He Shall Be Like a Tree Planted By the Rivers of Water - Page 3
© Michael Martinez
On the other hand, the Entwives were very organized, and at some point in their wanderings they split off from the Ents. It's impossible to say when the separation of Ents and Entwives began, but most likely it happened after the Ents settled in the woods which became Fangorn Forest. And when did the Ents settle in that wood? Probably around the time that the Sindar were migrating toward the east and establishing kingdoms in the Vales of Anduin. "The Boundaries of Lorien" (Appendix C to "The history of Galadriel and Celeborn" in Unfinished Tales) says that "legend reported that Fangorn himself had met the King of the Galadhrim in ancient days, and Fangorn had said: 'I know mine and you know yours; let neither side molest what is the other's. But if an Elf should wish to walk in my land for his pleasure he will be welcome; and if an Ent should be seen in your land fear no evil.'"
Why would there be a need for Fangorn to set some limits upon the Elves, and to divide the lands? The answer must be that the Ents experienced some friction even with the Elves, and that friction had to be over the use to which trees were put. The Elves of Lorien used trees much as most other people did: they built houses, and made furniture, and built boats. The Ents must have realized at some point that they couldn't contain the Elves and Men in Eriador, so they withdrew to the southern woods and established an enclave where trees could grow free and wild.
But Fangorn also tells Merry and Pippin that there were places in his forest where the trees were ancient, some even older than he, and the shadow had never been lifted off of them. The shadow, or darkness, to which he refers seems to be from Morgoth, not Sauron. Fangorn does speak of a time when the Elves began fleeing over Sea. That can only refer to the period after the War of the Elves and Sauron. But since he himself had walked in Beleriand, and recalled Tasarinan, he was older than that war. Hence, the trees which were older than he had been alive for centuries, perhaps millennia, before Sauron invaded Eriador.
Also, if the Ents were present in Eriador when Sauron burned the forests, it follows that they would have recalled the catastrophe and opposed Sauron directly. Instead, Fangorn only knows that the forests were destroyed. He and his people seem to already have been dwelling near the end of the Misty Mountains when Sauron invaded Eriador. So the Ent migration must have occurred prior to the War of the Elves and Sauron, and therefore it seems logical that the Ents sought out a land where they could accomplish some good (lifting the ancient darkness from the trees, or keeping the evil trees from hurting innocents and spreading their evil) as well as establish a refuge where trees would be guarded and nurtured.
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