This week’s episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is one of the busiest in Season 2. “Eldest” brings the live-action debut of many Middle-earth creatures, but one of the highlights is the return of the Ents. As Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova), Isildur (Maxim Baldry), and Estrid (Nia Towle) struggle to find common ground while searching for Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin), they are surprised by Snaggleroot (Jim Broadbent) and Winterbloom (Olivia Williams), the Ents who have been kidnapping humans. There is something curious about it, though: Winterbloom is an Entwife, a female Ent. It’s the first time one of her kind appears in live-action – but why?

Why Are There No Entwives in ‘Lord of the Rings’?

Most fans of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Legendarium were first introduced to Ents in Peter Jackson‘s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) meet Treebeard (John Rhys-Davies) in Fangorn Forest. In the book, Treebeard tells the two Hobbits a lot about Ent culture, from the fact that some sentences in Entish may take hours to say, to the fact that the Entwives have completely disappeared from Middle-earth.

In a deleted scene from The Two Towers that only features in the extended version, Treebeard recites to Merry and Pippin “The Songs of the Entwives.” Those verses speak of the Ents’ longing for their lost Entwives, and how the Ents hope they will some day come back. In the book, the song is longer, with verses supposed to be sung both by an Ent, and by an Entwife. The lyrics talk about how different those two kinds of Ents are, but how, in the end, they long for each other’s presence. When Pippin asks how the Entwives died, Treebeard is quick to answer that he never said they died, only that the Ents lost them and can’t find them.

This is why Winterbloom’s presence in The Rings of Power is special: it’s the first time an Entwife appears in live-action, and one of the few times in any Tolkien-related work that one of them shows up at all. They are crucial for the Ents’ survival, but, since they disappeared, the whole species has been at risk of extinction since the end of the Second Age, as Treebeard explains, with some Ents “going tree-ish” and no new Entings (young Ents) being born.

How Are the Entwives Different From the Ents?

From a technical perspective, Ents and Entwives belong to the same species, the difference being their gender. They originally came into existence by request of the Valar Yavanna Kementári, also known as the Giver of Fruits and the one responsible for all things that grow. Afraid the Children of Ilúvatar (Elves and Men) would pose danger to nature, she pleads with Manwë, the chief of the Valar, for protection for the trees, forests, and wildlife. Manwë, in turn, asks Eru Ilúvatar (Tolkien’s equivalent to God in the universe), and he creates the Ents as “tree-sheperds.”

Over time, Ents and Entwives prove to be very different, but complimentary in their ways. While the Ents love the deep forests and wild, untamed nature, the Entwives prefer more ordered, cultivated lands. They tend to gardens, fields, and orchards, teaching Men the art of agriculture and plant cultivation. In The Rings of Power, for example, Snaggleroot mentions that Winterbloom cared for most of the trees that have been killed near Pelargir​ and that she nourished them since they were young. Ents are fierce protectors of nature, but, for Winterbloom, what happened is even worse.

Another difference between them is their appearance. Ents look a lot like the trees they protect, being big and bulky, but the Entwives are described by Treebeard as looking somewhat different: “Entwives were bent and browned by their labor; their hair parched by the sun to the hue of ripe corn and their cheeks like red apples. Yet their eyes were still the eyes of our own people.” In The Rings of Power, though, Snaggleroot and Winterbloom both look very similar, with Winterbloom having clearer leaves.

What Actually Happened to the Entwives?

Although Treebeard is adamant about the fact that the Entwives haven’t died in Middle-earth, it’s hard to be sure. In fact, all the signs point to a tragic fate. According to Treebeard, the Entwives moved away to the east of the Great River Anduin, establishing their gardens between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood. The Entwives and Ents grew apart, both physically and in their interests, and the Ents would visit them only occasionally. One day, during the War of the Last Alliance (the conflict seen in the prologue of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Treebeard wanted to visit his wife, Fimbrethil, but saw no sign of the Entwives, and found their lands ravaged by war.

Tolkien never gave a proper answer to what really happened to the Entwives but wondered about it in one of his letters. He says that, during the War of the Last Alliance, Sauron (Charlie Vickers) pursued a scorched earth policy, burning the lands along the Anduin to stop the allies’ advance. This is how the Entwives’ gardens came to be known as the Brown Lands following their disappearance, and it means that most of the Entwives have probably died. Once fertile, they are now barren. He also speculates that some of the Entwives may have fled to the East after this and either became slaves to Sauron or have grown so estranged from the Ents that approaching them would probably be pointless.

According to Tolkien, given how the Entwives have never been found, they survive only through the agriculture practiced by Men and Hobbits. They are also remembered in songs and lore, and their disappearance has had a lasting impact on the Ents. The search for the Entwives represents themes of loss and longing often present in Tolkien’s writings, symbolizing the rift between nature and cultivation, wildness and order.

Season 2 of The Rings of Power is streaming on Prime Video. New episodes air weekly on Thursdays.