Tolkien's creatures embraced by intelligentsia (4)

I believe the answer is:

ents

'tolkien's creatures' is the definition.
(tree-like creatures from Middle-earth)

'embraced by intelligentsia' is the wordplay.
'embraced by' indicates a hidden word (surrounding letters embrace the answer).
'ENTS' is hidden in the letters of 'intelligentsia'.

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.

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