The Wild, Wild, Wood-elf West - Page 7
© Michael Martinez
Although Tolkien wrote that Oropher and his fellow Sindarin colonists in Greenwood wished to abandon Eldarin culture and become more like primitive Elves among the Silvan Elves, it seems evident they could not really hold back the progress. They could only delay it. In the end Thranduil built a fortress highly reminiscent of Menegroth, Thingol's underground city of the thousand caves. And Lothlorien became powerful enough that Amroth would send armies abroad to help in the wars in Eriador during the Third Age. Avari, Nandor, Sindar, and even some Noldor all merged together to produce the interesting cultures we only glimpse in Lothlorien and Mirkwood. Thranduil's people were probably more homogenous than the Galadhrim of Lothlorien, but they were all Wood-elves. Not so much less sophisticated than the Eldar as less intent upon changing the world around them.
The Noldor and Sindar tried to build great cities, and Beleriand was dotted with metropolises of stone and mighty works. In the Second Age they rebuilt their civilization in Lindon and Eregion, and their towers and fortresses stood for thousands of years as reminders of their greatness even long after they had vanished from the land, slain or fled over Sea. The stones crumbled in Eregion but in the Shire hobbits who were so willing could venture past the hills and look upon the three towers built by Gil-galad for his friend Elendil, or gaze upon the even more ancient havens of Mithlond.
And yet in the Fourth Age little remained of the Eldarin civilization. Lothlorien was largely abandoned but those of its people who remained through the Third Age had merely migrated east to the newly cleasned forest. And who knows? Maybe one day, long after Celeborn's departure, a few clans of Silvan Elves passed back across Anduin and settled once more in the golden woods of Lorien, recalling one last time the ancient beauty and grace of the gentle woodland folk who sang by the waters of Cuivienen.
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