Middle Earth Ranger Forum

I'm sure you all recall Treebeard exhorting Merry and Pippin to keep an eye out for the Entwives on their travels.
I would like to challenge people to photograph entwife candidates that they find. I have seen several! As soon as I figure out how one posts images on this board I will try to put some on here. Many of us may be taking a few days to wander in the woods and fields over the Holy Days, and I want to offer this as a suggestion for a rangerly activity. Look closely at burls and knots on trees. Look for those that appear to have faces.
The rules:
NO PHOTOSHOPPING. Cropping, contrast enhancement, color balance etc are okay... but no adding details to the picture.
Good luck!
Will

Will Whitfoot wrote:I'm sure you all recall Treebeard exhorting Merry and Pippin to keep an eye out for the Entwives on their travels.
I would like to challenge people to photograph entwife candidates that they find. I have seen several! As soon as I figure out how one posts images on this board I will try to put some on here. Many of us may be taking a few days to wander in the woods and fields over the Holy Days, and I want to offer this as a suggestion for a rangerly activity. Look closely at burls and knots on trees. Look for those that appear to have faces.
The rules:
NO PHOTOSHOPPING. Cropping, contrast enhancement, color balance etc are okay... but no adding details to the picture.
Good luck!
Will

I'm going to have to wait. I'm assuming that most of the Entwives are immodestly leafless this time of year.

I absolutely love this concept!

Would you be interested in making it into something of a friendly little contest? Or would you prefer a less competitive approach? Either way, I will certainly be looking at the woods with a different eye next time I am out and about!

Hah!

I don't think I'll be able to get out before Christmas Eve at the soonest, but I'll bring a camera when I do. I know a good spot, but don't know if there's entwives about. Good reason to explore!

Sounds like a good excuse for an adventure, I will also be keeping a look out

I'll begin with my first one, and perhaps the most astonishing. This was several years ago in the woods just a few miles from my home. It was taken with a film camera and then scanned. I was looking closely at a strangely shaped burl on a beech tree, and my wife Peggy snapped the photo. We did not notice anything odd about the burl at the time! It was not until we received the prints back that I was completely blown away to see a very distinct FACE looking directly back at me. Chills ran up and down my spine. I have not retouched this photo at all. This is what got me started searching for more. I have been back to the site several times, and she is no longer there! The entwife story cam instantly to mind. What other explanation can there be?

The second one I found was nearly as remarkable... this one was about an hour's drive away in a very remote area of Bear Hollow, near Kings River in Madison County Arkansas. Taken with a Sony Coolpix digital point-and-shoot camera. The root of a large oak tree was curling around a sandstone rock in such a way as to form a very distinct face seen in profile.

But what was even more astonishing (to me) was that the face looked very familiar. When I put my face up against it, I thought I was looking in a mirror.

She's a big lady!!

Manveruon wrote:I absolutely love this concept!

Would you be interested in making it into something of a friendly little contest? Or would you prefer a less competitive approach? Either way, I will certainly be looking at the woods with a different eye next time I am out and about!

I don't mind a little competition.... but I've been looking for these for some years now, so I've got a little bit of a head-start.

This one was in a park in Texas, fairly recent iPhone shot

Very impressive Will Whitfoot, I havn't seen a single one yet, and I've been looking, that first one you took on film looks magic

Iodo wrote:Sounds like a good excuse for an adventure, I will also be keeping a look out

I didn't forget my promise, here is a Scottish entwife spotted on a mountain side. She has her arms stretched high towards her canopy, with her face side on and one eye, a nose and mouth just visible. She even has a dress woven from grasses and a birds nest for hair:

When spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough. When light is on the wildwood stream, and the wind is on the brow. When stride is long and breath is deep, and a keen mountain air, Come back to me, Come back to me, and say my land is fair.

Here's one me and my Lady found at the end of a search today. Two big eyes and a nose.Thank you Peter Remling, Iodo and Elleth for helping us post the pic. Cheers my friends

Great find

Thank you my friend, I really like the one you found too!

We found another one! Kind of a stretch of the imagination but here she is!