Story Downloaded from Open Scrolls Archive (https://www.openscrolls.net)

Title: Bloodlines and Lifestyles (#79)
Author: ElrondsBailiff
Chapters: 1

Archive: Tolkien
Category: Reality Bytes
Description: The genealogy of Elves in general and Legolas in particular. Why Legolas is a Wood-Elf, and what that means.
Published: 12 Jun 2003
Updated: 12 Jun 2003
Warnings: Extreme seriousness
Type: General
Characters: Legolas; Thranduil; Oropher; Elves; Valar


Chapter 1 - An overview of Elven history and Legolas' bloodlines

This
essay was written originally for a classroom setting and with a page limit, and
thus the writing is very condensed.  I
have only altered it from its original form for accuracy where needed.

 

*   *   *

 

Bloodlines
and Lifestyles: The Genealogy of Elves in General and Legolas in Particular

By
Victoria Hughes

 

Introduction

"There
was also a strange Elf clad in green and brown, Legolas, a messenger from his
father, Thranduil, the King of the Elves of Northern Mirkwood. . . ." – Lord
of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; The
Council of Elrond

 

                Legolas Greenleaf: arguably the
most popular Elf every created by Tolkien, thanks to the movies.  However, very little is actually known about
him; Tolkien tells very little indeed regarding Legolas' family, bloodline,
etc.  While Tolkien was still alive, many
questions were asked of him about his published stories.  Many of his answers are published in The
Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.  However,
it was not until after his death that Legolas became an item of unbridled
admiration; it seems that in his lifetime no one saw fit to ask Mr. Tolkien
about the genealogy of Legolas Greenleaf, and Tolkien never saw fit to directly
explain this matter in his writings.  (This
is not to say that Legolas had no fans prior to Tolkien's
death; however, his fanbase was greatly expanded by
the movies.)  And so Legolas' fans are
left to endlessly debate this matter amongst themselves.  To this end, I now present the genealogy of
Legolas Greenleaf as it may be understood from what small clues Tolkien offers
up in his many texts.

 

To fully understand the matter of Legolas' genealogy,
however, one must be familiar with the vast majority of Elven genealogy, which
is a complicated matter that is tied up in the very beginning of Time in Tolkien's created world. 
It is important to also address specifically the genealogy of the Telerin Elves, from which Legolas is directly
descended.  Therefore, in addition to
discussing Legolas' genealogy in particular, the early history of all Elves and
their basic genealogy must also be investigated, and the history and genealogy
of the Telerin Elves in particular must be discussed.

 

The
Early History of the Elves

                In the beginning, God created
not the heavens and earth, but rather the Firstborn. They were the first of the
two prominent races to appear on Middle-Earth. 
These Firstborn were called Elves; their followers, the Secondborn, would be known as Men.

 

                Tolkien's
myth of creation follows much the same pattern as the story told by the Bible:
at first there is God, Eru, and His angels, the Ainur; at Eru's will, a world is
created, and He gives selected Ainur, called the
Valar, free reign to design a land that will be fit for His children, the Elves
and Men.  However, just as in the Bible
there is Lucifer, in this new world there is Melkor,
an Ainu gone bad out of jealousy and spite. 
Melkor proceeds to destroy things as the rest
of the Valar attempt to build a perfect world, and in the end they are driven
to frustration.  The good Valar create
for themselves a haven in the West, which they call
Aman, and they withdraw there, allowing Melkor free
reign over the rest of the land, now deemed Middle-Earth, or Arda.  And there was
endless twilight over all of Middle-Earth, for the Sun and Moon had not yet
been created (Silmarillion, Ainulindale).  Only the stars provided any light in the sky,
and so they became the beloved light of the Elves.

 

                Finally it comes to pass that
the Firstborn 'awaken' upon this new created world; when the Valar hear of
this, they determine to go to war with Melkor,
although they know they will greatly alter the shape of the world with their
battles; they know they must defeat Melkor before he
can take the Elves and twist them to his evil purpose (although Melkor yet was able to, for when some fled before the
Valar, he captured them and mutilated them in body and spirit, creating Orcs,
according to the theory presented in The Silmarillion).  So the Valar rode out to war, and they
soundly defeated Melkor and threw him into the prison
of the Valar.

 

                Now rose
a debate over the fate of Elves; should they be allowed to wander Middle-Earth
freely, or should they be bid to live in Aman with the gods?  In the end, they chose to send out one of
their number to meet the first of the Elves and bid them live in Aman.  The one sent is Oromë, the Hunter, for he was
the first to see and be enchanted by the Elves, who were fair in appearance and
sturdy of mind and spirit.  But the Elves
were afraid, not understanding Oromë's great power
and remembering only the wrath of the Valar as they battled with Melkor, and so they instead sent three ambassadors with
Oromë to Aman to see the West and tell them what they thought.  These three Elves were Ingwë, Finwë, and
Elwë, and afterwards they became leaders of their people (Silmarillion, Coming
of the Elves).

