Legolas a prince?

[AudrentheRanger]

OK, FOTR mentions King Thranduil is Legolas' dad, so who's his mom? And how old is he anyway? A book about the movie says that Olrando Bloom say he's 2,931 yrs. old. How'd he calculate that?

[Ithildin55]

Originally posted by AudrentheRanger
OK, FOTR mentions King Thranduil is Legolas' dad, so who's his mom? And how old is he anyway? A book about the movie says that Olrando Bloom say he's 2,931 yrs. old. How'd he calculate that?

This really doesn’t belong in the Silmarillion thread, so it will likely get moved. But, wherever it ends up, here’s the scoop on the Prince of Mirkwood:

There is no evidence I have ever heard of that Tolkien ever stated an age for Legolas or provided any information on his mother or possible siblings. Yes, King Thranduil, the Elvenking from The Hobbit, is his father.

The most logical estimates I have seen concerning his age place him about 500 – 1000 years old at the time of the War of the Ring. But that is only an estimate – Tolkien could have envisioned him being much older. Legolas makes several comments indicating that he considers himself old, and though 500 might be considered fairly young for an Elf, face it – 500 years is a long time for anybody!

The movie “assigned” an age of 2931 years for Legolas. The only reasoning I can guess at is this – and it is just a theory…
IIRC, I noted that according to the appendix of LOTR, Aragorn is 81 years old and was born in T.A. 2931 – so my guess is that they just switched that and placed Legolas’ birth in T.A. 81; making him just slightly older than Elladan and Elrohir (the twin sons of Elrond) and their sister Arwen (whose birthdates can be found in the Appendices of LOTR.) But, again, the age of 2931years old is true only for the movie version of the story.

Hope this helps,
Ithildin55

[Sister Golden Hair]

Moving to the Middle-earth forum.

[Sister Golden Hair]

IMO, Legolas was very young for an Elf, being about 900. In the HoMe series it state that Elves did not reach full stature until between 50 and 100 years. Legolas always reminded me of a teenage Elf, if you want to talk to someone who really knows Legolas, ask Entmoot's own Elanor Gamgee.

[Ñólendil]

I think Legolas is rather young for an Elf too, perhaps even younger than SGH's guess of 900.

[Elanor Gamgee]

Originally posted by Sister Golden Hair
IMO, Legolas was very young for an Elf, being about 900. In the HoMe series it state that Elves did not reach full stature until between 50 and 100 years. Legolas always reminded me of a teenage Elf, if you want to talk to someone who really knows Legolas, ask Entmoot's own Elanor Gamgee.

Thank you, Sister, that's very kind of you.
Still, I'm quite sure, anyone among the Mellyn would qualify for your definition. Your know whom I mean - Ithildin, Kirinki, Morgan, Rain, Luthien. Ithildin's answer is superb, IMHO.

[Elf.Freak]

Maybe 2931 was just a random number

[galadriel]

I've heard that they were trying to reinforce the idea that Elves are Old. Why you need to make Legolas old when you have fossils like Elrond, Celeborn, and Galadriel to cite as evidence, I can't fathom.

[Elven Princess Arwen]

Legolas is 2,931 years old. Gee, talk about seeing alot!

“All things are connected like the blood which unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” -Chief Seattle

*~*Arwen*~*

[galadriel]

But he ISN'T 2931 years old! Still, you're right, he is pretty durn old compared to your average Middle-earthling. It's kind of funny to think that our very own blonde-haired bow-wielding Legolas is older than rough-and-tough weather-stained Aragorn. But it's true.

[Nibs]

Originally posted by galadriel
But he ISN'T 2931 years old! Still, you're right, he is pretty durn old compared to your average Middle-earthling. It's kind of funny to think that our very own blonde-haired bow-wielding Legolas is older than rough-and-tough weather-stained Aragorn. But it's true.

You don't KNOW that for sure! HAHA!! *cackle cackle cackle*

[Sister Golden Hair]

We don't no for sure that he had blonde hair either.

[galadriel]

Originally posted by Nibs
You don't KNOW that for sure! HAHA!! *cackle cackle cackle*

Uh... ok. But wouldn't it be a mighty big coincidence if Peter Jackson's magic number just happened to coincide with Tolkien's unwritten beliefs on Legolas's age??

[Ñólendil]

We don't no for sure that he had blonde hair either.

That's an understatement. His hair could have been any color natural to hair.

[Rían]

There's no punk elves with pink hair? You've just shattered one of my ME ideas!

Since his dad's hair was "golden", according to the Hobbit (if the "woodland king" referred to is Thranduil, which seems likely), it's at least a semi-reasonable conjecture that Legolas' hair is blonde. (Funny how genetics work - both my husband and I have brown hair; 2 of our kids have brown hair, and one is a blondie - both his grandparents are blonde, and he looks exactly like them - the top half of his face looks like one granddad, and the bottom half like the other!)

[Ñólendil]

That's one of the two most common arguments. A lot of people point out that most Elves had dark hair, and a lot of people point out that his father was blonde. Personally, if I was ever going to draw Legolas -- and I am no artist -- I would give him brown hair just to be different.

[galadriel]

Our ability to speculate really depends on knowing who Legolas' mother was. So he inherited the blond gene from Thranduil. If his mother was also Sindarin, she could be brown, blonde, or silver-haired. (Am I right on this?) And if she was Silvan, she'd probably be brunette. In any of these circumstances, she could pass Legolas genes that would allow him to be blond. Of course, the possibilities of him being blond would increase if she were Sindarin (and thus a more likely carrier of blond genes).

And of course, we don't know who his mother was. So we're back to where we started.

Before I saw the movie, I always though of Legolas as brown-haired. But Thranduil being blond convinced me, even though it's not definitive proof.

[Elven Princess Arwen]

I meant to pose that as a question. As in: "he is 2,931 years old?" i just made the wrond puncuation. But that is his assigned "movie age" but wheather his real age is that, if you wanna calucate it and find out exactly what it is i ain't stoppin ya.


“All things are connected like the blood which unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” -Chief Seattle

*~*Arwen*~*

[Rían]

Originally posted by Ñólendil
Personally, if I was ever going to draw Legolas -- and I am no artist -- I would give him brown hair just to be different.

and if I were to draw Legolas, people would break out laughing! (I draw at the level of a kindergarten student )

No, we'll never know his age or the color of his hair. But, just to irritate Legolas fans , JRRT himself said that Legolas probably accomplished the least of all the Fellowship. He must have been in a cranky mood after a book signing where fans asked about Legolas' hair color Really, I think shooting down the Nazgul's steed was pretty good, and I don't recall anything special that Gimli did, except being really good with his axe in battle. But Legolas saved Aragorn with his archery skills, too (or was it Éomer? I forget....)

[Rían]

Here it is, in the Helm's Deep chpt - Gimli saves Éomer via axe, and Legolas saves Aragorn via arrow.