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Love in the Trees - Page 11

© Michael Martinez

Whereas the Ents viewed themselves as only gentle shepherds of the trees, the Entwives believed they could improve the things among which they lived. Those trees favored by the Entwives -- apple trees, orange trees -- became domesticated, growing in orchards. The Entwives practiced agriculture as the Ents practiced a semi-nomadic forestry. Much like the classic history of strife between steppe nomads and the sedentary European or Chinese civilizations, the Ents and Entwives pursued different priorities. The Entwives, in fact, succumbed to the same desires as the Elves: desiring "order, and plenty, and peace (by which they meant that things should remain where they had set them)". The Entwives became too dominant, too assertive. The Ents had to visit the Entwives. The Entwives turned their thoughts away from the ancient forests from whence they came. The Ents, in turn, shunned the open lands the Entwives sought out. The end result proved to be disastrous for the race. The Ents were nowhere to be found when Sauron's armies overran the Entwives. Of their fate, Tolkien can only sadly speculate that "the Entwives had disappeared for good, being destroyed with their gardens in the War of the Last Alliance (Second Age 3429-3441) when Sauron pursued a scorched earth policy and burned their land against the advance of the Allies down the Anduin..." Unlike Goldberry, the Entwives refused to be submissive to their mates. Unlike Bombadil, the Ents refused to be dominant. Each gender became so used to living without the other that it was many years after the Entwives' lands were overrun before the Ents discovered their loss. They were too late to save their race. And while some might infer from the loss of the Entwives that Tolkien advocated a domestic role for wives, it was, in fact, the need for domestication which led to the Entwives' undoing. They wanted everything to be fixed and permanent in just such a way that the Ents could not bear to live with them. Goldberry, at least, puts up with Bombadil's constant wandering across the landscape, so long as he comes home to her at night. Both Bombadil and the Ents wield great power. The Ents can destroy vast fortresses, change the course of rivers, and alter the landscape by leading their herds of trees (or Huorns) to new "pastures". Bombadil's power is not so clearly revealed to the reader, but he works more subtly. Although the Ents command the trees and Huorns, Bombadil opposes domineering wills (such as that of the Old Willow) only sufficiently to ensure that everything remains safe and in harmony.

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