From letter 144:
I think that in faact the Entwives had disappeared for good, being destroyed
with their gardens in the War of the Last Alliance (Second Age 3429-3441) when
Sauron pursued a Scorched earth policy and burned their land against the
advance of the Allies down the Anduin (vol. II p. 79 refers to it). They
survived only in the 'agrculture' transmitted to Men (and Hobbits). Some, of
course, may have fled east, or even have become enslaved: tyrants in such tales
must have an economic and agricultural background to their soldiers and
metalworkers. If any survived so, they would indeed be far estranged from the
Ents, and any rapprochement would be difficult-- unless experience of
industrialized and militarized agriculture had made them a little more
anarchic. I hope so. I don't know.
I hope so,
too.
*******************************************************
Although now long estranged, Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not de-throned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned:
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shpes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons--'twas our right
(used or misused). That right has not decayed:
We make still by the law in which we're made!
