Wood-demons

A name given by Saruman to the Ents who destroyed his stronghold of Isengard and surrounded him in his impregnable Tower of Orthanc. It seems to have been a mocking name invented by him during his parley with Gandalf, rather than a term in more general use. His use of the word 'demons' was no doubt meant to evoke the servants of Morgoth and Sauron, of whom that word was most commonly used, just as Saruman imagined that the Ents were under the command of his enemy Gandalf. Ultimately the chief of the 'wood-demons', Treebeard, would allow Saruman to leave his Tower and set out across a Middle-earth, an act of kindness that would later have terrible consequences for the returning Travellers and all the Shire-folk.