He Shall Be Like a Tree Planted By the Rivers of Water - Page 4
© Michael Martinez
For their part, the Entwives seem to have dwelt in or near the southern Misty Mountains from the earliest days. Fangorn tells Merry and Pippin that the Entwives crossed Anduin "when the Darkness came in the North". The event to which he refers can only be the return of Morgoth to Middle-earth, and the establishment of Angband. Morgoth's power extended throughout Middle-earth, but after the Noldor returned to Middle-earth he began to concentrate his attention in Beleriand. So there must have been a brief period when Morgoth found the gardens of the Entwives and threatened or harassed them.
But the situation with the Entwives raises an interesting question: what were they doing there in the first place? The answer must be that Fangorn Forest represents not only the last refuge of the Ents in the Third Age, but also the land of their origin. Fangorn says that the Elves originally woke the Ents up and taught them language. The Elves could have done this in Cuivienen, but Fangorn never mentions Cuivienen, and Ents are not ever associated with Cuivienen, either. Also, the Great Journey marks the beginning of true Elvish expansion and curiosity. It may be that some of the Eldar, or perhaps some of the Nandor, woke the first Ents soon after the Elves crossed Anduin.
When the Elves passed away to the west, or dispersed throughout other lands, the Ents must have gone forth to learn more about the world. The Entwives stayed home, and the eventual estrangement of the two Entsexes began early on. The Ents returned to the Entwives from time to time, but the two groups gradually drifted apart. Eventually, the Entwives moved across the Anduin. The passage would have been most easily accomplished at the Undeeps, and the Entwives settled in the lands south of Greenwood the Great, and due east of their original forest. They would have been close to both Elves and Men, but they could have remained relatively unmolested.
In the Second Age, as the Ents retreated eastward toward the ancient homeland, they found the ancient woods infested with evil and the Entwives gone. But they stayed in touch with the Entwives for a while. The final separation must have been the result of the War of the Elves and Sauron. The Ents watched as the world churned in turmoil around them. For Sauron not only invaded Eriador, he sent armies marching north from Mordor to destroy the Edainic peoples of Wilderland, as well as any Elven realms he could reach. Most likely, the Ents remained in Fangorn Forest for the rest of the Second Age. They paid little heed when the Last Alliance of Elves and Men marched south against Mordor. But one day Fangorn decided to visit his old love Fimbrethil, and passing east across the Undeeps he came to a land which had been devastated by war. The Entwives were gone, and their gardens had been destroyed.
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