| Canon | Gallery |
Fangorn
Fangorn Forest was a deep, dark woodland that grew beneath the southern Misty Mountains, under the eastern flanks of that range. Fangorn (Sindarin for "Treebeard) gained ill repute as the habitat of the Ents in the Third Age. The forest, known as Entwood in Rohan, was named after the oldest Ent, Fangorn (S. "Treebeard"). Fangorn Forest was the oldest part of Treebeard's realm, and it is here the Ents retreated following the widespread deforestation and other events leading up to the War of the Last Alliance. Fangorn was within the borders of Gondor, but centuries passed without any Gondorian visiting to prove or disprove the legends around the Forest.
Description[]
Fangorn Forest is located on the eastern side of the southern end of the Misty Mountains, stretching for several hundred miles on all sides. The river Limlaith flows through the forest to the northwest, while the wider Entwash flows southward through the forest from the Misty Mountains. Birch, rowan, and pinewoods grew on the mountain slopes along the western edge of the forest. Peregrin Took described it as "very dim, and stuffy", comparing it to the Old Took's room in the Great Smials. Meriadoc Brandybuck contrasted the forest with Bilbo's description of the pitch-dark Mirkwood, saying, "This is just dim, and frightfully tree-ish." Gimli said that "the air is stuffy... lighter than Mirkwood, but it is musty and shabby." Legolas described Fangorn as "tense" and "old, very old...and full of memory", Fangorn said the Elves woke up the trees and taught them to speak. Black crows, known as Crebain, dwelt in the forest as native wildlife.
History[]
Among the later inhabitants of middle earth during the Third Age, Fangorn was notorious as a dangerous place, similar to Mirkwood. This idea was likely started by the fact that any person who wandered far into Fangorn or cut down trees would have been killed by Ents. Paired with the old and ominous feel of the forest, this most likely led people to believe that the forest was cursed, giving it its bad name. While still wary of the forest, earlier inhabitants of neighboring Rohan were less apt to label it evil, instead merely referring to the forest as the Entwood.
Wellinghall
Fangorn Forest was the easternmost survivor of the immense forest that spanned much of the Westlands in the Elder Days, but which was destroyed by the Númenóreans and Sauron during the Second Age. Before the deforestation of these regions by Númenórean shipbuilders, Fangorn Forest was much larger, and may have been connected to the Old Forest.
By the end of the Second Age, all of the Entwives had moved away from Fangorn, passing East over the Anduin never to return, although rumours have been told that the Entwives moved to the Old Forest near the Shire. According to Treebeard, there have been no Entings in a long time after they were lost.
Saruman often used to walk in Fangorn and talk with Treebeard, if he met him, and was always eager to listen to anything the old Ent told him about the forest. However, he never repaid Treebeard in the same way. Saruman used this knowledge of the forest's secrets for his own advantage.
War of the Ring[]
Beginning in T.A. 3001 Saruman started fortifying Isengard; eventually his Orcs started abusing and harassing the forest, its trees and Ents, for his fortifications and war machines.
Derndingle
On 28 February of T.A. 3019, Éomer's Éored attacked and slaughtered the band of Uruk-hai of Uglúk under the eaves of Fangorn. This allowed Merry and Pippin to escape the Orcs and pass into the forest. There they met Treebeard and informed him of the danger that Saruman posed to the Ents and their forest. They stayed with Treebeard in his home of Wellinghall, where they drank from the enchanted Entdraught and were briefly menaced by Old Man Willow. Having failed to convince the Entmoot at Derndingle, Pippin tricked Treebeard into view of Isengard, where the destruction drove the Ents to wrath, and they attacked and conquered Isengard, while sending the Hourns to help destroy the Uruk Hai army at Helm's Deep.
