Depiction of 🌳Ents Question

[1stvermont]

So I am reading through TT at the moment and I am trying to get a visualization of the ents. Alan Lee and john howe are my two favorite artists, and they both depict the ents to varying degrees with many branches, leaves, etc coming off the top of the head and back area of their ents. I was just wondering what the justification was for this, or is it simply part of the "treeish" look they assumed.

thanks

 

[Elthir]

Looking back, in Feb 2020 I responded to you about whether or not Tolkien ever drew an Ent, where I mentioned a possibly misremembered Tolkienian response (about what Ents look like) to the Princess of Denmark (maybe?) . . . which I still can't locate!

Maybe I dreamt it. Anyway.

So far I don't imagine the Ents of Entmoot all branchy. Maybe The Nature of Middle-Earth will have something to say about Ents, I don't know. There's a section titled Description of Characters but I don't know which characters yet.

And in my opinion Treebeard was mistaken for an old stump "with only two branches left" . . .
"it almost looked like the figure of some gnarled old man"

I take this to mean that Treebeard had two arms ("branches").

 

[Miguel]

 

[1stvermont]

Looking back, in Feb 2020 I responded to you about whether or not Tolkien ever drew an Ent, where I mentioned a possibly misremembered Tolkienian response (about what Ents look like) to the Princess of Denmark (maybe?) . . . which I still can't locate!

Maybe I dreamt it. Anyway.

So far I don't imagine the Ents of Entmoot all branchy. Maybe The Nature of Middle-Earth will have something to say about Ents, I don't know. There's a section titled Description of Characters but I don't know which characters yet.

And in my opinion Treebeard was mistaken for an old stump "with only two branches left" . . .
"it almost looked like the figure of some gnarled old man"

I take this to mean that Treebeard had two arms ("branches").

very good thoughts. i have preordered nature of Me so perhaps I will find my answer there. I never got the impression treebeard had all those branches either, but the great variety at the moot i think leaves it open.

 

[Elthir]

. . . but the great variety at the moot i think leaves it open.

Did yew mean that?

A Quickbeam fan! (grey-green "hair")

 

[Elthir]

Looking back, in Feb 2020 I responded to you about whether or not Tolkien ever drew an Ent, where I mentioned a possibly misremembered Tolkienian response (about what Ents look like) to the Princess of Denmark (maybe?) . . . which I still can't locate!

Ando here: Elthir, back in 2014 you said:

For a TV special (the one with Dame Judi Dench) the Tolkien family lawyer Dick Williamson read aloud JRRT's response to a letter from 7 year old Leslie Underwood, who had asked if he could draw an ent and the flag of Numenor. There's a bit more to the letter and the response, but here's the part I've now got written down (guessing at the punctuation).

And then you quoted:

"I'm afraid I'm not very good at drawing and I do not feel able to produce an ent, or the flag or Numenor. An ent, in any case, when moving is very difficult to catch, and when not moving looks just like a tree." JRRT

Elthir: Hmm. But I just watched the whole thing (the Queen of Denmark was in it at least),
and there it wasn't -- no quote from JRRT about drawing an Ent!

Ando: I'm just the messenger. Maybe they cut something out of the version you just watched.

Or maybe you made it up in 2014.

Elthir: But if I made it up, why add the name of the lawyer?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Is this a yoak?

 

[Elthir]

I'm actually a bit perplexed. Not only did I write that note to me for the context, but I noted that I had to invent the punctuation because the family lawyer read it aloud. And I recall listening to this section more than once to get the exact wording too. Then again, as I say, I just watched it on Youtube and it wasn't there.

But why would anyone cut this part out? I can't have been that long! Plus, it was a while ago.
The date of the show fits.

Anyway, I'll look around a bit more.

 

[Ealdwyn]

Er .....
Elthir? U ok?

 

[Elthir]

JRRT: A Film Portrait of JRR Tolkien (1996) -- which according to IMDb is 1 hour and 50 minutes --
the version I watched on YouTube is 1 hour 47 minutes 49 seconds . . .

. . . and I think that's enough time difference for a lawyer to have read that quote!

Then again, IMDb only lists (the lawyer) Williamson under "thanks" with Alan Lee, not under cast.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Well, that's a pizza news, and no mistake!

 

[Elthir]

I say Williamson read it. And I just might have the video tape to prove it . . . and yet no way to watch it without spending money to convert the video tape to . . . not tape!

🐾

 

[Elthir]

Hmm. While I don't prefer to reference web sites, the current Tolkien Gateway page for
"Letters not published in "The Letters of JRR Tolkien" includes: "19?? to Leslie Underwood"

But says nothing about the letter, nor the source!

Again, it's not exactly Hammond and Scull here . . . but did someone else dream up this name?
I doubt the Gateway writer lifted this brief information from my post in 2014!