A variation of an
Ent, as created by
J.R.R. Tolkien, which resides in
Middle Earth.
Ents, being the
mighty, yet
gentle shepherds of
trees (with the exception of the
Entwife), care for the
forests and the trees inside of them; they speak to them and live with them. In this
system, the Ents themselves become much like trees over the course of many hundreds of years. Inversely, the trees that are spoken to and speak to the Ents become more Ent-ish.
Thus are
Huorns. The trees that change to become more Ent-ish can be classified as being "
wide awake" instead of "
half awake" as normal trees are, and as some Ents grow to be when becoming more tree-like. When "
awakened", some trees are found to have
bad hearts, and others good. Huorns are trees that can still speak to the Ents, but have become
wild and perhaps
treacherous. It is rather unclear whether Huorns are the trees that have become more Ent-like, or the Ents that have become more tree-like, but in either case, they are
feared by non-Ents. It seems that a Huorn could originally be either a tree or an Ent, both of which eventually reach a
stage where they are no less one than the
other.
The Huorns took part in the
battle at Helm's Deep against a great army of
Saruman's
Orcs. They followed the Ents on their
march and created a huge forest around the battle area, into which the Orcs ran and never returned.