENT!

And ANOTHER ENT!

It was walking down the trail ahead of us, intent on going somewhere we probably couldn't or shouldn't follow.  We had finally found one, but neither of us was able to make a sound or move from our spot.  I was just able to bring the camera up to my face and take a picture as it moved to the right off of the trail.

Given the size of the creature, it was actually surprising how little sound it made as it moved off the trail.  As we watched, it seemed as if branches held themselves out of the Ent's way and rocks tilted ever so slightly to make what might have been a precarious step secure.  But, once the Ent passed, everything returned to their original position as if the Ent had never been there at all.

We looked on the path and saw odd markings, or footprints, it had left behind.  But the earth was rapidly healing them over.  By the time we thought to try to take a picture, we couldn't find them anymore.

We looked again off the trail and saw no further movement.  We couldn't tell where it had gone or where it might be now.  Perhaps Ents can stop and freeze themselves in place when they need to.  Or maybe they know secret paths that take them places far more quickly than we might expect.

Since the sun was on its way down, we trudged back the final half mile of our hike for the day.  As we got into the car to head home Tammy said, "You know, I think we heard something similar earlier in our walk."  I agreed, so we went straight home so we could view the pictures from our search.  Sure enough, we found what could be a second Ent from our walk during that day.

It was dark, so we couldn't go back to check that spot in the trail - but we went back the next day to see what we could see.  There was no ent shaped tree at that location anymore.  I took many photos to document the change and we rushed home to see what we had.

Every photo was blurred beyond recognition.  Every single one.  We had no proof.  We only had our experience and our word to you.  The Ents are alive and they walk in the woods.  Treat the trees with respect, because you can't know whether they hear you or if they notice you.  We're certainly going to continue to do what we can to honor our natural areas.  And we're not giving up until we can show everyone proof that Ents do exist.