Legolas

In The Lord of the Rings

Legolas is the son of King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm of Northern Mirkwood, who appears as "the Elvenking" in The Hobbit; his father rules over the Silvan Elves who dwell there. He is introduced in the first part of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, at the council of Elrond of Rivendell, where he comes as a messenger from his father to discuss the escape of Gollum from their guard. Legolas volunteers or is chosen to become one of the members of the Fellowship that sets out to destroy the One Ring. He accompanies the others in their travels from Rivendell to Amon Hen.

When the Fellowship is snowed down while crossing Caradhras, he scouts ahead to find the Sun, while Aragorn and Boromir drive a path through the snow. Unlike them, he is little affected by the blowing winds and snow; he does not even wear boots, only light shoes, and his feet scarcely make imprints on the snow.

After their attempt to cross Caradhras is foiled, their leader Gandalf takes them on an underground journey through Moria, an ancient Dwarf-kingdom, though some (including Legolas) do not wish to go there. Before they reach Moria, however, Legolas helps fend off an attack of Sauron's wolves. Once in Moria, he helps fight off the Orcs whom they encounter there, and recognizes Durin's Bane as a Balrog of Morgoth.

After Gandalf is lost while facing the Balrog, Aragorn takes charge of the Fellowship and leads them to the Elven realm of Lothlórien, the Golden Wood. Legolas serves as the initial spokesperson for the company, speaking with the inhabitants, the Galadhrim.

Within the Fellowship, there is friction between Legolas and the dwarf Gimli, because of the ancient quarrel between Elves and Dwarves after the destruction of Doriath in the First Age, and also because his father, Thranduil, once threw Gimli's father, Glóin, in prison (as described in The Hobbit). Legolas and Gimli become friends, however, when Gimli greets the Lady of the Golden Wood with gentle words.

They take leave of Lothlórien, but not before recieving several gifts. While the Fellowship is travelling over the River Anduin, he shoots down a nearby fell beast with one shot.

After Boromir is killed and Merry and Pippin are captured by Orcs in The Two Towers, he, Aragorn and Gimli set forth in pursuit of the two (Frodo the Ring-bearer and Sam had gone ahead on the road to Mordor). They meet the revived Gandalf and the Rohirrim, fight in the Battle of the Hornburg, and witness Saruman's (partial) downfall at Isengard, where they are reunited with the two.

In the Battle of the Hornburg, he and Gimli engage in an Orc-slaying contest (Gimli wins by one with 42, but the real result is stronger mutual respect).

In The Return of the King, he and Gimli accompany Aragorn on the Paths of the Dead, along with the Grey Company. After Aragorn summons the Dead Men of Dunharrow to fight for him, he watches them scare away the Corsairs of Umbar from their ships at Pelargir. He fights in the Battles of the Pelennor Fields and the Morannon, and watches as Sauron is defeated and Barad-dûr collapses.

After the destruction of the One Ring, he stays in Minas Tirith for some time, as Aragorn is crowned King of the Reunited Kingdom as King Elessar and marries his love Arwen. Later, Legolas and Gimli go off travelling together through Fangorn Forest. Eventually, Legolas comes to Ithilien with some of his people, with his father's leave, to live out his remaining time in Middle-earth helping to restore the devastated forests of that war-ravaged land.

It is told in the Red Book (first written by Bilbo Baggins, continued by Frodo Baggins and supposedly finished by Samwise Gamgee) that after the death of King Elessar, Legolas builds a grey ship in Ithilien, and leaves Middle-earth to go over the Sea to Valinor, the Blessed Realm, and Gimli the Dwarf goes with him.

The character

Although he lived among them and was exposed to their culture, Legolas was not one of the Silvan Elves (Wood-elves). His father Thranduil had originally come from Doriath; he and his son were actually Sindarin Elves. A small minority of Sindarin Elves ruled the predominantly Silvan Woodland Realm of Northern Mirkwood, a minority which Thranduil headed. The Sindarin minority in that realm, who should have been more noble and wise than the Silvan Elves, can be seen as having "gone native" at the end of the First Age: after Morgoth was defeated and all of the grand Elf-kingdoms of Beleriand were destroyed, they can be seen as going back to "a simpler time" in their culture.

Tolkien first describes him as "a strange Elf, clad in green and brown". As the Fellowship sets out, he is armed with a short bow, and a long knife. In Lothlórien, he receives a new longbow from the Galadhrim, along with the other gifts that Galadriel and Celeborn give him and the rest of the Fellowship, such as special cloaks and lembas.

As Christopher Tolkien recounts in The Book of Lost Tales (Vol. 2), his father wrote the following comment protesting a "pretty" or "ladylike" illustration of Legolas:

However, as given in Unfinished Tales, the author himself states that Legolas "probably accomplished the least of the Fellowship", compared to the rest (Frodo endured the Ring's temptations and took it to the Crack of Doom, Gandalf was an angelic agent from Valinor who worked against Sauron for centuries, Aragorn restored his ancestors' old kingdom, and even Merry helped kill the Witch-king, et cetera).

