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Loresilme
Valinor
Sep 15 2008, 2:02pm
Post #1 of 3
(389 views)
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~~** MISC for a Monday Morning: Entmoot **~~
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Hi 'sibs! Had a rather much busier than usual few days this past weekend, so here we are in time for an early Monday morning (here in the Eastern U.S.) MISC! Grab a coffee or your favorite herbal tea and enjoy ... as we join Merry, Pippin and Treebeard as they travel to "Derndingle" (yes, that little meeting place had a name! The Professor would never leave anything in ME un-named   .)
Setting the scene .... Merry and Pippin find themselves in legendary Fangorn Forest.....
From ... The Two Towers, Book 3, Chapter 4 "Treebeard":
"'Where is Entmoot?' Pippin ventured to ask.
'Hoo, eh? Entmoot?' said Treebeard, turning round. 'It is not a place, it is a gathering of Ents – which does not often happen nowadays. But I have managed to make a fair number promise to come. We shall meet in the place where we have always met: Derndingle Men call it. It is away south from here. We must be there before noon.'
Before long they set off. Treebeard carried the hobbits in his arms as on the previous day. At the entrance to the court he turned to the right, stepped over the stream, and strode away southwards along the feet of great tumbled slopes where trees were scanty. Above these the hobbits saw thickets of birch and rowan, and beyond them dark climbing pinewoods. Soon Treebeard turned a little away from the hills and plunged into deep groves, where the trees were larger, taller, and thicker than any that the hobbits had ever seen before. For a while they felt faintly the sense of stifling which they had noticed when they first ventured into Fangorn, but it soon passed. Treebeard did not talk to them. He hummed to himself deeply and thoughtfully, but Merry and Pippin caught no proper words: it sounded like boom, boom, rumboom, boorar, boom, boom, dahrar boom boom, dahrar boom, and so on with a constant change of note and rhythm. Now and again they thought they heard an answer, a hum or a quiver of sound, that seemed to come out of the earth, or from boughs above their heads, or perhaps from the boles of the trees; but Treebeard did not stop or turn his head to either side.
They had been going for a long while – Pippin had tried to keep count of the 'ent-strides' but had failed, getting lost at about three thousand – when Treebeard began to slacken his pace. Suddenly he stopped, put the hobbits down, and raised his curled hands to his mouth so that they made a hollow tube; then he blew or called through them. A great hoom, hom rang out like a deep-throated horn in the woods, and seemed to echo from the trees. Far off there came from several directions a similar hoom, hom, hoom that was not an echo but an answer.
Treebeard now perched Merry and Pippin on his shoulders and strode on again, every now and then sending out another horn-call, and each time the answers came louder and nearer. In this way they came at last to what looked like an impenetrable wall of dark evergreen trees, trees of a kind that the hobbits had never seen before: they branched out right from the roots, and were densely clad in dark glossy leaves like thornless holly, and they bore many stiff upright flower-spikes with large shining olive-coloured buds.
Turning to the left and skirting this huge hedge Treebeard came in a few strides to a narrow entrance. Through it a worn path passed and dived suddenly down a long steep slope. The hobbits saw that they were descending into a great dingle, almost as round as a bowl, very wide and deep, crowned at the rim with the high dark evergreen hedge. It was smooth and grassclad inside, and there were no trees except three very tall and beautiful silver-birches that stood at the bottom of the bowl. Two other paths led down into the dingle: from the west and from the east.
Several Ents had already arrived. More were coming in down the other paths, and some were now following Treebeard. As they drew near the hobbits gazed at them. They had expected to see a number of creatures as much like Treebeard as one hobbit is like another (at any rate to a stranger's eye); and they were very much surprised to see nothing of the kind. The Ents were as different from one another as trees from trees: some as different as one tree is from another of the same name but quite different growth and history; and some as different as one tree-kind from another, as birch from beech; oak from fir. There were a few older Ents, bearded and gnarled like hale but ancient trees (though none looked as ancient as Treebeard); and there were tall strong Ents, clean-limbed and smooth-skinned like forest-trees in their prime; but there were no young Ents, no saplings. Altogether there were about two dozen standing on the wide grassy floor of the dingle, and as many more were marching in.
