Are You an Ent or an Entwife? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

doug*platypus · 02-02-2003, 04:53 AM

JRR Tolkien never expected to find Ents, or Fangorn Forest, when he first set out to write the Lord of the Rings. They were one of those things that just popped up along the way, as he plodded along linearly with his characters. But once they had turned up, as explained in Letters of JRR Tolkien, he used the Ents and the Entwives to portray the different attitudes of men and women towards nature.

Men, he contended, were like the Ents content to let nature take its own course. For them the virtue was in appreciating what grew in the wild, as being something of value in itself. Women, however, he saw as great gardeners, who desired to control all things green, and so did the Entwives become.

For a long time, I refused to believe there were such differences of temperament between men and women, considering such thinking sexist and possibly demeaning for one side or the other. Now that I am older, and yes even a little wiser, I realise that there are astonishing differences between the genders, not just physically (which I have known for quite a while!). While I am still a believer in universal sufferage, and am proud to come from the first country to give women the vote, I admit that there are certain differences which stem from either physiology or environment.

I am a male (as I hope my moniker suggests), and I am most definitely an Ent. Not long after I took up tramping (most of you would call it hiking) I came to realise that the order that gardens try to impose on plants is a shallow mockery of the real order of natural ecosystems, something so complex that it is still not fully understood by humans, let alone replicated. To me, nature is more beautiful, more orderly and more full of life than any garden could ever hope to be. But many women I know (my mother, my grandmother, my girlfriend and her mother as examples) are avid gardeners, who would rather go to a flower show than set foot in a national park.

Are you an Ent or an Entwife?

02-02-2003, 04:53 AM	#1
doug*platypus Delver in the Deep Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Aotearoa Posts: 960	Are You an Ent or an Entwife? JRR Tolkien never expected to find Ents, or Fangorn Forest, when he first set out to write the Lord of the Rings. They were one of those things that just popped up along the way, as he plodded along linearly with his characters. But once they had turned up, as explained in Letters of JRR Tolkien, he used the Ents and the Entwives to portray the different attitudes of men and women towards nature. Men, he contended, were like the Ents content to let nature take its own course. For them the virtue was in appreciating what grew in the wild, as being something of value in itself. Women, however, he saw as great gardeners, who desired to control all things green, and so did the Entwives become. For a long time, I refused to believe there were such differences of temperament between men and women, considering such thinking sexist and possibly demeaning for one side or the other. Now that I am older, and yes even a little wiser, I realise that there are astonishing differences between the genders, not just physically (which I have known for quite a while!). While I am still a believer in universal sufferage, and am proud to come from the first country to give women the vote, I admit that there are certain differences which stem from either physiology or environment. I am a male (as I hope my moniker suggests), and I am most definitely an Ent. Not long after I took up tramping (most of you would call it hiking) I came to realise that the order that gardens try to impose on plants is a shallow mockery of the real order of natural ecosystems, something so complex that it is still not fully understood by humans, let alone replicated. To me, nature is more beautiful, more orderly and more full of life than any garden could ever hope to be. But many women I know (my mother, my grandmother, my girlfriend and her mother as examples) are avid gardeners, who would rather go to a flower show than set foot in a national park. Are you an Ent or an Entwife? __________________ But Gwindor answered: 'The doom lies in yourself, not in your name'.