Realms of Fantasy and Myth: Week 47 - EntsWelcome to the forty-seventh issue of my fantasy features! These are now part of a collection in a group created specifically for this project.
If you like this feature, you can find more gorgeous artwork at the group, including some never featured in these articles before.
I hope you enjoy it, and please, show the featured artists some love and recognition through pageviews,
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This week's creature feature is: Ents
Note: This article will cover both Ents - the creatures featured in J.R.R. Tolkien's works, and Treants - the creatures found in Dungeons and Dragons. There are some differences, of course, but the two species are similar enough that separating them for the sake of this article would be difficult.
From Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ent and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treant :
Ents are a race of beings in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world Middle-earth who closely resemble trees. They are similar to the talking trees in folklore around the world. Their name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for giant.
The Ents appear in The Lord of the Rings as ancient shepherds of the forest and allies of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth during the War of the Ring.
Treebeard, called by Gandalf the oldest living Ent and the oldest living thing that walks in Middle-earth, is described as being around 14 feet (4 m) tall:
"A large Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Whether it was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether that was its hide, was difficult to say. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends. But at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating."
Ents exhibit wide variation in personal traits (height, heft, colouring, even the number of digits), as they came to resemble somewhat the specific types of trees that they shepherded. Ents share some of the strengths and weaknesses of trees as well. Their skin is extraordinarily tough, and very much like wood; they can erode stone extremely rapidly, in the manner of tree roots - but they are vulnerable to fire and chopping blows from axes. Ents are also an extremely patient and cautious race, with a sense of time more suited to trees than short-lived mortals. While they do not die of old age, older Ents often become 'treeish', settling down in one place and growing roots and leaves. Eventually, they cease to be conscious and become trees permanently. It is implied that this was the eventual fate of the Ents in Middle-earth.
Treants are sentient trees with human characteristics. They are typically portrayed as protectors of the forests and antagonists to industrialization and despoiling of nature. They are typically allies of druids and fey, opposing malicious races such as orcs. The name "treant" comes from combining "tree" and "giant," and is usually pronounced /|tree-ant/.
The ent (treant in later printings) was one of the first monsters introduced in the earliest edition of the game, in the Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set (1974), where they were described as tree-like creatures able to command trees, and lawful in nature.
Now, for the features! Works are featured from various categories, in no particular order:
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Thank you so much for viewing, and come back next time for a different inhabitant of the Realms of Fantasy and Myth!
~Arah
Founder
Previous Issues:
Unicorns: fav.me/d3jixbl
Merfolk: fav.me/d3jixsv
Eastern Dragons: fav.me/d3jiy8p
Kitsune: fav.me/d3jiynw
Alicorn: fav.me/d3jizis
Gnomes: fav.me/d3jizv9
Tanuki: fav.me/d3jj0er
Centaurs: fav.me/d3jj0xw
Orcs: fav.me/d3jj1wd
Dryad: fav.me/d3jj2uo
Halflings: fav.me/d3jj3cu
Elves: fav.me/d3jj3ux
Faeries: fav.me/d3jj6fv
Vampires: fav.me/d3jj6ta
Sphinx: fav.me/d3jj7c2
Griffin: fav.me/d3jj7qi
Phoenix: fav.me/d3jj8b7
Djinn: fav.me/d3jj988
Werewolves: fav.me/d3jj9nd
Selkie: fav.me/d3jja4c
Gargoyles: fav.me/d3jjanp
Western Dragons: fav.me/d3l1nm9
Drow: fav.me/d3jjbz0
Yeti: fav.me/d3jjcgu
Kirin: fav.me/d3jjcuw
Satyr: fav.me/d3jjhb0
Hippocampus: fav.me/d3jjhjt
Manticore: fav.me/d3jji0u
Leprechauns: fav.me/d3jjn2s
Pegasus: fav.me/d3jjnw6
Lamia: fav.me/d3jjoti
Kelpie: fav.me/d3jjp6f
Water Nymphs: fav.me/d3jjpjf
Kraken: fav.me/d3jjsgw
Recaps! Part 1: fav.me/d49souz
Recaps! Part 2: fav.me/d4adclu
Loch Ness Monster: fav.me/d4b8ola
Harpy: fav.me/d4byeqx
Hippogryph: fav.me/d4crce2
Banshee: fav.me/d4dgfo8
Wyvern: fav.me/d5btikz
Cockatrice: realmsoffantasy-myth.deviantar…
Baku: realmsoffantasy-myth.deviantar…
Nightmares: realmsoffantasy-myth.deviantar…
Dullahan: realmsoffantasy-myth.deviantar…