In The Hobbit ?

Though his father and his kingdom appear in The Hobbit, he does not appear himself. Of course, his character had not been created yet (though his name had; see below). However, some have theorized that he may well have fought in the Battle of the Five Armies. The events in The Hobbit take place less than one hundred years before the Quest of Mount Doom, and at that point Legolas was at least 500 years old, and possibly older. Logically, as a retcon he could quite conceivably have been present in his father's halls at the time, and may have even fought at Erebor.

Legolas's name

The name Legolas is a Silvan dialect form of pure Sindarin Laegolas, which means Greenleaf (thus, Greenleaf is not his surname, as is sometimes erroneously believed; nor is it an epithet (like Oakenshield), but a translation of his name). It consists of the Sindarin words laeg, green; and golas, a collection of leaves, foliage (being a prefixed collective form of las(s), leaf). The Quenya form (mentioned in the Book of Lost Tales in the context of another character of that name) is Laiqualassë.

There might, however, be a certain meaning to his name: laeg is a very rare, archaic word for green, which is normally replaced by calen (cf. Calenhad, mutated Parth Galen and plural Pinnath Gelin) and is otherwise almost only preserved in Laegrim, Laegel(d)rim (Sindarin form of Quenya Laiquendi), the Green Elves of the First Age. It may be that Thranduil named his son Legolas to at least in part refer to this people, who were remote kin and ancestors of the later Silvan Elves, the people Thranduil ruled and to whom - very likely - Thranduil's wife belonged.

Apparently, only Hobbits (and the Men of Bree) used surnames (like Baggins or Gamgee), as recorded in the Red Book. Men and Elves alike used the patronymic (son of) formula. In English, therefore, a fuller name would be "Legolas son of Thranduil" or "Legolas Thranduil's son". In Sindarin, that would be Legolas Thranduilion, -ion meaning "son of".

Portrayal in adaptations

In the animated film

Legolas was voiced by Anthony Daniels (who had voiced the droid C-3PO of Star Wars fame) in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings. In the film, he takes Glorfindel's place in the Flight to the Ford sequence; he meets Strider and the hobbits on their way to Rivendell, and sets Frodo on his horse before he is chased by the Nazgûl to the ford of Bruinen (In Peter Jackson's version, Arwen takes Glorfindel's place and rides to the Ford herself with Frodo). Here, he is apparently from Rivendell, because he answers to Elrond; he is not identified as a Wood-elf.

In the live-action trilogy

In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (2001–2003), Legolas was portrayed by Orlando Bloom.

In the "official movie guide" for The Lord of the Rings, a birthdate for Legolas is set to 87 of the Third Age. This would make him 2931 years old at the time of the War of the Ring. This date for Legolas' birth was made up by the movie writers, as in the books there are no known dates concerning Legolas before T.A. 3018. Curiously, the year 2931 of the Third Age is the year Aragorn was born; the writers may have picked the number at random from the Tale of Years (the timeline) in the Appendices.

He is presented as an unstoppable fighter, arguably to the point of stealing the show; he performs show-stopping yet implausible stunts in battle scenes. For example, in the Battle of the Hornburg, he slides down a staircase using a shield, shooting arrows all the while, and in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, he takes down an Oliphaunt all by himself. However, in the books Legolas's exploits in battle are not presented in great detail. Aside from shooting the fell beast, he undertakes no major actions other than to make peace with Gimli, overcoming their longstanding mutual racial animosity — he and Gimli are followers, rather than leaders. The film-makers later stated that the entire scene of Legolas killing the Oliphaunt and its entire crew was filmed during pick-ups (months after original filming) to insert a major action scene showcasing him, because at that point they realized that he simply doesn't get to do much in the third part of the trilogy.

He wears green and grey clothes and uses boots, in contrast to Tolkien's "light shoes". He bears two long knives, while in the book he bears only one.

In the Extended Edition of The Return of the King, Legolas and Gimli have a drinking contest at Meduseld after the events at Helm's Deep. He wins, because Elves are not affected by alcohol. Curiously, this directly contradicts The Hobbit, where his father's own servants are shown to pass out after drinking powerfully heady Dorwinion wine (a brief line in the same passage mentions that drinks must be "powerful indeed" to affect Elves, like the Dorwinion wine, but still this does nothing to validate the implication that it is impossible for Elves to become intoxicated).

Due to technical mishaps involving Orlando Bloom's contact lenses, in the films Legolas' eye colour sometimes changes between brown, purple, and blue. This was justified by the notion that Elves' eyes change colour with their mood. This idea subsequently spread to fanfiction; however, it is pure fanon, and is nowhere to be found in Tolkien's writings, and is often simply meant as a joke; in any case, Elven eye color was most likely restricted to grey, as no other color is explicitly stated in Tolkien's writings.

