09-29-2005, 08:24 AM | #1 |
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How do Ents Breathe?
So really now...
Do Ents breathe in oxygen, and breathe out carbon dioxide? Like animals, humans, and presumably Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, etc? Or do they breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen? Like trees and other kinds of plants? Which is it?
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09-29-2005, 08:27 AM | #2 |
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I'd imagine they breathed out Oxygen, seeing as their so closely related to Trees. Even though them breathing wasn't mentioned.
Maybe they don't |
09-29-2005, 11:13 AM | #3 |
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Well, what do Ents eat? They eat fertile soil, just like trees.
And what do Ents drink? They drink water, just like trees. Ents also have leaves, which are used by trees for respiration. There is probably a good chance, then, that Ents breathe in Carbon and breathe out Oxygen. Although, given the fact that they have mouths and can speak, it is possible that they also have lungs. That would be pretty interesting.
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09-29-2005, 12:14 PM | #4 |
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Presumably, at night, they do the "dark reaction" respiration, which IIRC was o2 -> c02
Though treebeard would spend a whole week just breathing, so we can rest assured that it was a complicated matter. |
09-29-2005, 12:30 PM | #5 |
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Interesting idea. Much would depend on whether they have chlorofyl in their skin or hair, I think.
Perhaps they use both: photosynthesis through their skin and breathing through lungs. A bit like a self-contained system. Both using and producing oxygen.
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09-30-2005, 05:28 PM | #6 |
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The Ents were not plants or trees were they? They were created by the Valar or Eru, since the Valar couldn't create, to watch over the forests, right? So we really don't know what they were do we? So since we don't really no what kind of creatures they were, we can't really answer this question can we?
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09-30-2005, 06:16 PM | #7 | ||
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09-30-2005, 06:19 PM | #8 | |
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09-30-2005, 06:27 PM | #9 |
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But doesn't Tolkien say somewhere that they turned treeish after thousands of years of being around the trees, or something like that? I need to read LotRs again.
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09-30-2005, 06:49 PM | #10 |
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Oh, I wouldn't know. I'll have to reread LoTR on that matter too some day.
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09-30-2005, 07:09 PM | #11 |
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Well, they were definately tending turn tree-ish as a species without their entwives. ::shrug::
Personally, I'm of the opinion that they breathed using planty apparatus, not mammalian. Now that brings us to the real grunty question : Did they wear pants???
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10-01-2005, 02:15 AM | #12 |
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Hmm! I wonder. I'd like to find out myself. I should read LotR again, too.
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10-01-2005, 08:03 AM | #13 | ||
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10-01-2005, 08:36 AM | #14 | |
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10-01-2005, 11:27 AM | #15 | |
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10-01-2005, 01:23 PM | #16 |
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Actually, Valandil, this is precisely the wrong question to ask of the text! It implies a total subjection of faerie to a materialistic scheme of the nature of the universe. An understanding which Tolkien was at pains to subvert! And I do not think that the Frodo Seminar has pronounced on whether or not the incorporation of dryads is technically an innovation on the part of Tolkien or merely a biological conundrum arising from the author's love of trees. This leads to the whole problem of the distortion of the naiads (a la Tom Bombadil's wife) in a machosexist degradation to all males in the nasty swamp thing where (allegedly) Frodo nearly falls in to become "a little candle".
Really, I mean do you wonder whether they perspire and need to use Ban or RightGuard, too? (Although, the real concern there would be the effect freon or its Middle Earth analogues in the destruction of ozone and global warming gas production (could thses be the noxious fumes from Mordor?). I mean, one could view the Ents as performing a vital role in preventing global warming by the fixaton of carbon dioxide as sugars, couldn't one? Then again if they respire it, are they contributing to the problem of global warming? My what a can of worms you have opened here! Are Ents in any way responsible for the recent hurricanes on the Gulf Coast of the USA? They are certainly depicted as being in touch with the acceleration of natural process in the destruction of that tower place - whatchmacallit with that bad old istari, Screwupman or whatever his name was! I mean, have they finally lost their cool after all the years without the Entwives?) Come to think of it, where are those Entwives? Was their removal really an occult mode of presenting the empowerment of women as a positive or negative impact on the world? (Discuss with at least three citations and some actual Entish!) Really, Valandil, you must free yourself from the shackles of such 20th Century questions and step back inot a time when you merely enjoy the anthropomorphic dilettantism of the misogynist author who obviously preferred trees to women! So the real question should be not "how do Ents respire?" but "Do Entwives glisten?" Sheesh! But, really, how do you *feel* about whether they breathe in O2 or exhale CO2 or vice versa? Does the fact that it is a male breathing in whatever mode make you *feel* any differently? Discuss the nature of *feelings* in LOTR as a general mode of perception of the nature of the Universe. Please cite only Ents and do provide translations from the Entish!
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10-01-2005, 02:34 PM | #17 |
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I think I speak for a lot of people if I say: Eh?
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10-01-2005, 02:47 PM | #18 | |
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10-01-2005, 05:47 PM | #19 | ||
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10-01-2005, 05:50 PM | #20 |
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Well, I'm a great reader and all, but I often read words yet don't pay attention. Did I ever mention that I thought Bilbo was Biblo, and that Tsavong Lah the Warmaster was Warmster?
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