Elves

Thanks Mrs Figg, but it's not one of those; although I could have sworn Nasmith was the artist, it doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.

I'm sure I'll find it when I'm not looking for it

And did you?

Actually - weren't Trolls Morgoth's mocking imitation of Trolls?

Im fond of the smell of mouldy books to, I like the smell of Castles & dank churches. And that Earthy whiff round moats. I think, its the closest to being back in time for me ?  And Ive noticed the more acid the soil the more I like the smell ? Especially pine forests or dimly lit secret woods  

And the inside of buckie barrels?

How acid is that ?
No, dont answer, so full of CO2 Id probably get dizzy & pass out  

Orwell wrote:And did you?

Not yet... but I'm not being hasty   

Found it.




Now, I'm not saying that's exactly how I picture Ents; I'm just saying they seem 'more human' here, as in, not so tree-ish as others depict them...

... although as I say, I think there should be more differences in them than shown here in any case, in order to evoke different kinds of trees.

I kinda like that it makes them seem more as "shepherds" ? Tree herders, shepherds of the forest. I do think they should be of different species of tree maybe ? Nice picture Elthir  

reminds me a bit of Blake

Elthir wrote:Found it.




Now, I'm not saying that's exactly how I picture Ents; I'm just saying they seem 'more human' here, as in, not so tree-ish as others depict them...

... although as I say, I think there should be more differences in them than shown here in any case, in order to evoke different kinds of trees.

Well Tolkien did describe the ents as being entirely different one from another...

Im curious as to your thoughts about how PJ portrayed them in LOTRs Elthir.

They look far too human for my tastes. Remember that Pippin and Merry didn't even recognize Treebeard as anything except a tree until he spoke.

I had forgotten that Halfwise. Are you sure that's how it plays out in the book?

Edit:
" 'Almost felt you liked the Forest! That's good! That's uncommonly kind of you,' said a strange voice. 'Turn round and let me have a look at your faces. I almost feel that I dislike you both, but do not let us be hasty. Turn around!' A large knob-knuckled hand was laid on each of their shoulders, and they were twisted round, gently but irresistibly; then two great arms lifted them up.
They found that they were looking at a most extraordinary face. It belonged to a large Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Whether it was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether that was its hide, was difficult to say. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends. But at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating. They were brown, shot with a green light."
-The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Book Three), Ch. IV

So yeah, I checked. Definitely the eyes were noteworthy, but that is nowhere near a tree.

You didn't go back far enough:

"In the face of the stony wall there was something like a stair: natural perhaps, and made by the weathering and splintering of the rock, for it was rough and uneven.  High up, almost level with the tops of the forest trees, there was a shelf under a cliff. Nothing grew there but a few grasses and weeds at its edge, and one old stump of a tree with only two bent branches left: it looked almost like the figure of an old gnarled man, standing there, blinking in the morning sunlight."

"...They came at last to the edge of the shelf almost at the feet of the old stump..."

So though they noted that Treebeard looked fairly man-like, he still looked so much like a tree they never really questioned it, and they had walked up right beside him.  The illustration above looks so human you'd never mistake them for trees when standing right beside them. Can't be done.

I agree Halfy they are too human looking, I prefer the film version myself.

I think it can be done, well if slightly differently done that is    [not sure why this emoticon works here, but]

Again that exact illustration isn't exactly how I exactly imagine Ents, but in a forest full of trees, where one doesn't expect/is not looking for anything but trees, and you see [but not study] the kind of being Tolkien descibes, standing still, you could easily enough be fooled in my opinion.

Although stand with Ent-legs together probably... despite that I just noticed only yesterday that the smallish 'new' pine in my yard is really two together.

Treebeard first thought the Hobbits might have been orcs for instance, not expecting Halflings.

Again maybe not exactly these Ents as painted, but something more Mannish than I've often enough seen.

I still like Rodney Matthews version ?

I think we have to go with Tolkien's description: sort of a gnarled (but tall!) stump that looks like a man.  None of these leaves and twigs except in the beard.  And definitely not so expressive man-like faces, or hands and feet that look too much like skin.  The expression is all in the eyes.

I think this face by Alan Lee captures it, but he puts too many twigs and leaves in the bodies he draws. I would prefer more oval eyes, though, like wells.

almost, but still no body I'm happy with.

For a TV special (the one with Dame Judi Dench) the Tolkien family lawyer Dick Williamson read aloud JRRT's response to a letter from 7 year old Leslie Underwood, who had asked if he could draw an ent and the flag of Numenor. There's a bit more to the letter and the response, but here's the part I've now got written down (guessing at the punctuation).
 

'I'm afraid I'm not very good at drawing and I do not feel able to produce an ent, or the flag or Numenor. An ent, in any case, when moving is very difficult to catch, and when not moving looks just like a tree.' JRRT

Nice addition Elthir.   

I was playing a board game today (Small World), and one of the random races was "Seafaring Elves". How whimsical I thought: a glimmer of unexpected Tolkien.

No modern fantasy can be quite unaffected by Tolkien.

I found an Alan Lee picture of Ents that nails it for me.

http://alan-and-john.tumblr.com/post/67141591525/bizarrobrain-ents-by-alan-lee

{{Like that one, though the arms should be smooth according to Tolkiens description, with the bark like skin only appearing on the main 'trunk' of the body, their arms are described as smooth. }}}

No artist has yet nailed Ents or Treebeard for me... if I knew how to use an artlike-computer-thingamawhatever I could try to wrangle out something using film-Groot as a base.

But I don't.