Treebeard is the giant Ent who leads the Ents in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers. His Sindarin name is Fangorn, which is also the name of the ancient forest where he lives.
Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took meet Treebeard after escaping from the Orcs who captured them. He initially believes that hobbits are a strange and little-known kind of creature. Their account of Saruman’s destruction of forests helps prompt the Ents to consider action.
Treebeard calls an Ent gathering, or Entmoot, at which the Ents decide to march against Isengard. This storyline emphasizes the conflict between industrial destruction and the natural world, a recurring concern in Tolkien’s writing.
Treebeard should not be confused with Old Man Willow, a malevolent tree in the Old Forest, or with Quickbeam, a younger and faster-speaking Ent. Fangorn is both Treebeard’s personal name in Sindarin and the name of the forest associated with him.