<P> The Ents appear in The Lord of the Rings as ancient shepherds of the forest and allies of the free peoples of Middle - earth during the War of the Ring . The Ent who figures most prominently in the book is Treebeard, who (credibly) claims to be the oldest creature in Middle - earth . At the time The Lord of the Rings takes place, there are no young Ents (Entings) because the Entwives (female Ents) were lost . The Ents are akin to Huorns, whom Treebeard describes as a transitional form of trees which become animated or, conversely, as Ents who grow more "treelike" over time . </P> <P> Inspired by Tolkien and similar traditions, animated or anthropomorphic tree creatures appear in a variety of media and works of fantasy . </P> <P> The word "Ent" was taken from the Anglo - Saxon (Old English) word ent, meaning "giant". Tolkien borrowed the word from the Anglo - Saxon phrases orþanc enta geweorc ("work of cunning giants") and eald enta geweorc ("old work of giants", which describes Roman ruins). In its Anglo - Saxon sense, the word "Ent" probably denotes the most ubiquitous of all creatures in fantasy and folklore (behind perhaps only dragons), for the word can refer to a variety of large, roughly humanoid creatures, such as giants, trolls, or even the monster Grendel from the poem Beowulf . </P> <P> Along with Old Norse jǫtunn (Jötunn), "ent" came from Common Germanic * etunaz . </P>

Names of ents in lord of the rings