Two sounds of autumn are unmis­tak­able, says nat­u­ral­ist Hal Bor­land, “the hur­ry­ing rus­tle of crisp leaves blown along the street or road by a gusty wind, and the gab­ble of a flock of migrat­ing geese.”

Among the more engag­ing char­ac­ters with which J. R. R. Tolkien pop­u­lat­ed Mid­dle-earth were the ents, the old­est of all liv­ing races, a tree­like peo­ple only ten­ta­tive­ly removed from their arbo­re­al roots, awak­ened by elves from a long, silent aware­ness of them­selves into mobil­i­ty and speech.