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Legolas
Apr 26, 2006 7:37:43 GMT -6
Post by Desi Baggins on Apr 26, 2006 7:37:43 GMT -6
After seeing the picture of Legolas by Edelfeldt I began to wonder....In the picture Legolas has dark hair. Does it say anywhere in the stories what color his hair is or does it mention anything about Mirkwood elves and their hair?
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Legolas
Apr 26, 2006 17:14:23 GMT -6
Post by Magpie on Apr 26, 2006 17:14:23 GMT -6
I've seen this discussed before. Googling found this: www.tuckborough.net/legolas.html. You have to scroll about 2/3's down to find the section: Note on the hair color of Legolas
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Legolas
Apr 27, 2006 6:36:59 GMT -6
Post by Desi Baggins on Apr 27, 2006 6:36:59 GMT -6
Very good link! It makes it seem as if Legolas' hair is dark. You would think that coming from a dark forest that dark hari would be more of a camoflouge and might be more of a dominant trait. I think I always pictured the Mirkwood elves with light hair because I saw the Hobbit cartoon when I was little. That link says no where in Lord of the Rings does it say what hair color he has, so I wonder what the Hobbit has to say about the Mirkwood elves...Is anything said about Thranduil and his appearance?
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Legolas
Apr 27, 2006 7:26:50 GMT -6
Post by Stormrider on Apr 27, 2006 7:26:50 GMT -6
In The Hobbit it does mention that the King in the woodland feast (that the Dwarves kept interrupting) had golden hair.
From the Flies and Spiders chapter:
Assuming this King is Thranduil, Legolas' father, that must be why Peter Jackson gave his Legolas golden hair, as well.
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Legolas
Apr 28, 2006 6:07:58 GMT -6
Post by Desi Baggins on Apr 28, 2006 6:07:58 GMT -6
That must be the reason Legolas has blonde hair. I wasn't surprised to see him with blonde hair in the movie, so I must have had the same intinct as PJ.
I went back and checked the link that Magpie posted and it does mention the woodland king having golden hair. It also mentions more stuff on the coloring of elves......
They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finarfin ...
I guess not only the Finarfin had golden hair....
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Legolas
Apr 28, 2006 6:40:11 GMT -6
Post by Stormrider on Apr 28, 2006 6:40:11 GMT -6
I am trying to remember how I pictured Legolas all those years that I read the books BEFORE the movies came out. I can't remember! I know when I first saw Orland Bloom as Legolas at Rivendell I was not surprised or shocked that he had blonde hair. My only thought was, that this actor had the perfect "look" to be Legolas! I always remembered The Hobbit Flies and Spiders chapter and the description of Thranduil as having golden hair. I guess I subconsciously thought of Legolas as having golden hair, too, since he was Thranduil's son. Here is an article by Michael Martinez from Suite 101 about Legolas: www.suite101.com/article.cfm/4786/88828
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Legolas
Apr 29, 2006 6:11:22 GMT -6
Post by Desi Baggins on Apr 29, 2006 6:11:22 GMT -6
I do think Orlando Bloom did a great job on playing Legolas, but I was never one of those "I love Legolas!" fans. Blonde hair isn't really for me, Orlando looks better with his dark hair. Michael Martinez's article is kinda funny because he has 5 pages that talk about Legolas and Orlando but he doesn't really have much info on eaither of them, but that is his point Tolkien never really wrote much about Legolas.
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Post by Desi Baggins on May 1, 2006 3:47:39 GMT -6
How old do you think Legolas is?
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Legolas
May 1, 2006 10:56:15 GMT -6
Post by Magpie on May 1, 2006 10:56:15 GMT -6
This is another subject I've seen addressed at various places. The short answer is: "unknown". People have spent some time considering what we do know about Legolas. A quick search pulled up a Wikipedia entry. I don't know how accurate it is. But, for what it's worth... here's what they're saying. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legolas
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Post by Desi Baggins on May 2, 2006 6:10:44 GMT -6
Yeah I saw that info too...Basically it says he must be at least 300 years old... maybe closer to 500-900 years....
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Post by Stormrider on May 2, 2006 7:39:53 GMT -6
I always thought he was older than 900 years. He seemed familiar with Balrogs or at least the knowledge of how dangerous they were. So I thought he was at the very least a thousand to two thousand years old and most likely even older than that!
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Legolas
May 2, 2006 18:56:51 GMT -6
Post by Desi Baggins on May 2, 2006 18:56:51 GMT -6
It is interesting that some think he was born in the first age because his birthdate is not recorded in the appendices...
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Legolas
Jul 24, 2006 13:29:55 GMT -6
Post by Androga Erindalant on Jul 24, 2006 13:29:55 GMT -6
It's not my habbit to burst into threads dealing with Legolas, but....
