Speaking of Legolas...

Top 2. May 4, 2000 9:16 PM

» Michael_Martinez - There were two Legolas characters

Tolkien occasionally reused the names of characters from the old mythology (and he even used some Elven names more than once in the final mythology). The Legolas of THE BOOK OF LOST TALES is a very different character from the Legolas of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. The latter was the son of Thranduil, whose father Oropher came from Doriath and established a kingdom among the Silvan Elves in the Second Age according to material published in UNFINISHED TALES (which contains material that is deemed part of the LOTR mythology, whereas BOLT material is deemed part of a much earlier mythology for England).

Tolkien left some matters in a very incomplete and/or confusing state. The "two Glorfindels", for example, were resolved to one Glorfindel by Tolkien late in his life, but this information wasn't published until 1988, 15 years after Tolkien died and 34 years after THE LORD OF THE RINGS was first published. The full explanation wasn't published until 1996.

Legolas is a tough character to analyze. So much which may have been written about him has either been lost or is waiting to be published, but I fear that there is very little left to be said about Legolas by Tolkien himself. He seemed to feel that enigmatic questions were important to the nature and structure of Middle-earth. We shouldn't know everything for sure.

-- posted by Michael_Martinez

Top 3. Jun 25, 2000 10:09 PM

» Krateros - Legolas

I must confess, Legolas was always one of my favorite characters in the trilogy. He perhaps wasn't as colorful as some, but I liked him. he and Gimli were also a wonderful allegory for racial unity and understanding. Legolas was at least 1,000 years old by the time of the War of the Ring,(I would think), so it's understandable that he would call the others children. And as far as Tolkien's multi-generational use of character names, it can be confusing, but let's face it; some names are just too good not to reuse

-- posted by Krateros

Top 4. Aug 12, 2000 12:06 PM

» lindil - legolas and the lay of Nimrodel

I enjoyed your look into legolas' past as I have all your posts on the Elves I have come across.

Re: the lay, I think that because of thranduil's opposition [mentioned in U. T. ]
of Galadriel and Celeborn's becoming rulers in Lorien. This seemed to cut off some or all of the cultural contact between the 2 close and closely related communities.
Legolas refers to the lack of contact in fotr 'It is long since any of my own folk journyed hither...'
as it was no great distance and they shared the common enemy of whoever the cheif of Dol guldor was at any given time, the Doriath/noldor hostility seems the most likely explanation.
As to how hhe could have learned the lay of nimrodel.
I would imagine rivendell to be the most likely source.
Although Galadriel and Celeborn visited Thranduil in the early third age . Amroth may still have been alive then so it is less likely,
but still possible that some of the travelling companions of G and C could have shared the tale.

-- posted by lindil