Talk:Ent

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Ent/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: AirshipJungleman29 (talk · contribs) 22:19, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

GA Review

I'll review this article. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 22:19, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

• Many thanks! Chiswick Chap (talk) 00:45, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

1. Is it well written?

   A. The prose is clear and concise, and the spelling and grammar are correct:

   One or two minor points of correction, which will be outlined below.

   B. It complies with the manual of style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction (N/A), and list incorporation (N/A):

2. Is it verifiable with no original research?

   A. It contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline:

   B. All in-line citations are from reliable sources, including those for direct quotations, statistics, published opinion, counter-intuitive or controversial statements that are challenged or likely to be challenged, and contentious material relating to living persons—science-based articles should follow the scientific citation guidelines:

   C. It contains no original research:

   D. It contains no copyright violations nor plagiarism:

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. It addresses the main aspects of the topic:

   B. It stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style):

   Almost completely.

4. Is it neutral?

   It represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each:

5. Is it stable?

   It does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute:

6. Is it illustrated, if possible, by images?

   A. Images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content:

   B. Images are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions:

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail:

   Should only be a short hold. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 22:24, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

Source and image review

• All Tolkien references appear to be accurate.
  • Noted.

• Spotcheck of accessible sources:
  • 3 - good
  • 6 - good
  • 7 - good
  • 8 - good
  • 9 - good
  • is 15 really necessary?
    • Removed.
  • 16 (Screen Rant): while listed as a marginally reliable source at WP:RSP, the link does not provide any evidence of the Groot character being linked to Tolkien.
    • Removed.

• Most images are fine. Is File:Twisted Plumeria tree trunk overgrowing the steep stone stairs of Wat Phou temple, Champasak, Laos.jpg really necessary? ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 16:50, 7 June 2022 (UTC)
  • To my eye the image supports the text and caption well.

Other issues

• "Treebeard, who (credibly) claims to be the oldest creature in Middle-earth" does Treebeard actually ever claim to be the oldest? Or is he just called such by Gandalf and Celeborn? See [1].
  • Yes, they call him that. Fixed.

• Is there any analysis available linking Ents to the folklore mentioned (Dryads, Germanic groves, etc.)? Such as the David Day source?
  • Removed the mention.
• "Treebeard boasted of their strength to Merry and Pippin; he said that Ents were much more powerful than Trolls, which Morgoth made in the First Age in mockery of Ents, as orcs were of elves"." there's a quotation mark at the end, but none preceding it.
  • Removed.
• Could the description be made a subsection of the Internal history section? I feel like that would work better.
  • • Done.
  • If so, you could incorporate some of the material from the passage beginning 'Ents are an old race...' into the First Age subsection.
    • Done, and removed the overlap.
• I don't think the Erchamion is necessary.
  • Gone.
• "Samwise Gamgee mentions his" --> mentions that
  • Added.
• I assume the closing bracket after the Great Sea quotation was a typo.
  • Removed.
• Could the "Ent-like creatures" subsection be renamed to 'cultural derivations' or similar? I feel that that better represents the contents. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 17:04, 7 June 2022 (UTC)
  • Done.

Nice! Promoting now. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 20:39, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

Would it be worth making mention of Cad Goddeu as a possible source of inspiration? I don't know if Token ever mentioned it but I'd be surprised if Tolkien hadn't read some of the book of Taliesin. Even if, if he did draw on it as a source of inspiration, he used it with some different themes attached. Thedirefulspring (talk) 22:48, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Other sources

It could have been mentioned, that Robert E. Howard wrote a poem for Weird Tales magazine, Vol.33, Issue 5 in February 1939, entitled "The King and the Oak" featuring King Kull as the protagonist walking through a peculiar forest where the trees seem to be observing him with evil intent, he then fights one of said tree that out of nowhere came to life by uprooting itself and grasping the king with its branches and roots serving as limbs. Kull's weapon is of no use against it and shatters. During the fight, the living trees communicate somehow to him about their past, that they consist of an ancient race that dwelled on earth and ruled upon all living things long before man. At the peak of the fight, Kull awakens and notices it was nothing but a dream and continues to walk towards the seashore as he intended.

Full text, unabridged:

Before the shadows slew the sun the kites were soaring free,
And Kull rode down the forest road, his red sword at his knee;
And winds were whispering round the world: "King Kull rides to the sea."

The sun died crimson in the sea, the long gray shadows fell;
The moon rose like a silver skull that wrought a demon's spell,
For in its light great trees stood up like spectres out of hell.

In spectral light the trees stood up, inhuman monsters dim;
Kull thought each trunk a living shape, each branch a knotted limb,
And strange unmortal evil eyes flamed horribly at him.

The branches writhed like knotted snakes, they beat against the night,
And one gray oak with swayings stiff, horrific in his sight,
Tore up its roots and blocked his way, grim in the ghostly light.

They grappled in the forest way, the king and grisly oak;
Its great limbs bent him in their grip, but never a word was spoke;
And futile in his iron hand, a stabbing dagger broke.

And through the monstrous, tossing trees there sang a dim refrain
Fraught deep with twice a million years of evil, hate and pain:
"We were the lords ere man had come and shall be lords again."

Kull sensed an empire strange and old that bowed to man's advance
As kingdoms of the grass-blades before the marching ants,
And horror gripped him; in the dawn like someone in a trance.

He strove with bloody hands against a still and silent tree;
As from a nightmare dream he woke; a wind blew down the lea,
And Kull of high Atlantis rode silent to the sea.

This seems to be purely primary-sourcing, I.e. we have no independent source making a connection with Tolkien here. Chiswick Chap (talk) 13:08, 4 June 2025 (UTC)