An Ent — a walking tree with long arms and a mossy trunk — standing alone on an open moor, mist lying in the valley behind it and mountains beyond

Ent + hed

Enthed is not an old family name. It is a made one, and I made it in 1988 — thirteen years before anybody had seen a Peter Jackson film.

Ent Tolkien's tree-herds — the Onodrim, the ones who look after the forest and are in no hurry about anything. I first met them in Swedish, in Sagan om ringen.
hed Swedish for a moor, or a heath. Open ground, low growth, weather coming across it — the sort of place you can see a long way from.

So: an Ent, standing on a moor.

I read the books young, in both languages, and then read them again, and then again. Swedish first and English after, which meant meeting the same places twice under two sets of names. I have listened to them as radio plays too, in English, more than once. Tolkien's worlds got into me early and never really left, and I am not looking for the exit.

When the time came to choose a name, I did not want to borrow one. I wanted to build one. The Ents in these books always intrigued me and I loved the idea of them, so the name came out of that. I took it just before we married — and then there were two of us in the world with it.

1988The name taken, just before we married
2001The first film — thirteen years later
1995 & 1997Two boys, for whom the films were always there
My sons were born in 1995 and 1997, so for them the Ents in the films have always existed — Middle-earth arrived already cast. Which is probably why the order of events matters far more to them than it ever has to me — to me it is simply obvious. I took the name because I liked the idea of the Ents in the book. They are the ones who make sure people know I took the name before the films.
An Ent with a long beard of leaves and lichen, holding a carved staff and carrying leather satchels, standing among a large flock of sheep on a moor with a dog beside it. The word ENTHED is lettered at the upper left
Ents are shepherds of trees. On a Swedish moor the job description shifts slightly, and the dog is not optional.

Two became a family. Today ours is still the only one in the world with the name.