The Rings Of Power Hints Hobbits & Ents Have A History LOTR Never Told

Warning: spoilers ahead for The Rings of Power episode 7Ent history is an entire mystery in Southlands' recent eruption. Fortunately, they have a magic man from the sky on hand, and he coaxes the Grove back into bloom by whispering a spell to a tree. Watching him work, Sadoc Burrows suggests the Stranger is using words the tree can understand. His Harfoot advisor, Malva, argues back by proclaiming trees cannot talk, but the clan leader enigmatically responds with, "Some do..."

This line clearly nods toward Middle-earth's Ents - the talking tree-folk seen in The Two Towers. The bigger question is how Sadoc Burrows knows about Ents, but the super-knowledgeable Malva does not. The Rings of Power previously revealed how Sadoc owns a huge tome ed down by Harfoots through the ages. This book contains star charts and ancestral lore dating back at least 1000 years, and Sir Lenny Henry's character even references his ancient forefathers when speaking to the Stranger in episode 7. No one knows clan history better than Sadoc, so his knowledge of Ents would imply that First Age/early Second Age Harfoots were friendly with, or at the very least aware of, Middle-earth's elusive tree-people.

The Harfoots' Ent History Foreshadows Lord Of The Rings

The Ents are a famously anti-social species - hard to find and even harder to befriend. And yet The Lord of the Rings sees Merry and Pippin manage exactly that, even convincing the Ents to (eventually) invade Saruman's Isengard. The Fellowship hobbits' fast-formed bond with Treebeard makes more sense if the two races had history during Middle-earth's earlier ages, meaning Sadoc Burrows' hint in The Rings of Power works as foreshadowing for The Two Towers.

Ents and Hobbits being old allies would represent a logical expansion of Tolkien mythology. The wooden wonders had a mixed opinion of Men due to their habit of cutting down forests (although Ents are known to have associated with certain Middle Men), and battled against Dwarves during the First Age (an extension of Yavanna the Vala's misgivings about Aulë's industrial Dwarves). Treebeard acknowledged the Ents and Elves had been friendly in past centuries, and since Hobbits/Harfoots are equally respectful of nature, it makes sense that they too would've shared common ground with Middle-earth's sentient trees.

The Rings Of Power Already Teased A Big LOTR Ent Mystery

Ents actually made an appearance in The Rings of Power already. When the Stranger is falling from the sky in episode 1, a family of Ents briefly appears on the edge of a forest. These Ents' proximity to the Harfoots' nomadic trail makes the two races crossing paths once upon a time even more likely. More intriguing, however, is the young Ent (an Enting) in this scene. In The Lord of the Rings, Treebeard explains how there are no Entings because the Entwives all disappeared mysteriously. J.R.R. Tolkien never actually explained what became of Middle-earth's Entwives, and their absence remains an unanswered question from the author's extensive mythology.

The presence of an Enting in The Rings of Power must mean Entwives haven't completely disappeared from Middle-earth just yet. That gives Amazon's TV series a golden opportunity to reveal why the forest's females aren't around during The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps something to do with the shifting landscape of Middle-earth - with the Southlands turning into Mordor and magicians falling from the skies - or maybe a major war in The Rings of Power's future causes a divide between the Ents and the Entwives.

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