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We see Ents in certain fantasy settings, but what sort of voice might we actually expect them to have? Would they be capable of having a voice at all, or would they communicate in some other fashion? (while magic is allowed, let's limit its use)

Let's give some possible sources for Ents to produce sound as a starting point...

  • Vibrations
  • Air
  • Hollow portions of body (drumming?)
  • ???

... answers can address one or the other (or both or even come up with something I didn't consider). Any audio examples provided make you an awesome person!

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This topic was inspired by... What would a Giant’s voice be like?

JustSnilloc
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    Drawing with a stick in the ground has been and still is used by many people – Kilisi Apr 28 '17 at 23:18
  • Not an Ent, but a tree-person nevertheless, and a famous one at that: I am Groot on YouTube. With audio. – AlexP Apr 28 '17 at 23:34
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    If you mean Tolkien's ents, then they clearly can talk. Otherwise, you should define what an ent is and what he can and cannot do... – SJuan76 Apr 29 '17 at 00:50
  • If you were to specify how these tree people make noise then this would be a valid question. As it is now, the answerer has to invent their own sound production mechanism then extrapolate that to how they would speak. That's too much. – Green Apr 29 '17 at 15:38

1 Answers1

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Ents, being tree-people (as opposed to magically animated trees) have either evolved from another life form (a tree or an animal mimicking a tree very well) or were created (either magically or via gods, etc.) dependent on your world's lore.

  • If it's a tree-mimic, than standard mammalian vocal cords or the avian equivalent would not be unexpected.
  • Tree-based evolution however would be different as they would likely not need to evolve vocal systems outside of standard tree-speak.
  • Direct creation on the other hand would likely depend on lore justification. If they're like Tolkien's tree-shepherds, it makes some amount of sense for them to be able to communicate with the other races (especially as the vanilla trees could speak to some extent as well). If it makes sense that they should be able to speak, given their purpose of creation, then let them be heard (whether by vocal cords or wind-voices or tree sign language). Or maybe they were created by a particularly absent-minded god and are completely mute.

Point of interest though, wooden hollows and thin pieces of wood are particularly good at amplifying and resonating sound. So if an Ent had vocal cords, their speech might sound something like a guitar, violin, etc. trying to speak.

G Allis
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