Legolas is the son of Thranduil, the King of the Elves of Northern Mirkwood. He is also a member of The Fellowship of the Ring in The Lord of the Rings. Legolas also appeared in the films of The Hobbit. Does he appear in the book The Hobbit?
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No, Legolas does not appear in the original text of the Hobbit, even though Thorin's company does go through Mirkwood and meet the Wood-Elves and their king.
In fact, the King isn't even named in the book, not to mention any sons he might have, and the description of the Wood-Elves is a far cry from that of the Elves in the Lord of the Rings - wild and dangerous and fond of wine. Their king isn't even given a name - he's just the Elf King. It's clear that he didn't really have the whole backstory of the Elves in mind when he wrote them - The Hobbit wasn't even originally planned to be part of the Legendarium of the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion, it just merged into it later.
Kevin The Knight
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Avner Shahar-Kashtan
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1Wild and dangerous? I wouldn't have summarised it that harshly. Are you referring to the pre-retcon Hobbit (which I haven't read)? – leftaroundabout Jul 03 '14 at 11:09
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12From Chapter 8: "They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise." – Avner Shahar-Kashtan Jul 03 '14 at 11:14
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In The Hobbit, the Wood-Elves are compared with the High Elves (who correspond to the Noldor, I think) by saying that the Wood-Elves are "more dangerous and less wise". – Matt Gutting Jul 03 '14 at 11:14
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13As I understand it, there are three classes of elves. The high elves (Lothlorien, the Grey Havens), the middle-class elves (Rivendell), and the embarrassing no-class country-cousin elves of Mirkwood. – Joe L. Jul 03 '14 at 12:35
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19It's a bit more complicated than that, with the division between Moriquendi and Calaquendi, but also the intermingling between the Noldor of Valinor and the Teleri of Beleriand, but that's a whole different question right there. – Avner Shahar-Kashtan Jul 03 '14 at 14:25
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I"m pretty sure that the wood elves of Mirkwood are Avari, like Eol. – Zo the Relativist Jul 03 '14 at 15:05
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I had heard Tolken made up the languages for the elves – edthethird Jul 03 '14 at 16:24
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1@JoeL. Not really. The high-elves left in ME are very few and mostly in Rivendell and the aristos of Lorien. The majority actual subjects of Lorien are pretty much the same people (aka not high elves) as the subjects of Mirkwood - Thranduil himself would be sorta one of the 'middle' elves. – Shisa Jul 04 '14 at 06:39
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4@edthethird: Actually, the made-up elven languages (Quendi and Sindarin, which are influenced by Finish and Welsh, respectively) are what brought the whole Tolkien universe into being in the first place; Tolkien was an accomplished philologist, and toyed with languages. He basically created his fantasy universe to give those languages a background. – DevSolar Jul 04 '14 at 08:07
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3These are all good questions, and they should be asked as questions. Comments are transient and will eventually disappear. – Avner Shahar-Kashtan Jul 04 '14 at 08:20
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1(Specifically regarding the relations between different elf-folk, this question might help) – Avner Shahar-Kashtan Jul 04 '14 at 09:12
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1Actually from the earliest drafts onwards, Tolkien quite freely mixed in elements from the Legendarium (Beren and Lúthien were in the first draft!), but whether this was intended to link the Hobbit with the other legends or whether it was a case of Tolkien just using the material to provide a sense of background is probably worthy of a separate question. John Rateliff (in History of the Hobbit) presents some evidence that the Elven-king was originally intended to be Thingol which (if true) would mean he had no son. – Jul 04 '14 at 19:18
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When Tolkien invented The Hobbit for his children, he had as yet no idea of what would happen next, or a very vague one. It's after it was printed and the book became a huge success that he wrote the Lord of the ring as a follow up. That was not intented. So Legolas didn't exist for sure, nor Thranduil. The books "Unfinished tales" and "The book of Lost tales" give plenty of information about what was the state of Tolkien's world before the writing of the Hobbit. Even the Silmarillon which was yet unpublished, was largely rewritten after The Lord of the Ring, to fit the new story line. – Joel Dec 04 '14 at 03:36
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"The Hobbit wasn't even originally planned to be part of the Legendarium of the Lord of the Rings" - but it is also said that the Necromancer was always meant to be Sauron, so how do those two facts sit together? – Wade Aug 18 '21 at 10:11
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@JoeL. Rivendell is mostly High Elves (the remnants of Eregion), while Galadriel is the only High Elf (Noldo) in Lorien - her subjects are all Sindar, as in Mirkwood. – OrangeDog Aug 18 '21 at 10:59
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He does not explicitly appear, as the other answers here note, but in not mentioning his name it is also not made explicit that Legolas is not in Mirkwood when Bilbo and the Dwarves make their way through. In fact, as Peter Jackson noted by putting him into The Desolation of Smaug, his apparent age and forest of origin make it clear that he certainly could have been one of the elves the Hobbits ran into during their adventures (or misadventures) in the forest. As Jimmy Shelter has pointed out, there is no familiar interaction between Gloin and Legolas at the Council of Elrond, but this could easily be chalked up to the old Dwarven-Elven feud (although, of course, the real-world reason is that Legolas had not been invented when The Hobbit was written).