At first Merry and Pippin were struck chiefly by the variety that they saw: the many shapes, and colours, the differences in girth; and height, and length of leg and arm; and in the number of toes and fingers (anything from three to nine). A few seemed more or less related to Treebeard, and reminded them of beech-trees or oaks. But there were other kinds. Some recalled the chestnut: brown-skinned Ents with large splayfingered hands, and short thick legs. Some recalled the ash: tall straight grey Ents with many-fingered hands and long legs; some the fir (the tallest Ents), and others the birch, the rowan, and the linden. But when the Ents all gathered round Treebeard, bowing their heads slightly, murmuring in their slow musical voices, and looking long and intently at the strangers, then the hobbits saw that they were all of the same kindred, and all had the same eyes: not all so old or so deep as Treebeard's, but all with the same slow, steady, thoughtful expression, and the same green flicker.
As soon as the whole company was assembled, standing in a wide circle round Treebeard, a curious and unintelligible conversation began. The Ents began to murmur slowly: first one joined and then another, until they were all chanting together in a long rising and falling rhythm, now louder on one side of the ring, now dying away there and rising to a great boom on the other side. Though he could not catch or understand any of the words – he supposed the language was Entish – Pippin found the sound very pleasant to listen to at first; but gradually his attention wavered. After a long time (and the chant showed no signs of slackening) he found himself wondering, since Entish was such an 'unhasty' language, whether they had yet got further than Good Morning; and if Treebeard was to call the roll, how many days it would take to sing all their names. 'I wonder what the Entish is for yes or no,' he thought. He yawned."
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They did such a wonderful job of depicting these moments. I did notice some differences in the films here in relation to the text. What do you make of that large upright stone in the center of the clearing? I don't find it mentioned in the text. I imagine that's there instead of the three "very tall and beautiful silver birches" .... hmmm, which if visually depicted may have distracted from the Ents onscreen. No booming call from Treebeard to summon the other Ents along the way either, apparently they wisely left that for the very impactful moment when he sees the destruction of the trees at Isengard. I couldn't find that shot of Pippin yawning, but I thought it was cute that they included it in their earlier scene together  .
Hope today's MISC gets your week off to a fine Middle Earth start! And now I shall be off to work myself lest I face comments such as, "Le ab dollen (You're late) ..... You look terrible."  
Cheers!
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"MISC" - "Memorable, Interesting Screen Caps" -- spotlights miscellaneous, memorable, interesting shots from the three LOTR films. Thoughtful, or fun, or beautiful scenes randomly selected … and when available, the MISC will include the text from the book, as it describes the scene or event. MISC is (usually!) a weekend feature, and in keeping with a weekend frame of mind, it's casual all the way here …. a place to drop in on the weekends when you're stopping in at TORN to see who's around, grab a snack from the fridge, chat a bit or just relax with a pretty picture or two. Any and all comments are welcome, as are lurkers and newbies, don't be shy. MISC is a relaxed, no-stress-allowed posting zone, where it's ok to ramble and ok to ruminate and ok to comment even when you're fuzzy on the details . And it's also ok just to sit and look ... MISC is a place to bask in simple enjoyment of the LotR films and story. As always thanks to all who lurk or participate … and if you have any suggestions regarding MISC, please feel free to PM me!
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weaver
Half-elven
Sep 15 2008, 3:22pm
Post #2 of 3
(326 views)
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Ah, thank you for this. The Ents have always been one of my favorite parts of the LOTR and it was nice re-read the passages you included.
The movies' Ents don't exactly match my image of them -- they are too "treeish" for my tastes, and Fangorn is too blue for me at times -- but where I do think they got it perfectly is in the way the Ents moved. When they are in motion -- Treebeard with that powerful stride, or all of them as they slowly emerge from the woods and gather at the Entmoot or march on Isengard -- then, I believe.
I had not thought of it before, but really the Ents are always about motion, aren't they -- wandering through their forests, having many homes, sheperding the trees, etc. They are nomads, really, though they stay within there borders. Ents who stop moving run the danger of becoming rooted and too much like trees. Perhaps that's why the moving Ents in the films radiate so much "Entishness" to me...
Thanks for a nice start to my Monday!
Weaver
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Sep 15 2008, 10:57pm
Post #3 of 3
(343 views)
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Entmoot. All because of 2 little hobbits who refused to be left behind.
The films did such an amazing job of creating those fascinating faces of the various trees, their low rumbles of their voices and curiosity of the hobbits so well exhibited. The pics you found are perfect!
*applause* This was so much fun! *goes back to read and look again!*
"Barney Snow was here." ~Hug like a hobbit!~ "In my heaven..."
I really need these new films to take me back to, and not re-introduce me to, that magical world.
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