Desktop Style

The fateful meeting between Merry and Pippin and Treebeard in Fangorn Forest helps push the Ents into action against Saruman, but before they can assail him, they must meet together to discuss their situation in a gathering they call Entmoot. The affair lasts several days, and even then is almost "hasty" for this ancient race dedicated to slow consideration and used to measuring time in the lifetimes of trees, not in years. The shepherds of the trees are the oldest race in Tolkien's world, and their story encompasses that of all the others. But they have long been withdrawn from events in Middle Earth, and it takes the tale told by the two lost hobbits to galvanize them--to, in Gandalf's words, remind them that "They are strong." The Entmoot ends with the decision to march on Isengard, even though Treebeard believes that their actions will likely result in their end. He is wrong, of course; Tolkien, with his strong affection for trees, could not have borne the loss of his Ents. And yet he, and they, knew their time was ending, for even their ancient vigor could not hope to outlast their loss of the Entwives and Entings.

The ancient allegiance of Gondor and Rohan comes to life on the Plains of Rohan as Aragorn and Eomer meet during the long Quest of the Three Hunters. At first the meeting is fraught with danger as the suspicious Rohirrim exchange threats with Gimli and Legolas over the White Lady of Lorien. Aragorn defuses the situation by announcing to Eomer exactly who and what he is--his first formal claiming of his rightful position on Gondor's throne. In one of Tolkien's most descriptive passages, he tells the reader how Aragorn suddenly became as a Numenorean king of old as he spoke to Eomer, even surprising Gimli and Legolas with his power and splendor. The two sides exchange news and horses, and Eomer is introduced to a number of new truths that seem to him to have walked out of legend into reality, particularly concerning the Elves of Lorien and a little people from the North called Halflings. The Hunters in their turn learn of the overthrow of Theoden's mind at the hands of Saruman's minion Wormtongue, and promise to lend their strength to Rohan once the fate of the hobbits has been discovered. By the time the groups go to their separate duties, the foundation for the close future relationship between Aragorn and Eomer has been laid; later Eomer would tell the new-crowed King of Gondor "Since the day when you rose before me out of the green grass of the downs I have loved you, and that love shall not fail."