in the book, Tom Bombadil, the oldest being in all of middle earth, saved Mary and Pippin from told man willow, not TreeBeard.
To this day, i wondered why the oldest character in the entire book, only younger then Iluvitar himself, was left completely out of the story :'(
The only being in all of creation, outside God himself, that the one ring has no power over. And they just cut him out of the story.
Sorry ive been waiting a long time to have someone mention the Ents so i could talk about tom bombadil.