<P> The future of the Ents and Huorns is unclear . Aragorn granted them Fangorn Forest as an enclave and gave them permission to expand the forest again west into the vast wastes of Eriador where once a vast primeval forest had spread, but Treebeard lamented that while the forests may spread again the Ents would not, as the entwives had not been found up to date (nor would likely ever be found). Over time they dwindled off and more of them became increasingly "tree - ish" and it does not appear that they ever enter into the affairs of other races again (it is unclear if a non-communicative tree - ish Ent can be considered "dead" or if in a sense they persist to the present day). </P> <P> Dragons will be still present but they will not interfere until later ages according to letter 144 of Tolkien . Some stray answers . Dragons . They had not stopped; since they were active in far later times, close to our own . Have I said anything to suggest the final ending of dragons? If so it should be altered . The only passage I can think of is Vol. I p. 70:' there is not now any dragon left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough' . But that implies, I think, that there are still dragons, if not of full primeval stature .... - </P> <P> Tolkien's writing does not provide information on more than the first few centuries of this age, so it is not known when it ended . It is stated that the Fourth Age was when Men became dominant and powerful in Middle - earth, and the Fading of the Elves began . As such, the Fourth Age marks the bridge from the fantastic fictional prehistory of earth to the real history . He notes elsewhere in The Silmarillion, however, that the Elves count their own dwindling from the time of the first rise of the Sun, and some epithets for the Sun by the Elves refer to it in that context . </P> <P> Tolkien said that he thought the time between the end of the Third Age and the 20th century AD was about 6,000 years, and that in 1958 it should have been around the end of the Fifth Age if the Fourth and Fifth Ages were about the same length as the Second and Third Ages . He said, however, in a letter written in 1958 that he believed the Ages had quickened and that it was about the end of the Sixth Age / beginning of the Seventh . </P>

What happened to legolas and gimli after the return of the king