I don’t see that anyone has posted a solution to this one yet:
In a forest lived he
as hearty as the proverbial tree
during the struggle he helped as he could
but in the end, he did as he would
Anybody got anything? Per the old messages I could find the following have all been tried:
Fangorn
Quickbeam
Radagast
Legolas
Thranduil
Tom Bombadil
Celeborn
Old Man Willow
Ghan-buri-Ghan
Beorn
Why not Treebeard?
That’s what I thought…
Well, before I even put on my thinking cap, you could try some of Tom Bombadil’s other names that Elrond mentions. As I recall: Orald, Iarwain Ben-Adar and Forn. Though it doesn’t seem quite cricket for those to be the correct answer, since there’s no hint of using the Elve’s name for him or the Dwarves…
Treebeard as someone suggested might also be a good bet, the part about “in the end…” referring to him releasing Saruman. If you take that last line seriously, then it would rule out Bombadil since he doesn’t even figure “in the end” of the struggle
One thing to do also is to go back to all the turns you put in answers, and double-check that you made no typo and really put in the answer you intended.
My last thought is, perhaps it refers to an earlier struggle? Have to go back and re-read the War of Wrath or some of the other conflicts to see if anyone seems to jump out.
Jeremy
In spain the name is : “Zarcillo” in English is: Leaflock
I’m not really very good at riddles but I don’t think any of the Ents could be described as hearty. Just a thought, it might be Cirdan.
I would try Treebeard for the reasons expressed by others.
But I had forgotten Bombadil, if indeed this is still the same that walked the woods and hills long ago, and even then was older than the old. That was not then his name. Iarwain Ben-adar we called him, oldest and fatherless. But many another name he has since been given by other folk: Forn by the Dwarves, Orald by Northern Men, and other names beside. He is a strange creature, but maybe I should have summoned him to our Council.’
‘He would not have come,’ said Gandalf.
‘Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?’ asked Erestor. ‘It seems that he has a power even over the Ring.’
‘No, I should not put it so,’ said Gandalf. ‘Say rather that the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.’
‘But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,’ said Erestor. ‘Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless?’
‘No,’ said Gandalf, ‘not willingly. He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.’
I tried Treebeard and it was not correct.
Treebeard seems to me to be the only answer the addresses the line “in the end he did as he would” which I would have said refers to releasing Saruman. But I guess not.
I can’t see this referring to Tom Bombadil, there’s nothing that relates to the last time.
Jeremy
“Skinbark lived on the mountain-slopes west of Isengard. That is where the worst trouble has been. He was wounded by the Orcs, and many of his folk and his tree-herds have been murdered and destroyed. He has gone up into the high places, among the birches that he loves best, and he will not come down.”
Try Skinbark, it seems like I remember answering this one before but I can’t remember when and to whom.