Quotes / Treants

Card Games

"All the sylvan secrets of this world are etched between my rings. The skinfolk's metal aberrations can rot between my roots."

—Colfenor, the Last Yew, Magic: The Gathering, flavor text for Rootgrapple.

Literature

Several Ents had already arrived. More were coming in down the other paths, and some were now following Treebeard. As they drew near the hobbits gazed at them. They had expected to see a number of creatures as much like Treebeard as one hobbit is like another (at any rate to a stranger’s eye); and they were very much surprised to see nothing of the kind. The Ents were as different from one another as trees from trees: some as different as one tree is from another of the same name but quite different growth and history; and some as different as one tree-kind from another, as birch from beech, oak from fir. There were a few older Ents, bearded and gnarled like hale but ancient trees (though none looked as ancient as Treebeard); and there were tall strong Ents, clean-limbed and smooth-skinned like forest-trees in their prime; but there were no young Ents, no saplings. Altogether there were about two dozen standing on the wide grassy floor of the dingle, and as many more were marching in.
At first Merry and Pippin were struck chiefly by the variety that they saw: the many shapes, and colours, the differences in girth, and height, and length of leg and arm; and in the number of toes and fingers (anything from three to nine). A few seemed more or less related to Treebeard, and reminded them of beech-trees or oaks. But there were other kinds. Some recalled the chestnut: brown-skinned Ents with large splayfingered hands, and short thick legs. Some recalled the ash: tall straight grey Ents with many-fingered hands and long legs; some the fir (the tallest Ents), and others the birch, the rowan, and the linden. But when the Ents all gathered round Treebeard, bowing their heads slightly, murmuring in their slow musical voices, and looking long and intently at the strangers, then the hobbits saw that they were all of the same kindred, and all had the same eyes: not all so old or so deep as Treebeard’s, but all with the same slow, steady, thoughtful expression, and the same green flicker.

— The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Tabletop Games

"How could you ever understand us? You are not of the forest; you do not follow the Green Way. Yours is the scurrying of badgers, the flight of the starlings, but without meaning. You are never still, never at peace. Always taking without thought, never giving back. You anger me sorely. I wish your kind would find your proper place in the world, then all would be better."

—Mossback, Treeman, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Old World Bestiary — A Compendium of Creatures Fair and Foul

Video Games

Rarely seen even by elves, the Wose is an order of creature about which little is known. The elves are the source of most of this knowledge; they know that these beings are not descended from trees, despite the similarity in form, and they know that a wose is more closely tied to the faerie world than the elves themselves, though in a different way. The motives and workings of their kind are unknown, though most subscribe to the obvious theory that woses are dedicated wardens of the natural world.

— Battle for Wesnoth

Woses have been said to possess many shapes, all of them tree-like in form, and as they age, to increase in size. Tales tell of woses who resemble trees in this respect as well, towering over the creatures who walk beneath them. This is the greater part of why they are so rarely seen — standing in the slumber which they so often do, a wose of that stature appears to be nothing more than an oddly-shaped tree. Even a careless elf can sometimes be fooled.

— Battle for Wesnoth

"I'm sorry about all those trees!"
"I've angered the forest!"

—Woodie reacting to a Treeguard and a Palm Treeguard, respectively, in Don't Starve.

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