Treebeard

[Darth Tater]

Who can forget this masterfull character, spirit of the forest Fangorn? His character has always been one of my favorites. I love the connection with nature that is even stronger then that of the elves. The ents are, in my opinion, the greatest race of Middle Earth. I have had the joy of seeing one (ok, it was a really cool tree, but who cares) and I feel they are simply wonderfull. Now, where did those darn entwives go?

[bmilder]

I think the Entwives ended up in the Shire. Remember at the beginning of LotR that guy in the bar was talking about seeing living trees or something like that... It would make sense, too. Oh, and do you think that Old Man Willow could possibly be some subspecies of Ents?

[Darth Tater]

He very well may be an ent who strayed away from their ways and followed after the entwives.

[Hernalt]

Wow. That's good. He kept searching until he gave up despondent. Or maybe he met Tom Bombadil and just decided to settle down and put it all behind him. He eventually got "sluggish" and brooded in unwarranted malice.

[Darth Tater]

Exactly Hernalt. That does make a lot of sense.

[Jedi Eowyn]

It struck me as odd how the ents seemed so neighborly but Bombadil who is the neighbor to the Shire seems sort of alien. Bombadil's hospitality is not to be knocked, don't get me wrong. I'd love to drop by any day. But walking onto his property is like doing a twilight zone moment... Treebeard on the other hand makes buddies with the hobbits. Bombadil may like the hobbits, but he's never buddies with them. Treebeard lives farther away and is stranger to look at, but is much more neighbor like. There's something oddly similar between the two characters. Bombadil and Treebeard both get called eldest at one point or another, but Treebeard is the eldest living thing. Bombadil and Treebeard live in forests of active trees. Bombadil and Treebeard are both friends of Gandalf's. The two are both clearly tied to vegetation in ways we readers can only admire. The odder one at first glance, Treebeard, turns out to be the more normal character, whereas the aparently more human seeming character turns out to be very odd indeed. If Goldberry is Yavanna, she should get with it and get those ents and entwives back together!!! This should be one of Aragorn's agenda items now that he has his throne: reunion of ents and entwives! It struck me as sad that Treebeard wanted to see Fimbrethil and couldn't. He didn't even have a clear tragedy to mourn. He has "grace under pressure." "perhaps we shall find somewhere a land where we can live together and both be content. But it is forboded that that will only happen when we have both lost all that we have now." (TT--Treebeard) *sigh*

[Darth Tater]

I don't think it would work for the ents and entwives to get back together. They became so different, that I think in a short time they would loath each others existence. It's sad, but that's just the way it is.

[Hernalt]

Tolkien hits the heartstrings, once again.

[Elrond]

I was once comfused by the fact that both treebeard and bombadil are called eldest... I believe bombadil is one of the maiar (is that how u spell it?), like mellian...

[Galadriel24]

Tom Bombadil could very well be one of the Maiar... but it is also believed that he could be Iluvatar himself...

[ArwenUndomiel02]

and then tried to eat merry? or was it pippen(?no offence peregrin)

[Darth Tater]

That's the idea :)

[Elrond]

Both.

[Elrond]

Bombadil is not Iluvantar. Tolkien actualy said that this was not true. The best theory I've found so far is that he is Aule. You can see the details at Who is Tom Bombadil? (http://www.phil.unt.edu/~hargrove/bombadil.html)

[Darth Tater]

My best guess about Bombadil is that he's not anything any of the theories suggest, but that he is rather his own being, unlike anything else.

[galadriel1]

I agree with your assessment there, Darth Tater. Tom is very unique. There`s noone quite like him.

[Celeborn]

hmmmmmmm could tom be gandalf's relation? they're both the same age, both have powwa and at the end gandalf goes to "have a long talk with bombadil" maybe they are just good friends but it strikes me that there is never any "gandalf, son of bingbangbong" or anything, and he has no "kin" this is odd, as even fordo is called "frodo, son of drogo" well, that's my two cents anyone else?

[Elrond]

The maiar don't realy go in for the whole 'kin' thing in my experiance.

[Gimli the Dwarf]

Celaborn, have you read the Unfinished Tales chapter "Istari"? It explains who Gandalf is, and you see, the valar don't have fathers, so, nope, it wouldn't say Gandalf son of so and so.

[Darth Tater]

In the words of DarthNut, what he said

[ArwenUndomiel02]

Hehe. I agree. Although, isn't it rather immpossible to have no father? Gandalf had to have had a father at one time. I'll Tolkien ran out of ideas for names! ;)

[Lauren Weasley]

About what was mentioned above, with old man willow, doesn't he strike you more as a ahh, what was the thing that looked like a tree but wasn't that killed the orcs. It started with h. Huerons or something?

[anduin]

WOW!!!!! I am dazzled by your user pic!!!!

[Elanor]

Well, I just read the Silmarillion! I noticed that things seemed a lot less concrete than I thought before. I'm sure there's more in the HOME and stuff, but I believe (from what I've read) that trees were allowed to speak and be alive by Manwe for Yavanna, who wanted her plants to have a way to respond to the ravages of men. Manwe got the Eagles to speak for the birds. And it didn't specifically say "ents", but trees--so OMW could be some other kind of alive tree. It seems like the Valar didn't really keep track of what was going on, so some renegade Maiar or even Ainur (Valar) could be hiding out in the swamps, or spirits of water, or something. Roles weren't very well designated or set apart, and if Luthien could exist and do all her magic, then so could other combinations of races with various powers. Then there was Sauron submitting to Ar-Pharazon--a mere man, who just had a lot of armies. I think that the creatures and things of Middle Earth are NOT like a video game, with clearly defined powers, weaknesses and traits. They change and seem to have different levels of "inner fire" at different times. Also, the Valar or Iluvatar could change something just at a whim, and it wouldn't make sense to little mortals. Anyway, there's my humble observation. Another thing is that Tolkien was always changing his mind too!

[Darth Tater]

What if Tolkien didn't even know? I bet we're reading into things a lot. It may be possible that even he didn't know what Bombadil and Old Man Willow were, and left them as a mystery for folks like us to drive ourselves crazy over ;)

[Elanor]

Ok, so I'm hearing about Lauren's great pic, but I can't see it, and when I try to go there it says it's forbidden because of content... hm, what does this tell me? *Elanor looks suspiciously at Lauren*

[anduin]

Elanor you need to disconnect that net nanny....you are missing all of the good stuff ;)

[Elanor]

So what is it?

[anduin]

It is an animated gif of star bursts....

[IronParrot]

DISCLAIMER: The title of my post is a JOKE! As for the topic at hand here... Treebeard rules. Hrm, hrm.

[Eruve]

IP, maybe you're on to something! That would clear up the seeming mistake where both Treebeard and Bombadil are, on separate occasions, refered to as "oldest". It would make a good crackpot theory, anyway!

[Elanor]

hmm, I think that ents are much less hasty and silly than Bombadil. I think he's just a friendly wood spirit who is outside of worldly cares and just wants to dance around and have fun.

[Baron Fel Yoda]

It can't be they're both the same. Treebeard (and the rest of the Ents) was "awoken" and taught to speak by the elves of long ago. Bombadil was around before the elves awoke (If he is a Maiar), so Bombadil must be older.

[IronParrot]

Like I said, a joke. But it's fun to speculate on it... besides, it'll give you the feeling that Bombadil is still in the upcoming film. :P

[Darth Tater]

LOL, it's funny how we take rediculous things seriously ;)

[IronParrot]

I'm turning into Star Blazer!

[Darth Tater]

ROTFLMAO!