Treebeard

Hehe. I agree. Although, isn't it rather immpossible to have no father? Gandalf had to have had a father at one time. I'll Tolkien ran out of ideas for names!

About what was mentioned above, with old man willow, doesn't he strike you more as a ahh, what was the thing that looked like a tree but wasn't that killed the orcs. It started with h. Huerons or something?

WOW!!!!! I am dazzled by your user pic!!!!

Well, I just read the Silmarillion! I noticed that things seemed a lot less concrete than I thought before. I'm sure there's more in the HOME and stuff, but I believe (from what I've read) that trees were allowed to speak and be alive by Manwe for Yavanna, who wanted her plants to have a way to respond to the ravages of men. Manwe got the Eagles to speak for the birds. And it didn't specifically say "ents", but trees--so OMW could be some other kind of alive tree. It seems like the Valar didn't really keep track of what was going on, so some renegade Maiar or even Ainur (Valar) could be hiding out in the swamps, or spirits of water, or something. Roles weren't very well designated or set apart, and if Luthien could exist and do all her magic, then so could other combinations of races with various powers. Then there was Sauron submitting to Ar-Pharazon--a mere man, who just had a lot of armies. I think that the creatures and things of Middle Earth are NOT like a video game, with clearly defined powers, weaknesses and traits. They change and seem to have different levels of "inner fire" at different times. Also, the Valar or Iluvatar could change something just at a whim, and it wouldn't make sense to little mortals. Anyway, there's my humble observation. Another thing is that Tolkien was always changing his mind too!

What if Tolkien didn't even know? I bet we're reading into things a lot. It may be possible that even he didn't know what Bombadil and Old Man Willow were, and left them as a mystery for folks like us to drive ourselves crazy over

Ok, so I'm hearing about Lauren's great pic, but I can't see it, and when I try to go there it says it's forbidden because of content... hm, what does this tell me? *Elanor looks suspiciously at Lauren*

Elanor you need to disconnect that net nanny....you are missing all of the good stuff

So what is it?

It is an animated gif of star bursts....

DISCLAIMER: The title of my post is a JOKE! As for the topic at hand here... Treebeard rules. Hrm, hrm.

IP, maybe you're on to something! That would clear up the seeming mistake where both Treebeard and Bombadil are, on separate occasions, refered to as "oldest". It would make a good crackpot theory, anyway!

hmm, I think that ents are much less hasty and silly than Bombadil. I think he's just a friendly wood spirit who is outside of worldly cares and just wants to dance around and have fun.

It can't be they're both the same. Treebeard (and the rest of the Ents) was "awoken" and taught to speak by the elves of long ago. Bombadil was around before the elves awoke (If he is a Maiar), so Bombadil must be older.

Like I said, a joke. But it's fun to speculate on it... besides, it'll give you the feeling that Bombadil is still in the upcoming film. :P

LOL, it's funny how we take rediculous things seriously

I'm turning into Star Blazer!

ROTFLMAO!