Technically Treebeard says that Elves began waking up trees and teaching them to talk, but it is a bit confusing, as earlier Treebeard seems to explain that some of 'us' are still true Ents, lively enough, but many are growing sleepy or tree-ish...
Quote:
'Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake. Some are quite wide awake, and a few are, well, ah, well getting Entish. This is going on all the time.'
'(...) Some of my kin look just like trees now, and need something great to rouse them; and they speak only in whispers. But some of my trees are limb-lithe, and many can talk to me. Elves began it, of course, waking trees up and teaching them to speak and learning their tree-talk.'
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Does this simply mean that some 'true' Ents can get tree-ish, while other awoken trees [who began as trees] can get Entish, emphasis on the
-ish part... but if so, yet if some are actually 'limb-lithe' and can talk to Treebeard, are they 'becoming' Ents?
And with respect to
The Silmarillion text and the 1963 letter, are the Elves awaking the [or some] spirits summoned by Yavanna -- that is, sleeping souls inside trees, as Galadriel thinks is possible, in part [see below]. Although one would think they were all ready awake or waking, as long as the Elves appeared first.
Hmm.
The text that seems to have been the source for
Of Aule And Yavanna appears to date
'at the earliest to 1958-59, but may well be later than that (...) This was followed by a text made on my father's later typewriter (see X. 300) that expanded the first draft, but from which scarcely anything of any significance in that draft was excluded. It bears no title, in the published Silmarillion it was used to form the second part of Chapter 2 Of Aule and Yavanna (...) This was of course a purely editorial combination.' Christopher Tolkien, commentary, War of the Jewels
And then we have a draft letter dated 1963:
Quote:
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'No one knew whence they (Ents) came or first appeared. The High Elves said that the Valar did not mention them in the 'Music'. But some (Galadriel) were [of the] opinion that when Yavanna discovered the mercy of Eru to Aule in the matter of the Dwarves, she besought Eru (through Manwe) asking him to give life to things made of living things not stone, and that the Ents were either souls sent to inhabit trees, or else that slowly took on the likeness of trees owing to their inborn love of trees.'
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Christopher Tolkien writes that it seems likely enough that this part of the letter, and the text about the spirits summoned by Yavanna belong
'to much the same time'. Arguably so, but the draft letter could actually be later too, as on X. 300 Christopher explains that the earliest letter made on his father's later typewriter dates to 1959.
It's interesting (maybe) that in the text used for
The Silmarillion, one gets the feeling that the Ents were surely referenced in the Music [referenced as these spirits anyway], if one gave enough heed to all the voices. The description even seems to say that Eru himself did not miss this, of course...
... but yet in the letter the High Elves
in general say otherwise, even if some, including the great Galadriel, appear to have a similar opinion as was chosen for the construced Silmarillion.
Or something else
I any case this chapter is an edited part of the early Silmarillion, again raising the question of how Tolkien himself intended to introduce the Ents in an 'origin context' is his ultimate Silmarillion -- which was arguably to be characterized as largely Mannish [according to various late characterizations by JRRT himself], if based on a measure of Elvish thought or texts, and contact with Elves.