Playing Legolas in the trilogy was Orlando Bloom's breakout route to superstardom. His good looks and Legolas' "coolness", so to speak, as depicted in the film, have led to the character becoming a unprecedented fan favorite with both fangirls and fanboys, not to mention other Tolkien fans. Although the disproportionate popular reaction to Legolas met with mixed reactions from fans, many debaters on the Internet during earlier stages of production were worried, like Tolkien's complaint above, that a film portrayal of Legolas might render him as far too effeminate for popular consumption, and many were simply happy that Orlando Bloom was able to avoid this entirely. However, many viewers have criticized his performance as wooden; ironically (and humorously, one might add), his character is fittingly a Wood-elf.

Other adaptations

Legolas was voiced by David Collings in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation. He is absent from the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King.

Frequently disputed issues

His age

While Legolas' age is never given in Tolkien's writings, some Tolkien scholars have estimated he is at the most 800–900 years old by the time of the War of the Ring, and at least 500, though probably more; however, many others disagree on the maximum figure.

The figure of 500 years minimum was derived from the following — at one point he says that the leaves have fallen in Mirkwood 500 times since Meduseld was built, and he appears to be describing it as if he actually experienced this:

To see their reasoning for an age of 800-900 years, see the articles referred to below.

In his essay Laws and Customs among the Eldar, found in Morgoth’s Ring, one of the volumes of The History of Middle-earth, Tolkien states that the mental development of elf-children is much quicker than those of human children. By their first year, elf-children can already walk, speak, and even sing. If we are to infer that Elves can have concrete memories at a younger age than humans do, Legolas could conceivably have remembered the last 500 autumns that have passed, starting when he was very young.

However, he could be merely commenting on the contrasting viewpoints of Men and Elves on time ("and but a little while does that seem to us"); also, 500 years is here clearly the time elapsed since Meduseld was built. At face value, his statement says nothing about his age - to go further would only be speculation.

It is certainly possible that he was older than what many fans imagine him to be, at least (probably due to the influence of Bloom and his portrayal). He does call Aragorn (87) and Gimli (139) "children" while in Fangorn Forest, and says that he does not feel young:

Also, he speaks of watching oaks grow from acorns to "ruinous age", suggesting that he is in fact old, though possibly young for Elves (some kinds of oak can live for a very long time):

However, even the minimum figure of 500 can still apply here, since Tolkien could have had the English oak in mind, and it can live up to about 500 years.

Also, some readers point out that his birthdate is not recorded in the Appendices. For them, this might be a sign that he was born in the First Age, since the Appendices only record dates from the Second Age onwards.

His hair color

His father Thranduil was blond, so many assume that Legolas must have been blond also (Indeed, both Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson make him blond). However, Tolkien describes his head as "dark" when he shoots down a Ringwraith's fell beast in The Fellowship of the Ring in the following quote, suggesting the contrary to some:

According to this camp, his hair must be either dark brown or black, as was the norm for the Sindar. (Blond hair was mostly exclusive to the Vanyar.) However, the "blond" camp points out that the above quote takes place at night, and opines that his head may have appeared "dark" due to shadows, rather than his actual hair color.

An only child?

Some assume that he is an only child; however, he could be only one of Thranduil's children. Thranduil did let him leave Mirkwood to found a new elf-community in Ithilien, suggesting to some that he was not his heir; but then others opine that given the longevity of Elves and the relative safety of Middle-earth after Sauron's downfall, Thranduil could go on ruling the Woodland Realm as long as he liked or until he felt the sea-longing. No definitive evidence is given, either way.

Legolas of Gondolin

The name Legolas Greenleaf first appeared in The Fall of Gondolin, one of the "Lost Tales". The character is mentioned only once and is unrelated to the character discussed above. Because Tolkien had reused the name in The Lord of the Rings, this Legolas was not included in the published Silmarillion.

The Legolas of Gondolin, who Tolkien would have likely renamed, has a different etymology. His name (Laiqalassë in its pure form) comes from the primitive Quenya (Qenya) words laica, green, and lassë, leaf. The names are very similar, but the characters were different: Legolas of Gondolin was a Ñoldorin Exile, of the House (kindred) of the Tree.

But the others, led by one Legolas Greenleaf of the house of the Tree, who knew all that plain by day or by dark, and was night-sighted, made much speed over the vale for all their weariness, and halted only after a great march.
—"The Fall of Gondolin", The Book of Lost Tales, Volume 2

The Silmarillion, in describing Turgon's founding of Gondolin, states that Turgon took with him up to a third of the people under Fingolfin, but an even larger number of the Sindar. Whether Legolas of Gondolin was of Noldorin or Sindarin descent is debatable.