Entwives in Arnor?

[Curubethion]

I remember reading these lines in FOTR (shadow of the past):
"All right," said Sam, laughing with the rest. "But what about these Tree-men, these giants, as you might call them? They do say that one bigger than a tree was seen up away beyond the North Moors not long back."
(and later on....)
"What he saw was an elm tree, as like as not."
"But this one was walking, I tell you..."
It got me wondering: was this an actual Entwife sighting? After all, Treebeard said that the Shire was a land that the Entwives would have liked. But we never hear anything more of this. What think the Mooters( )?

[BeardofPants]

Nope, they were destroyed in the scorched earth policy by Sauron, IMO.

Tolkien's Letters #144
I think that in fact the Entwives had disappeared for good, being destroyed with their gardens in the War of the Last Alliance (Second Age 3429-3441) when Sauron pursued a scorched earth policy and burned their land against the advance of the Allies down the Anduin. They survived only in the 'agriculture' transmitted to Men (and Hobbits). Some, of course, may have fled east, or even have become enslaved: tyrants even in such tales must have an economic and agricultural background to their soldiers and metal-workers. If any survived so, they would indeed be far estranged from the Ents, and any rapprochement would be difficult -- unless experience of industrialised and militarised agriculture had made them a little more anarchic. I hope so. I don't know.

[Landroval]

Yet eighteen years later, in a letter to Douglas Carter, Tolkien doesn't rule their existence - only their reunion with the ents:

Originally Posted by Letter #338 to Douglas Carter

As for the Entwives: I do not know. I have written nothing beyond the first few years of the Fourth Age. ... But I think in vol. II it is plain that there would be for Ents no re-union in 'history' - but Ents and their wives being rational creatures would find some 'earthly paradise' until the end of this world: beyond which the wisdom neither of Elves nor Ents could see. Though maybe they shared the hope of Aragorn that they were 'not bound for ever to the circles of the world and beyond them is more than memory.'

[Olmer]

No, it does not say that all of them has been destroyed.
By Tolkien's definition the possibility of their survival exist.
Some, of course, may have fled east, or even have become enslaved... If any survived so, they would indeed be far estranged from the Ents, and any rapprochement would be difficult..
Some, of course, may fled west through the gap of Rohan, for example, and made their homei n the woods at the heels of Blue Mountains.

Then, on another hand, it also could be a stray huorn
Unexpected encounter

[Jon S.]

Originally Posted by Olmer

Unexpected encounter

Excellent drawing, thanks for posting the link.

[The Wizard from Milan]

In one of the very first chapters Sam mentiones that one of his cousins (IIRC) saw a walking tree. I always interpreted the scene as meant to convey to us that Sam is gullible. But then TreeBeard seems convinced that the Entwives would have loved the Shire. Do you think it is possible that it was indeed an entwife?
Are ents an almost completely forgotten part of hobbits' lore?

Do we know where the entwives went?

EDIT: I did some looking around and found this interesting link

[Lotesse]

The entwives live! Oh yes, the entwives definitely live; I'm a believer. I, too, think they were the mysterious trees that were seen in the Shire.

That's a fantastic link, BTW, Wizard! I'm loving it.

[BeardofPants]

There was a thread on this recently, and nope, I'm not a believer. From aforementioned thread:

Tolkien's Letters #144
I think that in fact the Entwives had disappeared for good, being destroyed with their gardens in the War of the Last Alliance (Second Age 3429-3441) when Sauron pursued a scorched earth policy and burned their land against the advance of the Allies down the Anduin. They survived only in the 'agriculture' transmitted to Men (and Hobbits). Some, of course, may have fled east, or even have become enslaved: tyrants even in such tales must have an economic and agricultural background to their soldiers and metal-workers. If any survived so, they would indeed be far estranged from the Ents, and any rapprochement would be difficult -- unless experience of industrialised and militarised agriculture had made them a little more anarchic. I hope so. I don't know.

[Valandil]

Merging...

Maybe the Entwives were put to work in the agricultural area of Mordor - the Nurn, and were still at it 3000 years later. They might have been growing the crops to keep Mordor's armies fed.

[Landroval]

You can find the most extensive research on the entwives on this page:
http://www.minastirith.com/ubb/ultim...;t=001541;p=19

[Lotesse]

Originally Posted by Valandil

Merging...

Maybe the Entwives were put to work in the agricultural area of Mordor - the Nurn, and were still at it 3000 years later. They might have been growing the crops to keep Mordor's armies fed.

Now, THAT's an interesting theory, for sure! I will always prefer to think that the entwives did not all get burned up or lost forever; that some continued, maybe in the Shire, maybe under slavery somewhere, but that thye lived on, and that eventually an ent somewhere got to reunite with an entwife. That's what I like to think. I know it sounds very optimistic, but you kever know; even Tolkien was unsure on this! So, we can believe, and it's not THAT farfetched.