What is revealed in the Tolkien Legendarium is:
- Legolas was the son of Thranduil Greenleaf, the Elvenking of Mirkwood (formerly Greenwood)
- The Mirkwood Elves were becoming increasingly withdrawn and xenophobic in the Third Age, making it very likely that the son of the Elvenking would have been among their number when the Dwarves' company entered the Elvenking's halls
- Elves did not reach maturity until near their hundredth year, meaning that Legolas' adventures with the Fellowship must have happened after his first century of life. Counting back to Bilbo's journey with the Dwarves, Legolas was (at the youngest) in his mid to late twenties during those events, and probably far older (the film producers claim he was 2,931 years old during the adventures of the Fellowship, but that has no basis in the book's canon. More telling is, as Paul Griffiths notes, he says he "feel[s] young again" when venturing through Fangorn after the Fellowship fragments).
So clearly, it is possible (and maybe even likely) that the Dwarven Company met Legolas, though the book never mentions this meeting.
Tauriel, on the other hand, was invented entirely for the film adaptation.
ilinamorato
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Legolas certainly seems to be a less experienced ranger than Aragorn, suggesting he didn't leave Mirkwood much and/or was quite young when he participated in the Fellowship. – La-comadreja Jul 03 '14 at 14:39
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8Legolas is not particularly young. In Fangorn, he says of the wood: "'It is old, very old,' said the Elf. 'So old that almost I feel young again, as I have not felt since I journeyed with you children.'" – Crowman Jul 03 '14 at 15:24
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Thorin's company did not meet Legolas in any of Tolkien's works. They might have met him in fan-fic or in extrapolated stories, but saying "they could have met him" isn't the same as "they met him". – Avner Shahar-Kashtan Jul 04 '14 at 18:01
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4It actually seems from the Council of Elrond, and the lack of interaction between Legolas and Gloin (aside from a single spoken line), that the company almost certainly did not meet him during their time in Thranduils halls. – Jul 04 '14 at 23:38
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1@La-comadreja - Seems to be, perhaps, but as Paul Griffiths says, he alludes to being old in Fangorn. Added that to my answer, along with Jimmy Shelter's reminder that Legolas and Gloin don't seem to know one another (though I think it's far from "almost certain" from that one fact). – ilinamorato Jul 06 '14 at 04:04
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4@Avner Shahar-Kashtan - There are a lot of things in the Legendarium that are intended to be inferred, though they aren't explicitly said. This is the case in all literature. We may infer that a pony has hair, though Bill's goes unmentioned. – ilinamorato Jul 06 '14 at 04:05
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@anonymoususer: It's generally considered bad form to substantially edit an answer. Instead, you should use a comment. Your edit has been rejected, but I preserved your text here: – ThePopMachine Aug 25 '15 at 00:24
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*Correction: Actually there is in fact an instance of familiar interaction between Gloin and Legolas at the Council of Elrond. Legolas explains to the council that Gollum has escaped from the elves in Mirkwood where he was being held because they were perhaps to kind to him by allowing him special privelages (specifically allowing him to go outside to climb a tree while under watch of an elvish guard.) – ThePopMachine Aug 25 '15 at 00:24
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To this Gloin makes a reply: "'You were less tender to me,' said Gloin with a flash of his eyes, as old memories were stirred of his imprisonment in the deep places of the Elven-king's halls (249)." Whether or not "You" reffered to Legolas specifically or to the Mirkwood Elves in general is unclear, but given the context in which Gloin replies, I believe that Gloin remembers Legolas personally from his imprisonment with Thorin's company in Mirkwood. – ThePopMachine Aug 25 '15 at 00:24
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No, he was added for the movie. They may have seen or even met him, but he was never mentioned in the books, let alone by name.
If you search The Hobbit for Legolas (which is easily done on Google Books), you will not find that word.
