The Hobbit is a tale of high adventure, undertaken by a company of dwarves in …
Treebeard is Fangorn, the guardian of the forest; he is the oldest of the Ents, the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-earth.
— The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings (the Hobbit / the Fellowship of the Ring / the Two Towers / the by J.R.R. Tolkien (Page 89)