Deadnight Chanter
Posts: 1047
Re: The oldest people of ME?
There may be two views all the way - elves are "elder of children", Eruhini, and the ents elder people, but not children of Eru. And, going back to Aule-Yavanna converse about dwarvish need of wood, Yavanna says something like (I can't give you a quote, owning no books for a while) - "when they come, they will find the forest guarded", which may imply that ents were before dwarves, but it still leaves the question of elven-entish competition open. Still, as Cirdan's oringins are not certain, and Galadriel was born in Aman, Fangorn may well have been eldest talking creature
personally, and that is the reason Galadriel of addressing him so
*edit* elder at least in ME, if the elves appeared before ents
On the other hand, the appearence of ents before elves breaks no mithological low, for Elves are Eruhini, first of the children, and therefore, for example, the wakening of dwarves is not allowed, though they are accepted by Eru. But, having Ents (vaguely, trees inhabited by the spirits, but spirits different from those of "children"
before any of the children makes no problem.
So, the theory may be formulated like this - ents were in being before elfes, but became ppl only after elves, for Fangorn himself states something like "they woke us up and thought us the language"
Edited by: HerenIstarion at: 4/19/01 1:27:37 pm