towers

606 the two towers
For I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.’
A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green
flicker into his eyes. ‘For one thing it would take a long while:
my name is growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long,
long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the
story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old
Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes
a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say
anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say,
and to listen to.
‘But now,’ and the eyes became very bright and ‘present’,
seeming to grow smaller and almost sharp, ‘what is going on?
What are you doing in it all? I can see and hear (and smell
and feel) a great deal from this, from this, from this a-lallalalla-rumba-kamanda-lind-or-burúmë.
Excuse me: that is a
part of my name for it; I do not know what the word is in the
outside languages: you know, the thing we are on, where I
stand and look out on fine mornings, and think about the
Sun, and the grass beyond the wood, and the horses, and the
clouds, and the unfolding of the world. What is going on?
What is Gandalf up to? And these – burárum,’ he made a
deep rumbling noise like a discord on a great organ – ‘these
Orcs, and young Saruman down at Isengard? I like news.
But not too quick now.’
‘There is quite a lot going on,’ said Merry; ‘and even if we
tried to be quick, it would take a long time to tell. But you
told us not to be hasty. Ought we to tell you anything so
soon? Would you think it rude, if we asked what you are
going to do with us, and which side you are on? And did you
know Gandalf ?’
‘Yes, I do know him: the only wizard that really cares about
trees,’ said Treebeard. ‘Do you know him?’
‘Yes,’ said Pippin sadly, ‘we did. He was a great friend,
and he was our guide.’
‘Then I can answer your other questions,’ said Treebeard.
‘I am not going to do anything with you: not if you mean by
that ‘‘do something to you’’ without your leave. We might do