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- The Ents Have Become Out Of Touch With The World
- Hobbits Have Stayed Secluded Up Until The Third Age
- Treebeard And The Ents Never Learned What They Were Called
Throughout Middle Earth, there are dozens of different races and creatures, few of which are as ancient as the Ents. Also called the Onodrim (tree-host) by the Elves, Ents are tree-like creatures in The Lord of the Rings, who have been around since the First Age of Middle Earth.
For being as ancient as they are, it’s no surprise that Ents are also extremely wise and knowledgeable. They know a lot about Middle Earth, including the different races and species. However, in The Two Towers, it’s learned from Treebeard that they don’t know what hobbits are.
Hobbits? Never heard of a hobbit before. Sounds like orc mischief to me.
This is a surprise given their age and wisdom, especially when several other races in The Lord of the Rings who haven’t been around nearly as long as the Ents are aware of hobbits and what they are. So why haven’t Treebeard and the rest of the Ents ever heard of hobbits?
The Ents Have Become Out Of Touch With The World
The simplest reason as to why Treebeard and the Ents have not heard of hobbits is that they are becoming out of touch with Middle Earth.
For beings as old as they are, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. By the time the Third Age of Middle Earth came around, Ents were a dwindling species. The Entwives had been completely wiped out long ago, and what was left of the Ents was slowly decreasing.
The Ents were tree herders, so they rarely, if ever, left their forests. They spent most of their time herding and caring for their trees. As time went on, they didn’t do much else besides their responsibilities, which prevented them from interacting with other species and learning more about Middle Earth, such as the existence of the hobbits.
Between being a declining species and never leaving their forests, Ents were becoming out of touch with the world. So much so that some Ents were becoming more and more like the trees that they herded.
We are tree-herds, we old Ents. Few enough of us are left now. Sheep get like shepherd, and shepherds like sheep, it is said; but slowly, and neither have long in the world. It is quicker and closer with trees and Ents, and they walk down the ages together.
Hobbits Have Stayed Secluded Up Until The Third Age
Another reason Ents have never heard of hobbits in The Lord of the Rings is that the hobbits have been a fairly secluded race for most of Middle Earth’s history.
Although hobbits have been a main focus in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, they are actually a very secluded race that rarely leaves the Shire. Several other races and creatures throughout Middle Earth are aware hobbits exist, such as the dwarves, elves, some men, and, of course, Gandalf and other wizards, but outside of the Shire and Bree (where both men and hobbits lived), most have never even come in contact with halflings.
It was through Gandalf, who has loved and cared for halflings for a very long time, that hobbits, such as Bilbo and Frodo, started to venture further out from the Shire. But none of this happened until the Third Age of Middle Earth. Up until this age, most of Middle Earth had never heard of hobbits.
If hobbits never left the Shire, there would be no reason that Ents, who similarly don’t leave their forests, would have ever come in contact with halflings or even heard of them.
Treebeard And The Ents Never Learned What They Were Called
Although Treebeard says he has never heard of hobbits before, that doesn’t necessarily mean he has never come across them at some point in his life.
As seen in The Rings of Power, halflings weren’t always known as “hobbits.” During the Second Age of Middle Earth, they were actually divided into three groups of hobbits called the Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. Eventually, the division among the three types of halflings seemed to disappear, especially by the Third Age.
But since Treebeard and the Ents have been around since long before the Second Age, it’s possible that they might know the hobbits by one of those three names instead, especially since Treebeard has done some traveling in his past.
When the Entwives first disappeared after migrating North, Treebeard and some other Ents actually left their forests to look for them. Although Treebeard never found the Entwives, it’s entirely possible that during his journey he did come in contact with hobbits. Since Entwives particularly liked lush, green areas, like the Shire, it makes sense that Treebeard and the other Ents would have searched similar areas for the Entwives, areas where hobbits might have lived in the past.
If they had come in contact with hobbits during their search, they might have been introduced as Harfoots, Stoors, or Fallohides. Or, perhaps, Treebeard and the Ents mistook hobbits for a different race, such as dwarves or even human children, making it so that they never even learned what the halflings were called if they did meet them.
Although it’s impossible to say whether Treebeard or other Ents have met hobbits in the past, the entire area of the Shire and Misty Mountains used to be one large forest. Ents have always been the protectors of trees throughout Middle Earth. This makes it very likely that in the past the Ents used to inhabit the same areas as hobbits in The Lord of the Rings, increasing the chances that at one point Ents and halflings met, if even in just passing by.
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