 

                Ingwë, Finwë, and Elwë were
amazed by the beauty of the land of the Valar, and they returned to their
people joyful with the news.  Most of the
Elves were swayed to come to Aman, but some were not; those that came with
Oromë on the journey to Aman were called the Eldar,
and those that refused were called Avari, the
Unwilling (Silmarillion, Coming of the Elves).  The Elves that came with Oromë could be
broken down into three groups: those that followed Ingwë, the Vanyar; those that followed Finwë, the Noldor,
and those that followed Elwë and his brother Olwë, the Teleri
(Silmarillion, Coming of the Elves). 
It is on this last group that we will now concentrate.

 

The
Genealogy of the Telerin Elves

                The Teleri
were the last and greatest group to follow Oromë across Middle-Earth to
Aman.  They were a people apart from the Vanyar and Noldor, for they had
an abiding love of water; they would later become the great sailors of the Sea
that separated Arda from Aman.  When the Elves came to a river for the first
time, the Teleri wished to remain, and so they abided
a little while longer than their brethren, but when Oromë led the Vanyar and Noldor onward without
them, there were those among the Teleri that feared
the onward journey into the mountains so greatly that they refused to travel
onward.  These Teleri
were called the Nandor, for they loved rivers and
streams like their kin but lived in the trees; they went no further, and thus
the first of the Elves fell away from the Great Journey (Silmarillion, Coming
of the Elves).

 

                Of the Nandor
not much more can be said.  In The
Silmarillion, they are said to have "greater knowledge of living
things, tree and herb, bird and beast, than all other Elves."  Later, they would be better known as the
secretive and mischievous Silvan Elves, or Wood Elves, who lived east of the
great mountain range, the Misty Mountains, and mostly populated the large forests of Greenwood and Lórien (Unfinished Tales, History of
Galadriel and Celeborn).

 

                Now the remaining Teleri tarried no longer but continued on the long journey
to the West, and they were led by Olwë and his brother Elwë Singollo,
who was also called Elu Thingol.  Also at this time Melkor
had been driven back by the Valar, and 'demigods' (for lack of a better
comparison), called Maiar, roamed the earth.  These demigods could be considered a step
below the Valar.  The most prominent of
these Maiar on Middle-Earth was Melian;
"there were none more beautiful than Melian, nor
more wise, nor more skilled in songs of enchantment" (Silmarillion,
Of Thingol and Melian).

 

                Some time after passing over the
Misty Mountains, Elwë, walking alone, chanced upon a glade, and in
this glade stood Melian.  Immediately he was filled with love for her,
and he fell under her enchantment, and she fell for him,
and for a long time they but stood together under the eternal twilight.  Elwë's people
searched for him but did not find him, and when it came time for the Elves to
move onwards again, some chose to remain behind with Elwë, wherever he may have
been.  So Olwë became the king of the Teleri, and those who so chose continued onwards with him
to Aman.  But when Elwë returned to his
senses and thus to his people, they did not again take up the Great Journey;
rather, he wedded Melian, and he and his people set
up a kingdom in the twilight of Arda.  They were called the Sindarin
Elves, which means Twilight Elves, or Grey Elves, and they lived under the
protection of Melian and the kingship of Thingol blissfully for many years, calling their land Doriath.

 

                The rest of the Elves continued
and completed their journey onwards to Aman.

 

The
Genealogy of Legolas

                This all happened before the Sun
and Moon even existed.  Some four
thousand years later, the world is far different; Thingol's
kingdom is destroyed, the Noldorin Elves have returned from Aman, and much of
Middle-Earth is embroiled in an ongoing battle with Melkor
and his servant Sauron.  It is at this
time that Legolas' grandfather, Oropher, comes into
the picture.  Oropher
is described as a Sindarin Elf. However, he is
amongst a group of Sindarin Elves that believed the
ways of Elves had become to complicated and vastly political; therefore, he
traveled eastward, away from his people, to live with the Silvan Elves in Greenwood.  He became a
ruler over them, and his son, Thranduil, ruled after him (Unfinished Tales, History
of Galadriel and Celeborn).  "Under
the leadership of these [the Silvan folk] became again ordered folk and
increased in wisdom.  [And] Thranduil, father of Legolas of the Nine Walkers was Sindarin" (Unfinished Tales, History of
Galadriel and Celeborn).

 

                Why did Oropher
desert the ways of the Sindar Elves?  Nothing is said of Oropher
prior to his trip east over the Misty Mountains; we only know for certain that he is Sindarin, and that he departed East after the destruction
of Thingol's realm. 
However, there may be a few clues to be found.  "Welcome son of Thranduil!"
Celeborn hails Legolas upon the Fellowship's arrival in Lothlórien.  "Too seldom do my kindred journey hither
from the North."  Note that Celeborn
is actually the grandnephew of Elu Thingol, so he too is a Sindar
Elf; the broader interpretation accepts the idea that Celeborn is merely
hailing an Elf of the same Sindarin clan.  However, a narrower interpretation might be
taken as well; perhaps Legolas is in some way related to Celeborn.

