Ents’ Work

Over at Middle-earth Reflections, Olga cheers as the Ents wreck Saruman’s plans for dominating the northwest of Middle-earth. Serves him right. Her previous post talked about the Old English origins of the word “ent” and how Tolkien re-applied the old poets’ feelings of awe for the ancient (Roman) giants who built the ruins around them.  That reminds me of what may be my favorite of all the jokes Tolkien buried in The Lord of the Rings.  When Theoden & Co. are riding from Helm’s Deep to Isengard, their first sign that something has happened comes in this passage:

Dark lay the vale before them, for the moon had passed into the West, and its light was hidden by the hills. but out of the deep shadow of the dale rose a vast spire of smoke and vapour; as it mounted, it caught the rays of the sinking moon and spread in shimmering billows , black and silver over the starry sky.

LotR, III, viii.

The company is miles away from Isengard at that point.  The Old English poem “Maxims II” (as its title indicates, this poem is a long string of maxims saying how the world ought to be) begins,

Cyning sceal rice healdan.  Ceastra beoð feorran gesyne,
Orðanc enta geweorc, þa þe on þysse eorðan syndon,
Wrætlic weallstana geweorc.

I translate these first two Wise Sayings as, “A king should hold his realm. A fortress should be visible from afar to all who are on this earth, the skillful work of giants, wonderful works of stone.” The word “Orthanc” sitting there with the Ents tells me that this is something we shouldn’t overlook, and is why Tom Shippey says it’s a joke, deep-down, where you can’t get at it.

Most places the old poets use the phrase enta geweorc, they’re referring to a ruin. So, which was the Ents’ work? The original construction, or the ruining? Grim-voiced men like the poets who wrote “Beowulf” or “The Wanderer” always meant the former. Tolkien’s sense of humor led him to wonder, what if it were the latter? And so the next chapter came to be.