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The Wild, Wild, Wood-elf West - Page 6

© Michael Martinez

Of course, there is no reason to assume that all the Elves of southern Greenwood fled north with Oropher. Some of them may have remained in the south of the forest until the war came. What little we know of that period reveals that Sauron crushed the Longbeard Dwarves and Edainic men living east of the Misty Mountains. He couldn't take Khazad-dum, so the Dwarven civilization survived, but the Edainic peoples were driven into the forests and hills, and they wouldn't return to the open lands for many centuries. The Wood-elves thus accumulated their own list of tragedies, though they produced no great histories to be incorporated into the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. And Tolkien was unclear about how the history of Lorien progressed. The character and background of Celeborn, for example, evolved through the years, and Tolkien composed history after history for Galadriel and Celeborn. What seems clear is that Lothlorien was able to survive Sauron's onslaught largely because of Eldarin influence. Sindar and Noldor from Eregion helped to fortify the land, and it may be that the great tree-cities with their moats and hedgewalls appeared around the middle of the Second Age. The Eldar also seem to have taught Lothlorien's Elves a thing or two about the higher crafts developed in Aman and Beleriand, and in any event Lothlorien was probably a trading partner with Khazad-dum. On the other hand, the Eldarin influence doesn't seem to have been long-lasting. After the War of the Elves and Sauron many of the Eldar fled Middle-earth, and by the end of the Second Age Lothlorien's warriors were so poorly equipped and armored compared to the Eldar of Lindon and Eriador that many of them were slaughtered in battle with the Orcs. In time of peace the Wood-elves were a prosperous people, wherever they lived. They increased their populations and built towns and cities. People seem to have the impression they sleep under the trees, but Thranduil's underground fortress was quite extensive, and Bilbo raided a village along the shore of the Forest River for food and drink as he herded the barrels with his Dwarven companions toward Laketown. In Lothlorien the city of Caras Galadhon lasted until the beginning of the Fourth Age, and some people have suggested that Cerin Amroth was the heart of another city, abandoned when the Elvenking led many of his people south to Edhellond. Being not only housebuilders, the Elves made boats, wove their own clothing, grew their own food, made their own tools, and generally engaged in all manner of crafts. But they were so withdrawn and mysterious in the late Third Age they hardly present much of their culture or civilization to the reader. In their own ways they worked their "elven magic" on the lands they loved, keeping their woods free of evil creatures, healthy, and strong. Although they could not have outnumbered the original Eldarin civilizations, after the First Age the Wood-elves must have had the largest populations among Middle-earth's Elves. They had not suffered the great depredations that the Beleriandic and Eriadorian Elves had in the First Age.

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