As a die-hard fan of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, I can’t help but feel a sense of exhilaration and trepidation as I watch Amazon Studios’ “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” unfold. One particular aspect that has piqued my interest is the introduction of the Entwives in Season 2, a race long gone by the time of “The Lord of the Rings.”
As a dedicated gamer, I’m thrilled about Amazon Studios’ “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series. At San Diego Comic-Con, they gave us a taste of what’s to come in Season 2, which is just around the corner on their streaming platform. During SDCC, they unveiled a riveting four-minute trailer filled with tantalizing hints about the upcoming storylines. One of the most intriguing revelations was the appearance of characters we didn’t anticipate – the Entwives!
The Entwives, counterparts to the Entish race, are an extinct female faction, vanished before the events of “The Lord of the Rings.” Their history is both enigmatic and sorrowful, with their tale left largely unexplored by J.R.R. Tolkien. However, it’s known that their fate reaches its most poignant point during the timeframe when “The Rings of Power” story unfolds.
In the San Diego Comic-Con trailer, Entwives make an appearance in two distinct scenes. The first one appears around 2 minutes and 38 seconds. Despite Rory Kinnear’s Tom Bombadil wearing a hat, it is the narration that catches our attention. An Entwife says, “Forgiveness takes time.” As the line concludes with its characteristic slow, laborious delivery, typical of their race, we get a close-up shot of the Entwife herself. She has bark-like skin, wooden eyes, and flowering buds adorning her branches. Just ten seconds later, you can see a tree-like figure from afar in the dark mist, walking towards someone small and apparently striking them. Keep in mind that Ents are generally wary of those who walk on two legs.
Tolkien’s greatest arboreal traged
Experiencing the Entwives alongside the story brings joy, but their presence foreshadows heartbreak. A sorrowful twist in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” the fate of the Entwives is subtly integrated into the narrative without prior notice. When Merry and Pippin converse with Treebeard in “The Two Towers,” they delve into Entish lineage and reproduction. Upon asking why there are so few Ents, Treebeard responds that there haven’t been any new Ents for a long time, revealing, “You may have noticed, we no longer have the Entwives.”
When Pippin queries about their demise, Treebeard clarifies that they didn’t pass away; instead, the Ents lost them. This tale, he notes, is both peculiar and sorrowful. The Ents and Entwives coexisted in close proximity. The Ents, as recluses, maintained the larger forests and wild woods secretly. On the other hand, the Entwives cultivated affection for smaller field plants and thicket vegetation, being skilled gardeners with renowned dwellings. As the war between Sauron and the Númenóreans escalated (as depicted in “The Rings of Power” tale), the Ents visited the Entwives and discovered they had vanished, and their land lay desolate. Treebeard explains, “Everything was torched and uprooted, for war had swept through it,” but the Entwives were nowhere to be found.
For centuries, the Ents tirelessly sought their long-lost Entwives with no success. In a 1954 letter, Tolkien touched upon this enduring sorrow of the Ents, suggesting that their ultimate fate remains uncertain, but he speculated they might have journeyed even farther east or fallen into captivity. A bitter twist to the tale: should the Ents locate them at last, it seems their bond may be beyond repair.
How could the Entish people factor into the Rings of Power story?
As a devoted fan, I’ve been pondering about the Entwives within the narrative of “The Rings of Power”. While Tolkien didn’t provide much detail, we do know that they coexist with the Ents and are flourishing. Interestingly, it’s mentioned that in ancient Middle-earth, the Entwives taught valuable agricultural knowledge to Men and Hobbits.
Introducing the Entwives into the series could add depth to the storyline and pave the way for upcoming events. This move also provides an opportunity to incorporate the tree-people into the series’ broader, non-traditional narrative arcs. It seems that even the line in the trailer hints at this development. The phrase “forgiveness takes an age” suggests a deep sense of resentment, hurt, and torment. However, during the Second Age, the Entwives have not yet vanished, perished, or been enslaved.
Instead, the statement appears to be hinting at the conflict between the Ents, who prefer solitude in the forest, and the Entwives, who dwell among Middle-earth’s free folk, managing their gardens and leading prosperous lives. Treebeard, an Ent, discusses this discord from his perspective in “The Lord of the Rings,” expressing confusion and betrayal over the Entwives’ preference for their gardens over their male counterparts. This time, we might be introduced to the Entwives’ viewpoint, offering a fresh perspective on the rift within their race.
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2024-08-13 21:00