Treebeard is the Ent who guards Fangorn Forest in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Known in Sindarin as Fangorn, Treebeard is one of the oldest beings in Middle-earth. Merry and Pippin meet him after escaping from the Orcs who captured them. His slow, deliberate manner reflects the long timescale of Ents, but his patience changes when he learns how Saruman’s forces are destroying trees.
Treebeard calls an Ent gathering, or Entmoot, to decide what action to take. The Ents eventually march against Isengard, Saruman’s stronghold, and help bring about its destruction. This episode links the story’s environmental themes with the larger conflict between industrial power and the natural world.
Treebeard is sometimes mistaken for a generic forest spirit or for another Tolkien character associated with nature. He is specifically an Ent, a sentient tree-like being with a distinct language, history, and political role in the War of the Ring.