I've heard mentioning that he was a lot younger than Arwen, who was some two thousand years old. It was in a chat, so I have no source at all lol. I doubt though that he was born in the First Age. I went looking for info on his father, Thranduil. There are even more uncertainties about the age and birth of this Elf though. In encyclopedia of Arda I found that the first mentions of his father was at the Second Age.
The above quote doesn't exclude anything, but might be a hint. Thranduil was born in the Second Age lastest, and he could have had Legolas then already. Yet, when he's roaming about, I don't think he would have been thinking about children. I'd wait until I'm settled somewhere, at least... when I'd be more secure.
Why he knows about Balrogs... To me Elves seem a people who are greatly interested in lore and history. They're always busy with tales, poetry, song and different artwork. So I think it would have been easy for any Third Age Elf to catch up on the history before their time. And I bet the elder Elves loved to talk about those days back then, when they were great in a First Age... (I caught myself already talking about "those days when I was young" ;D )
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Legolas
Jul 24, 2006 21:20:07 GMT -6
Post by Stormrider on Jul 24, 2006 21:20:07 GMT -6
In the Appendices:
II-3319 Downfall of Númenor. Elendil and his sons escape. II-3320 Arnor and Gondor established. II-3430 Last Alliance of Elves and Men formed. II-3441 Sauron overthorwn by Elendil and Gil-galad. Isildur takes The One Ring.
III-109 Elrond weds Celebrian III-130 Elladan and Elrohir were born III-240 Arwen was born III-2569 Brego son of Eorl completes the Golden Hall III-2941 Thorin Oakenshield hires Bilbo Baggins on as his 'burglar' III-2951 'Estel' learns his true name and ancestry and receives the shards of Narsil. Arwen meets Aragorn in the woods of Imladris after her return from Lórien. III-3019 March 25 Gollum and The Ring fall into the Cracks of Doom
Ok...we can pinpoint Arwen's age now. Arwen was 2329 years old when Meduseld was completed. Arwen was 2711 years old when she met Aragorn and she was 2779 when The Ring was destroyed.
Meduseld was 450 years standing in 3019 when Legolas was speaking to Aragorn about r e m e m b e r i n g 500 years of leaves falling in Mirkwood since then (so he rounded up 50 years--which would be a blink of an eye to an Elf!)
If Legolas was younger than Arwen, he could still be anywhere from from 450 years to 2328 years. That is quite a huge range yet.
It seems then that Legolas was in Mirkwood when Bilbo rescued the Dwarves from Thranduil in III-2941. He may have been quite young--as young as 10 years old. (Where did I get that age? 3019-2569=450 so if he remembered 500 years of leaves falling, he may have been 10 years old (born in III-2559) when it was finished--does that make sense?)
My brain if not working here. This is still not right! If Legolas was born in III-2559, then he would have been 382 years old when Bilbo and the Dwarves were in Thranduil's prison. I guess you all can see I am not much good in math. We need to dig up and pinpoint more dates regarding Oropher and Thranduil and their life during the early years of Greenwood the Great (later called Mirkwood).
*** Additions in BOLD type 7/27/06
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Legolas
Jul 27, 2006 0:30:40 GMT -6
Post by Andorinha on Jul 27, 2006 0:30:40 GMT -6
Some quick notes in passing:
Unfinished Tales has two short sections detailing the story of Oropher: pp. 258-59; and 280-81.
Here we learn that Oropher was not himself a Sylvan Elf, but one of the High Sindar who lived in Doriath under Tingol and Melian (see also HOME XII, The Peoples of Middle-Earth, p. 79). Whether or not he had golden hair is not directly stated, but, as Bilbo relates it, Thranduil (at least half a Sindaran Elf) was a blond. The house of Thingol had dark hair, and if Oropher were related to that kin, I would expect him to be dark haired also. So, was the wife of Oropher, mother of Thranduil, a Noldoran Elf related to the Vanyar? I suspect that Tolkien, when he claims golden-hair to be the property only of the children of Indis and Finwe, meant merely that the Noldoran Elves (usually dark-haired and grey-eyed) got a blond-infusion from the Vanyar. But, did Tolkien ever state that there were no other blonds among the various other Elven lines? Is it possible that, among the other Elven kindreds (Green Elves, Wood Elves, Sindar, etc) there were lineages of golden hair without any Vanyar or Noldor-Vanyar inheritance?
Unfinished Tales also tells us that the Sindar-led Sylvan Elves moved three times in the Second Age under Oropher: from the area of the Gladden Fields on Anduin, to Amon Lanc in south-west Green Wood -- later to be captured by Sauron and made into the fortress of Dol Guldur (UF, p. 280), and finally, further north into the Mountains of Mirkwood. Oropher died at end of the Second Age, and his son, Thranduil, then moved his people further north to the eastern corner of Mirkwood, about the year 1000 of the Third Age.
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