Quickbeam

The hasty Ent

Quickbeam is one of the Ents of Fangorn, younger than most and, by the standard of his kind, remarkably quick. His Elvish name Bregalad means the same thing, and he earned it, according to Treebeard, by answering a question from an elder Ent before the elder had finished asking it. He is tall and slender, with smooth grey-brown skin and lips that are ruddy like a rowan berry; his hair and beard are of a reddish hue, and his laugh is quick and loud. Among the slow and deliberate Ents he stands out as one who can decide a thing in an afternoon.

Shepherd of the rowans

Quickbeam belonged to the kindred of Ents who loved rowan trees, and the rowans of his home in the forest were his particular care. He remembered the singing of the Entwives in the rowan groves and could still sing their songs. When Saruman's Orcs came into the forest with axes, they felled his rowans and left them lying, and he found them dead and mourned them. This gave him a grievance that needed no three-day debate to resolve, and when Treebeard summoned the Entmoot at Derndingle, Quickbeam had already made up his mind.

Guardian of the Hobbits

Because his mind was already decided, Treebeard sent him away from the Entmoot on the first day to look after Merry and Pippin, who could not follow the Entish speech and would have been bored. Quickbeam took them to his house beneath the rowans, gave them the Ent-draughts, and kept them for three days with his singing and his stories while the elders debated. He was, the Hobbits found, the most companionable of the Ents, and the first to laugh.

The assault on Isengard

When the Ents marched on Isengard on the night of 2 March T.A. 3019, Quickbeam went with them. He had been the first to hurt when Saruman's axes came, and he was the fiercest in the attack. Treebeard afterwards told Merry and Pippin that Quickbeam had chased Saruman across the ruined ring toward Orthanc, and that Saruman only just reached the stairs and the door before the Ent laid hold of him. Had Quickbeam been a little quicker, the war against Saruman might have ended that night. He afterwards helped to tear down the walls and to drown the pits.

Legacy

Quickbeam is remembered chiefly for his warmth toward the Hobbits and for the moment when Saruman escaped him by a stair's length. He presumably remained in Fangorn, or in the Treegarth of Orthanc, in the Fourth Age, singing the songs of the vanished Entwives to a new growth of rowans.

Quickbeam remains among the Ents of Fangorn in the Fourth Age.