Who's the oldest?

[bombur]

First of all, to me it is pretty obvious that Tom is Maia, propably one of Yawannas who became a sort of natural spirit. (Maybe forgetting ones purpose in the same fashion, but moreso then Radagast.) What comes to being fatherless... I'm sorry to say this and must ask all the christians around here to be tolerant on us non-monotheists, but I believe Tolkien does not claim Eru to have created the Valar or Maiar. In the begining there was Eru the one and the Ainur were with him.

I think you might be overlooking the exact origins of Ents. If my memory serves me right, it said in Silmarillion something like this, when Yawanna went to Eru with her grief for trees: "... and spirits will go amongst the kelvar and olvar and take residence (form?) there... and as do the children awake, so does the thought of Yawanna." This hints that Ents (and the great eagles) are fundamentally different from the eleves, men and dwarwes.

I mean, maybe they are bit more related to maiar the the children of Iluvatar. In the begining, smaller, minor spirits then those of maiar took forms as shepards of Kelvar and Olvar. So when the song was sung, Tom was there singing, and maybe, somewhere in the dark edges there was the spirit to become treebeard, listening. He took the mortal form and has been Fangorn for so long time that he may have forgotten what he once was.


Janne Harju