SQB
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4"made up" I think is a bit strong language; if you consider the revised version, as it fits in the universe of the LoTR, the dwarves met with Thranduil, father of Legolas. Considering the timeline and the longevity of elves, it is entirely plausible that they could have met or at the very least seen Legolas, even if that part wasn't included in the story. tl;dr it's easily arguable that he existed, and just didn't appear in the story. – TylerH Jul 03 '14 at 16:04
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1@TylerH made up does not imply implausible. Yes it is plausible (for once) but it was also made up for the movie since it was not the case in the book. Unlike, say, a human tossing a dwarf in full armor 4 meters or so with one hand! That was both made up for the movies and implausible :). – terdon Jul 03 '14 at 18:35
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@terdon That's true. I didn't mean implausible, though, only that SQB's terminology made it sound a little like it wasn't at all possible to exist in the book through speculation. Agreed about the dwarf-tossing, bit. That was ridiculous. – TylerH Jul 03 '14 at 18:38
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3@terdon I think there should be a distinction between "liberal interpretation" and "made up". I would Tauriel made up, and Legolas a liberal intrepration. Surely there were female elves, but never one recorded named Tauriel or recorded as head of the guard, while Legolas has a deep backstory and would not be a surprise in any situation that also involved his father. – corsiKa Jul 04 '14 at 17:35
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Legolas is never specifically mentioned in the book. However, he may very likely have been present in Mirkwood at the time that Thorin's company was imprisoned there.
Many of the answers here say that there was no familiar interaction between Gloin and Legolas at the Council of Elrond, but, respectfully disagreeing, there actually is in fact an instance of familiar interaction between Gloin and Legolas at the Council of Elrond. Legolas explains to the council that Gollum has escaped from the elves in Mirkwood where he was being held because they were perhaps too kind to him by allowing him special privelages (specifically allowing him to go outside to climb a tree while under watch of an elvish guard.)
To this Gloin makes a reply:
"You were less tender to me," said Gloin with a flash of his eyes, as old memories were stirred of his imprisonment in the deep places of the Elven-king's halls."
(This is page 249 in my copy of The Fellowship.)
Whether or not "You" referred to Legolas specifically or to the Mirkwood Elves in general is unclear, but given the context in which Gloin replies, I believe that Gloin does in fact remember Legolas personally from his imprisonment with Thorin's company in Mirkwood.
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No, Legolas does not make an appearance in the novel, though Thorin and company are captured by Wood-Elves.
None of the elves are named explicitly in the novel; even the king is simply referred to as "The King" or like variations.
Much of the movies deviate from the original story line. For example, in An Unexpected Journey, the rock giants were added in simply for more action. They never appear in the book. Nor do the orcs; there are goblins, briefly, but they don't chase the dwarves and hobbit like in the movie.
Dragona13
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7"[A]cross the valley the stone-giants were out, and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang ... they could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides."
The Hobbit, Chapter IV: "Over Hill And Under Hill"
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This subject causes alot of confusion between the bookies and the filmies. Seeing as the books were written by Tolkien himself we should use only the books for reference. There is no mention of Legolas in the Hobbit.
The Elf Legolas Greenleaf is actually first mentioned in The Fall of Gondolin although we can't be too sure if this is actually the same Legolas. When Legolas first realizes he is about to face Durin's Bane in Moria he clearly loses his cool. While all elves hated balrogs if Legolas was at Gondolin he would have witnessed the deaths of Ecthelion and Glorfindel not to mention the general devastation wreaked by the balrogs.
This example of genealogy suggests that he is of the Gondolindrim but not if he is Noldorin. Being the son of Thranduil means he would be Silvan. After giving this great thought, I have come to the conclusion that the two elves are most definitely two separate elves. The Legolas of Gondolin was of the House of The Tree and members of that house fought with heavy spiked clubs and slings as opposed to the marksman skills so noteworthy during the War of the Ring. He lead the survivors out of the Ecoriath and was a known scout with excellent sight and hearing. These skills I feel would be inherent to all elves rather than to only Legolas.
Omar Devon Little
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2Everything after your third sentence is completely irrelevant to the question, and everything up through the third sentence has already been said by other users. – jwodder Nov 09 '14 at 06:03
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2The Legolas of Gondolin, was a Noldor of the Gondolindrim House of the Tree, not a green elf Teleri as is Legolas of Mirkwood. So it's absolutly certain that he's not the same. Only a namesake, like the Glorfindel of Gondolin is not the same as the Glorfindel of Rivendell. – Joel Dec 04 '14 at 03:28
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1@Joel Glorfindel of Gondolin is the same as Glorfindel of Rivendell, as it happens, but you are right about the two elves named Legolas. – David Roberts Aug 19 '21 at 03:33
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@DavidRoberts Glorfindel was reincarnated by the Valar after his death fighting the Balrog and sent back to Middle-Earth in the Second Age – Aug 19 '21 at 18:05
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@DavidRoberts but different hroa. Still, I mostly agree with you, just think you should be careful with the phrase "the same" – Aug 20 '21 at 16:11