 

                Like Celeborn, Oropher is a remnant from the time of King Thingol.  Although it
is not specifically stated that Oropher is a refugee
of Thingol's kingdom, he is lumped in with the Elves
that fled East from the sack of Doriath
(Unfinished Tales, History of Galadriel and Celeborn).  Because he is Sindarin
it is highly likely that Oropher is one of the Elves
of Doriath.  Mayhap
Oropher was a cousin of Celeborn, or otherwise
related to him; indeed, Celeborn and Legolas' family share a love for
middle-Earth and the same distaste for Dwarves. 
Legolas dislikes Gimli and blames the Dwarves for encroachments upon his
father's land and the awakening of dark things in the deeps; Celeborn is the
one who has forbidden Dwarves to enter Lothlorien and
desires to take back his greeting to Gimli when he hears of the Balrog (The
Fellowship of the Ring, The Mirror of Galadriel).  Likely he sought out Silvan ways after politics
literally destroyed his likely home of Doriath; it
was a war between Elves over the magical Silmarils
that saw to the destruction of the once-mighty realm, not the enemy Melkor (Silmarillion, The Sack of Doriath).  From this
sort of violence, it is clear why an Elf might wish to completely lock himself
away from political battle and choose a low-level, quieter group of Elves to
make his home with.

 

                (Interestingly, Dwarves have a
bad history with Thingol as well; when they set a Silmaril (a magical jewel) in a piece of jewelry for him,
they were overcome with lust for the Silmaril and
killed Thingol over it (The Silmarillion, The
Sack of Doriath). 
Mayhap the grudge against Dwarves goes deeper in both Legolas and
Celeborn's families …)

 

                Therefore it is clear that
paternally, Legolas is Sindarin, and quite possibly
distantly related to Elu Thingol
himself.  However, Legolas counts himself
among the Silvan Elves.  As he says in The
Fellowship of the Ring of a deserted region once populated by Elves,
"The Elves of this land were of a race strange to us of the Silvan
folk."  He also sings a song created
by the Silvan Elves long ago, and Gimli, the Dwarf of the Fellowship calls
Legolas a 'Wood Elf' (The Two Towers, The White Rider). How can this be?

 

                The answer lies not in
bloodlines, perhaps, but rather in lifestyle. 
Although the Sindarin and Silvan Elves were of
one origin – the Telerin Elves – the Silvan folk were
a much more rustic and simple people than the Sindarin.  They took little to no part in the politics
of the Elves; they had no leader nor nation until the remains of Thingol's people came out of the West to rule them.  As was previously stated, Oropher
was of a mind to join the Silvan Elves in this impolitic life; he even adopted
their language, a dialect of Elvish not unlike his
own Sindarin Elvish, and
fighting style (Unfinished Tales, History of Galadriel and Celeborn).

 

                Although it is not explicitly
stated thusly, it is likely that Thranduil was of a like mind with his
father.  After all, he named his own son
after the fashion of the Silvan Elves. 
The name 'Legolas' means 'Green-leaves', which is a rather distinctly
Silvan, referring back to their woodland home. 
However, it is important to note that spelling is Silvan.  The pure Sindarin form
of 'Green-leaves' would be 'Laegolas', where the
syllable 'laeg' means 'green'; in Silvan, 'leg' is
the word for 'green'.  Therefore,
Legolas' name is Silvan in origin (Letters, 211).

 

                Legolas is thus shown to be in
the rather unique position of being Sindarin by
bloodline but Silvan by nature.  One
could speculate that somehow Legolas does indeed have Silvan blood; nothing is
said of his grandmother or mother, and so it is easy to assume his parentage
could in fact be mixed.  However, on the
matter of Legolas' maternal bloodlines Tolkien is silent; one can only
speculate and make vague conjectures.  In
the end it does not seem to matter much to Legolas, who is perfectly happy
being exactly what he is: a Wood Elf who loves the water and the trees.

 

Conclusion

                Like most Elves, Legolas
Greenleaf's bloodlines are tied up tightly in the cocoon of Elvish history. 
He is descended from the Teleri, which were
the largest group of the Eldarin Elves; his father
and grandfather are both from the Sindarin part of
the Telerin Elves. 
Nothing is known of his mother or grandmother, however, who may very
well be from the Silvan part of the Telerin
Elves.  He lives as a Silvan Elf due to
his granfather's choices and experiences, and his
father's as well; he is even named in the Silvan language.  Therefore, Legolas is brought up to consider
himself not Sindarin as his paternal origins dictate,
but rather Silvan, as the lifestyle he adopted dictates.

 

                Never given the need to unravel
Legolas' origins, the master creator of Middle-Earth failed to do so, and now
much of the Elf's past is shrouded in mystery, the knowledge lost upon the
esteemed Tolkien's death.  Tolkien left not a key, but lock picks, small
bits and pieces of knowledge from which some small part can be gleaned.  I hope that I have managed with the tools
offered to give a glimpse at the bloodlines of Legolas Greenleaf, and to
demonstrate why they do not quite matter as much as it might seem.

 

*   *   *

 

Thank
you for reading.  Any and all feedback is
appreciated.

~~Victoria

 
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