Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers: Quotes: Fangorn: Treebeard

Poems and Tales of Middle-Earth:

(illustration by John Howe)

(Ent's song about the loss of their Wives)
"Ent:
'When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf,
      and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream,
      and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep,
      and keen on the mountain-air,
Come back to me! come back to me,
      and say my land is fair!'

Entwife:
'When Spring is come to garth and field,
      and corn is in the blade;
When blossom like a shining snow
      is on the orchard laid;
When shower and Sun upon the Earth
      with fragrance fill the air,
I'll linger here, and will not come,
      because my land is fair.'

Ent:
'When Summer lies upon the world,
      and in a noon of gold
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves
      the dreams of trees unfold;
When woodland halls are green and cool,
      and wind is in the West,
Come back to m! Come back to me,
      and say my land is best!'

Entwife:
'When summer warms the hanging fruit
      and burns the berry brown;
When straw is gold, and ear is white,
      and harvest comes to town;
When honey spills, and apple swells,
      though wind be in the West,
I'll linger here beneath the Sun,
      because my land is best!'

Ent:
'When winter comes, the winter wild
      that hill and wood shall slay;
When trees shall fall and starless night
      devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East,
      then in the bitter rain
I'll look for thee, and call to thee;
      I'll come to thee again!'

Entwife:
'When winter comes and singing ends;
      when darkness falls at last;
When broken is the barren bough,
      and light and labour past;
I'll look for thee, and wait for thee,
      until we meet again:
Together we will take the road
      beneath the bitter rain!'

Both:
'Together we will take the road
      that leads into the West,
And far away will find a land
      where both our hearts may rest.' "

(illustration by Alan Lee)


	The Lord of the Rings Part II. The Two Towers Quotes from Tolkien's Novel


	Fangorn Forest: Treebeard
	"He led the way in under the huge branches of the trees. Old beyond guessing, they seemed. Great trailing beards of lichen hung from them, blowing and swaying in the breeze. Out of the shadows, the hobbits peeped, gazing back down the slope: little furtive figures that in the dim light looked like elf-children in the deeps of time peering out of the Wild Wood in wonder at their first Dawn."

	"A queer stifling feeling came over them, as if the air was too thin or too scanty for breathing."

	" 'Yes', said Pippin; 'I'm afraid this is only a passing gleam, and it will go grey again. What a pity! This shaggy old forest looked so different in the sunlight. I almost felt I liked the place. 'Almost felt you liked the Forest! That's good! That's uncommonly kind of you,' said a strange voice. 'Turn round and let me have a look at your faces. I almost feel that I dislike you both, but do not let us be hasty. Turn around!' "

	"They found that they were looking at a most extraordinary face. [...] But at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating. They were brown, shot with a green light. Often afterwards, Pippin tried to describe his first impression of them. 'One felt as if there was an enormous well behind them, filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thinking; but their surface were sparkling with the present; like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples of a very deep lake.' "

	" 'I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.' A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes. 'For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time saying anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.' " (Treebeard)

	" 'Things have changed. [...] Some of us are still true Ents, and lively enough in our fashion, but many are growing sleepy, going tree-ish, as you might say. Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake. Some are quite wide awake, and a few are, well, ah, well getting Entish. That is going on all the time. When that happens to a tree, you find that some have bad hearts. [...] Still, we do what we can. We keep off strangers and the foolhardy; and we train and we teach, we walk and we weed.' " (Treebeard)

	" 'Elves began it, of course, waking trees up and teaching them to speak and learn their tree-talk. They always wished to talk to everything, the old Elves did. But then the Great Darkness came, and they passed away over the Sea, or fled into far valleys and hid themselves, and made songs about days that would never come again. Never again.' " (Treebeard)

	" 'Hoom, hum, I have not troubled about the Great Wars', said Treebeard; 'they mostly concern Elves and Men. That is the business of Wizards: Wizards are always troubled about the future. I do not like worrying about the future. I am not altogether on anybody's side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if you undertand me: nobody cares for the woods as I care for them, not even Elves nowadays.' "

	" 'Saruman is a Wizard,' answered Treebeard. '[...] I told him many things that he would never have found out by himself; but he never repaid me in like kind. I cannot remember that he ever told me anything. And he got more and more like that; his face, as I remember it - I have not seen it for many a day - became like windows in a stone wall: windows with shutters inside. [...] Curse him, root and branch! Many of those trees were my friends, creatures I had known from nut and acorn; many had voices of their own that are lost for ever now. And there are waste of stump and bramble where once there were singing groves. I have been idle. I have let things slip. It must stop!' "

	"Pippin found the sound very pleasant to listen at first; but gradually his attention wavered. After a long time (and the chant showed no sign 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 going to call the roll, how many days it would take to sing all their names."

	" 'I have brought you a companion. He has an ent-house nearby. Bregalad is his Elvish name. He says he has already made up his mind and does not need to remain at the Moot. Hm, hm, he is the nearest thing among us to a hasty Ent. You ought to get on together. Good-bye!' Treebeard turned and left them. Bregalad stood for some time surveying the hobbits solemnly; and they looked at him, wondering when he would show any sign of 'hastiness'. [...] 'I am Bregalad, that is Quickbeam in your language. They have called me that ever since I said yes to an Elder before he had finished his question.' "

	"Treebeard marched on, signing with the others for a while. But after a time, his voice died to a murmur and fell silent again. Pippin could see that his old brow was wrinkled and knotted. At last he looked up, and Pippin could see a sad look in his eyes, sad but not unhappy. There was a light in them, as if the green flame had sunk deeper into the dark wells of his thoughts."