[Child of the 7th Age]

I think Davem is on to something:

There has been a battle of men against monsters, against the 'darkness' personified, but there has been another battle, a mythical battle of the trees & the forces which seek to wipe them from the earth. Its as if these two battles eched each other, or perhaps its the same battle taking place on two planes - the mundane & the supernatural - simultaneously.

Perhaps the battle of the trees is one instance of the general progression from the mundane to the mythic and supernatural that dominates the early pages of the story? I would definitely agree that the Ents and Huorn are mythic but they are not the only glimpses we get of this other plane.

We begin in the Shire, a thoroughly mundane world. Throughout the early chapters of the book, but especially in Lorien, we gain small glimpses of the Elvish connection with the mythic, as reflected in Galadriel or her Phial and its tiny sliver of a Silmaril. Yet we are still in the world of manlike beings and recorded history.

Sauron’s forces actually benefitted from the power of the “mythic” or “supernatural” long before Frodo and company did. The Barrow-wight and the Nazgul, and even more the Watcher in the Water and the Balrog, push the story back to the edge of legend. To me, creatures like the Watcher or the Balrog are more than mere "monstors". The two are as much part of myth, and are just as alien to Man, as would later be true of the Huorn. Whether these various creatures were intentional or accidental allies of Sauron is not always clear, but they all had personal reasons for supporting the cause of the dark shadow. The same (in reverse) will also hold true for the Ents and the Huorn.

By the time the group reaches Moria, all traces of the mundane world have been stripped away but the members of the fellowship have yet to tap into anything remotely as powerful or as mythic as the Balrog. Frodo carries the Phial, for example, but does not see a use for it yet. The climax of all this is the seeming end of hope with the death of Gandalf by a 'supernatural' creature.

I don’t think it’s coincidental that the return of Gandalf coincides with the emergence of the Huorn and the Ents, in effect the release of the mythic for the benefit of the ‘good guys’. What happened to Gandalf can only be described as “mythic” –certainly far beyond anything we understand of the mundane world. The transformed Gandalf is, I think, the catalyst for drawing the mythic plane into closer alignment with the natural one. This chapter, ‘The Road to Isengard’ chronicles that shift, showing how mythic creatures like the Huorn and Ents bring their strength to bear against Saruman. How ironic that Saruman should be destroyed by the very “mythic” forces that he gave such little credence to, preferring to manufacture his own modern versions of 'old' things.

Gandalf’s words to Theoden suggest that, even at this point in the story, Men have serious difficulties recognizing supernatural aid. The istar points out that young children in Rohan would probably have done a better job than the King in recognizing the Ents for what they really are :

‘You should be glad, Théoden King,’ said Gandalf. ‘For not only the little life of Men is now endangered, but the life also of those things which you have deemed the matter of legend. You are not without allies, even if you know them not.”

There is another irony here. Just at the point when Tolkien gives us our first clear glimpse of the mythic rising up against the “modern” villain Saruman, we are reminded that the realm of the supernatural is being shut off from Man, and will no longer be accessible to us. Theoden’s reply to Gandalf concerning this withdrawal is among the most poignant in the chapter, as is the King’s earlier reference to the difficulties of his old age. Both passages reinforce the reality that Man lives in the mundane world, is subject to the ravages of time, and is lucky to get even the tiniest glimpse of the mythic:

Theoden on old age: ‘My men are weary with battle,’ said the King; ‘and I am weary also. For I have ridden far and slept little. Alas! My old age is not feigned nor due only to the whisperings of Wormtongue. It is an ill that no leech can wholly cure, not even Gandalf.’

On the withdrawal of the ‘magic’: ‘Yet also I should be sad,’ said Theoden. ‘For however the fortune of war shall go, may it not so end that much that was fair and wonderful shall pass forever out of Middle-earth?’

Strange…..but the older I get, the wiser Theoden seems.