Legolas

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LEGOLAS ~ son of Thranduil, Sindarin King of Mirkwood, and grandson of Oropher whom some writings say was the first ruler of the Wood Elves in that place. Movie gossip gives Legolas's age as 2931 years old; however, this is not born out in any of Tolkien's writings, so the source of this calculation remains unknown. (An odd note is that 2931 is the year of Aragorn's birth, whether or not this is of any relevance.) Of Legolas's past little or nothing is known, before he appeared at the Council of Elrond as an envoy of his father's people. The only hints of Legolas's heritage are in fragments, such as mention in Tolkien’s "The Lost Tales" that Oropher and Thranduil led an army of Wood Elves to fight beside Gil-Galad in the Last Alliance, where Oropher and two-thirds of his men were killed. After Sauron's defeat Thranduil returned home to the Great Greenwood and took up the throne. Yet in time the return of Shadow changed the forest's name to Mirkwood, and drove the Wood Elves slowly north. There they finally built an underground stronghold in the northeast corner of the great forest. Tolkien further wrote, in Appendix B of LOTR, that Thranduil's people came under bitter assault during the War of the Ring, "and there was long battle under the trees and great ruin of fire; but in the end Thranduil had the victory." After the War, Celeborn of Lothlorien and Thranduil of Mirkwood met in the now-cleansed forest, which they rechristened "Eryn Lasgalen," the Wood of Greenleaves, and there divided the freed lands between their peoples. Legolas's own life, however, is a mystery before his appearance in Rivendell. His initial mission apparently was to inform them that Gollum had escaped the custody of the Wood Elves and was lost, but he was thereafter numbered among the Fellowship of the Ring. As with Gimli, he remained with Aragorn throughout the War of the Ring, and fought at Helm's Deep and the Pelannor Fields, aided in seizing the fleet at Pelargir and also rode in the van to the very Gates of Barad-dыr. Of his deeds or those of Gimli on that black field no record tells, but he would bear into the West the tale of that desperate day, that none will forget so long as the world remains. Legolas also saw Aragorn crowned and married, and saw Mirkwood restored, and later Legolas led some of his own folk south to the forests of Ilithien, where the greenwood rejoiced to be free of Shadow. Yet as the Fellowship and their friends passed Beyond in one fashion or another, at last there were only the three companions of old, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. When Aragorn left his life in the 120th year of the Fourth Age, Legolas left soon after in the way of the Elves, building him a ship at Ilithien and sailing down the Anduin to the Sea, and thence from the circles of the world. With him it is said he took Gimli the Dwarf, his last and dearest friend on earth.