Huorns in the Old Forest?

[Gwaihir the Windlord]

Well, what I actually suggested was that the Hurons were Entwives, you know.

Nice point about the fruit-tree thing, Halbarad -- however, you are incorrect in saying that the 'idea' for Ents was taken from the Old Forest. There is reference to the Ents in a big way in the Sil; although they are normally referred to as the 'Shephards of the Trees'. Have a look at the chapter 'Of Aule and Yavanna' -- the one that talks about Dwarves -- and the origins of the Ents are described there. (Like he did with the model Dwarves of Aule, Illuvatar gives sentience to certain of the trees of Yavanna in the forests.)

Osse, I don't think the thing about trees 'morphing' into Ents is true. Obviously, as you say, this would make maleness and femaleness in Ents irrelevant. Clearly, as Frodo remarks upon, there were no young Ents ('Entings' as they are referred to) in Fangorn; the Ents were not able to reproduce themselves without their females.

Your quote, which I will give again:

"Some of us are still true ents, and lively enough in our own fashion, but many are growing sleepy, going tree-ish, as you might say. Most of the trees are just trees of course; but many are half-awake. Some are quite wide awake, and are few are, well, ah, well getting Entish . That is going on all the time."

could, however, mean one of two things (perhaps both). Firstly that Huorn-trees, once Ents that had now fallen asleep, were beginning to almost wake up again from their hibernation, as it were.

The other possibility is that these trees were becoming Huorns, but never actually awoke into full Ents. This is an interesting thought, but I don't think it could be true. If it was the case, then trees everywhere would be doing this -- something that it is of course wholly unnatural for a tree to do. The Ents were a singular race sparked by Illuvatar; he did not give all trees the power to animate themselves, if only to a Huorn-like form.

Next suggestion. If there were Huorns (once Ents) left over in the Old Forest, independantly from Fangorn, would there not have been Entwives in this population? Perhaps there were, but then as they were all asleep anyway no-one knew anything about them. Again, it is possible that they all suddenly awoke again and took off, at the same time as the Fangorn Entwives, in a double migration (to destination unknown).
The point is that there is not really a reason (unless they too migrated) why the Old Forest, if its Ent/Huorn population was indeed seperate from that of Fangorn, should not contain female Huorns.

Just a final thought. Halbarad raises the point of the fruit-trees: there were evidently plenty such trees growing cultivated in the Shire. I admit it is extremely unlikely, but could these have been the Entwives? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Actually, the point here is that the Entwives could really have gone anywhere, reverted to Huorns, and entered total anonyminity. The only thing that speaks against this is the continued wakefulness of at least some of the Fangorn Ent inhabitance -- one might think that the Entwife settlement would be the same.