I Found the Entwives!

[Alcuin]

Sardy, there are certainly instances of “inside humor” in Tolkien’s work. The character Tom Bombadil, whose creation predates Lord of the Rings by several years, having first appeared in poetry by Tolkien published in Oxford Magazine in 1934 (Tolkien recalled the year as 1933 in Letter 144, perhaps because he had submitted the poems then or they had been accepted for publication then), and his appearance “was based on a Dutch doll that belonged to [Tolkien’s son] Michael.” (Tolkien: A biography, Humphrey Carter, p 162) Tolkien said in Letter 25 that the name Smaug “is the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze through a hole: a low philological jest.” And Humphrey Carter says that the speaking pattern of Treebeard is based upon that of C.S. Lewis (Carter, p 194). My point is that there seem to be no such “inside jokes” or references surrounding the Entwives; and even if there were, they might not be found in Tolkien’s notes, but in those of Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis’s, or even Lewis’s brother Warnie, if Warnie left any papers and they still exist. I can’t find “clusters of words” or “inside jokes” about the Entwives, and I’ve never seen evidence for any, either: so far, just unsubstantiated and empty claims of “clusters of words” and “inside jokes.”

As far as an “incompetently tied … knot,” I am unaware of any such incident, but perhaps someone else is. Mr. Bliss, a kind of Tolkien comic-book he drew and wrote for his children published posthumously, is based upon Tolkien’s misadventures with an automobile he purchased in 1932: Mr. Bliss wrecked his car and sold it, never to purchase another, and I believe something similar happened to Tolkien, although I cannot find anything about that in Carter’s biography.

Tolkien visited Switzerland in 1911. There are parallels between some of the sights he saw and experiences he had then to later places and events in Lord of the Rings, particularly the appearance of the Mountains of Moria and the name of Celebdil, the Silvertine, with the Swiss mountain, the Silberhorn; the mountains over the Passes of the Dead; and the Valley of Rivendell and the appearance of the Last Homely House. In addition, I believe I recall that he and his party were nearly struck by a small avalanche or stone-fall.

Originally Posted by Sardy

what of the "walking trees" spotted in the Shire, as mentioned ealy on in Fellowship?

That isn’t a “derailment” but a legitimate criticism. You are correct that the “tree-man” in the Shire presages the Ents. Ardamir in his essay, “The Great Search,” argues that it is an Ent out of Lindon, and that seems to me as good an explanation as any. Christopher Tolkien in Return of the Shadow, “Ancient History”, asks if this might be “the first premonition of the Ents?” and then references his father’s referrals of “Tree-men” among the monsters and magical creatures encountered by Eärendil in early versions of The Voyage of Eärendil published in Lost Tales II. However, this discussion also concerns the “Entish lands” or “Ettenmoors” north of Rivendell, which had no direction connection to Treebeard at the time: the word ent is, I believe, an Anglo-Saxon word for our modern giant. Treebeard in his earliest drafts was a giant (Anglo-Saxon ent) that captured and detained Gandalf, a role later relegated to Saruman.

As for my overlooking the reference to Sam’s “tree-man” in his debate with Ted Sandyman, it was oversight on my part, and you caught me on it. Others must choose for themselves whether it is a “first premonition of the Ents,” an Entwife, an Ent continuing his “Great Search” far north of even the Old Forest, or as Ardamir capably suggests, an Ent who still resided in Lindon that had wandered into northern Eriador for some reason. (Ted Sandyman, you will remember, suggested that Hal had seen an elm or nothing; but Sandyman seems a scurrilous source of information, even as a character within the Tale.)

Originally Posted by Sardy

At the risk of sounding overly picky, there's a semantic consideration to consider here. Tolkien's stated belief is that the Ent-wives will never be found by the Ents.

I respectfully disagree. When confronted with Naomi Mitchison’s query on the Entwives (Letter 144; see post #57 in this thread), he first says he believes that “the Entwives had disappeared for good, ... destroyed with their gardens in the War of the Last Alliance ... when Sauron pursued a scorched earth policy and burned their land against the advance of the Allies down the Anduin,” but then backs away, saying that, “Some ... may have fled east, or ... become enslaved... I hope so. I don't know.” I think his instinct was that they were all killed in Sauron’s campaign, but would like to consider that some survived; then he says, “I don't know.” In the last 16 months of his life (Letter 338; again, see post #57 in this thread), he repeats that he doesn’t know what became of the Entwives, but that “being rational creatures,” the Ents and Entwives looked forward like Men (and Dwarves, of whom they were the counterpart) to an afterlife beyond the “circles of the world.” You are certainly correct, as far as Tolkien takes us, that “the Ent-wives will never be found by the Ents ,” but I think they will never be found by the Readers, either: otherwise, as he did in his Letters with Tom Bombadil and a great many questions surrounding the characters and their actions in Silmarillion, Tolkien should at least have left the matter open: he seems to have closed the door on the Entwives, however reluctantly.

Even in the case of Queen Berúthiel, Tolkien filled out the story later on in an interview with one of his former students. He seems never to have returned to the forlorn Ents and the lost Entwives, except in regret. Again, there are – as far as I am aware – no notes on an Entwife in the Emyn Muil; and in the drafts of the rope that somehow came undone (published in War of the Ring), Tolkien’s focus seems to be on the dilemma Frodo and Sam would face in having to leave the rope behind for Gollum: because of the rope, Gollum could both find them and follow them more easily, as could any other enemy hunting them to that point.

That’s not to say that there aren’t or can’t be notes and musings and further essays on the subject as yet unpublished in the archives at Marquette and Oxford; but I have read nothing of them, nor seen any hint of them in any postings on the web by any knowledgeable researcher. (For instance, David Salo reports having read a note Tolkien’s hand indicating that the remaining Northern Dúnedain in Aragorn’s time were concentrated in The Angle of old Rhudaur, near Rivendell. See this post here at Barrow-downs for one citation of Salo.)

You should also be aware that I originally embarked on the little essay now in Post #57 in hopes that I would find some reference to an Entwife at the edge of the cliff in the Emyn Muil. To my disappointment, I found nothing referenced in the notes, letters, or drafts; I assume that Christopher Tolkien, Wayne Hammond, Christina Scull, David Salo, Carl Hostetter, and any number of other scholars who have looked at the material in the archives have made at least cursory glances for such references as well, but so far, either to no avail or without publishing any positive findings.

But there’s always hope, right?