The Entmoot

The Entmoot is the great council of the Ents, the ancient shepherds of the trees in Fangorn Forest, convened by Treebeard to decide how to respond to the depredations of Saruman. It is the pivotal moment when a people defined by their unhurried, deliberate nature transform from passive observers into an active war-host, a change so sudden and complete that it seems like the bursting of a flood long held back by a dike. This assembly, more than any single battle, marks the awakening of the Ents and sets in motion the destruction of Isengard, a blow that fundamentally alters the course of the War of the Ring.

The Assembly and Its Unhurried Nature

When Merry and Pippin first arrived, they were struck by the sheer variety of the Ents gathered together. They saw many shapes and colours, differences in girth, height, and the length of leg and arm, and even in the number of toes and fingers, which ranged from three to nine. Some seemed more or less related to Treebeard, reminding the hobbits of beech-trees or oaks. Others recalled the chestnut, with brown-skinned Ents and large splay-fingered hands; some the ash, tall and straight with grey skin and many-fingered hands; some the fir, the tallest of all; and still others the birch, the rowan, and the linden. Yet when the Ents all gathered round Treebeard, bowing their heads slightly and murmuring in their slow, musical voices, the hobbits saw that they were all of the same kindred, for they all had the same eyes: not all so old or so deep as Treebeard's, but all with the same slow, steady, thoughtful expression and the same green flicker.

The Chant and the Hobbits' Impatience

As soon as the whole company was assembled, standing in a wide circle round Treebeard, a curious and unintelligible conversation began. The Ents started to murmur slowly, first one joining and then another, until they were all chanting together in a long rising and falling rhythm, now louder on one side of the ring, now dying away there and rising to a great boom on the other side. Though he could not catch or understand any of the words, supposing the language to be Entish, Pippin found the sound very pleasant to listen to at first; but gradually his attention wavered. After a long time, with the chant showing no signs of slackening, he found himself wondering, since Entish was such an 'unhasty' language, whether they had yet got further than Good Morning; and if Treebeard was to call the roll, how many days it would take to sing all their names. He wondered what the Entish was for yes or no, and he yawned.

Treebeard's Address and the Decision to March

Treebeard was immediately aware of Pippin's restlessness. 'Hm, ha, hey, my Pippin!' he said, and the other Ents all stopped their chant. He acknowledged that the hobbits were a hasty folk, and that it was wearisome listening to a speech one did not understand. He told them they could get down now, for he had told their names to the Entmoot, and they had seen them, and they had agreed that they were not Orcs, and that a new line should be put in the old lists. He noted that they had got no further yet, but that was quick work for an Entmoot. He allowed Merry and Pippin to stroll about in the dingle, pointing out a well of good water on the north bank, and promised to come and see them again to tell them how things were going. He put the hobbits down, and before they walked away, they bowed low, a feat that seemed to amuse the Ents very much, to judge by the tone of their murmurs and the flicker of their eyes. Merry and Pippin climbed up the path that came in from the west and looked through the opening in the great hedge. Long tree-clad slopes rose from the lip of the dingle, and away beyond them, above the fir-trees of the furthest ridge, there rose, sharp and white, the peak of a high mountain. Southwards to their left they could see the forest falling away down into the grey distance, where there was a pale green glimmer that Merry guessed to be a glimpse of the plains of Rohan. Pippin wondered where Isengard was.

The March to War

The decision, when it came, was swift and overwhelming. Bregalad picked up the hobbits and strode from his house, and before long they saw the marching line approaching: the Ents were swinging along with great strides down the slope towards them. Treebeard was at their head, and some fifty followers were behind him, two abreast, keeping step with their feet and beating time with their hands upon their flanks. As they drew near, the flash and flicker of their eyes could be seen. 'Hoom, hom! Here we come with a boom, here we come at last!' called Treebeard when he caught sight of Bregalad and the hobbits. 'Come, join the Moot! We are off. We are off to Isengard!' 'To Isengard!' the Ents cried in many voices. They sang as they marched southwards: 'To Isengard! Though Isengard be ringed and barred with doors of stone; Though Isengard be strong and hard, as cold as stone and bare as bone, We go, we go, we go to war, to hew the stone and break the door; For bole and bough are burning now, the furnace roars – we go to war! To land of gloom with tramp of doom, with roll of drum, we come, we come; To Isengard with doom we come! With doom we come, with doom we come!' Bregalad, his eyes shining, swung into the line beside Treebeard. The old Ent now took the hobbits back and set them on his shoulders again, and so they rode proudly at the head of the singing company with beating hearts and heads held high. Though they had expected something to happen eventually, they were amazed at the change that had come over the Ents. It seemed now as sudden as the bursting of a flood that had long been held back by a dike.