NPC:Legolas
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A woodland Elf of great renown, Legolas Greenleaf draws his heritage back through the ancient Sindarin line. He is the son of Thranduil, the Elf-king of Mirkwood, though the actual date of his birth is not known. Some say that Legolas has lived for five hundred years or more, but no matter his age, none can dispute that he has earned his place amongst the greatest of elven warriors, having played a key role in many great battles and having felled countless foul Orcs with his dark bow of Mirkwood. Though he does not speak of it, it is commonly held that he fought alongside his father at the foot of Erebor in the Battle of Five Armies.
Legolas's keen elven eyes, as well as his swiftness of foot, lightness of step (he can walk on snow without leaving a mark), and great skill with the bow have earned him a well-deserved reputation as a great warrior and champion of good. At the Council of Elrond, Legolas was chosen to represent the Elves as part of the Fellowship of the Ring, and to accompany the Hobbit Frodo Baggins on his quest to destroy the One Ring in Mordor - a great honour indeed.
Legolas is also possessed of a gentleness of spirit and an inner calm that never wavers in the face of seemingly insurmountable danger. He befriends a Dwarf, Gimli son of Glóin, an act all but unheard of these days in Middle-earth. Ancient friction between Elves and Dwarves, stemming from conflicts thousands of years ago, has proven hard to overcome, but Legolas and Gimli set an example for their kindred as the War of the Ring darkens the land.
Legolas has travelled far and wide from his home in Mirkwood and has fought evil throughout Eriador, pursuing the darkest of creatures and driving back the shadows that continue to spread from Mordor and Angmar.
Legolas remains in Rivendell, preparing for the long and arduous journey ahead. Players in The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM: Shadows of AngmarTM would be well-served by seeking out this Elf-prince in the vale of Imladris.
[edit] Legolas Greenleaf
[edit] Quick Facts
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| Dates: | Legolas' date of birth is not known. He passed over the Sea in IV 120 | ||||||||||||||
| Race: | Elves | ||||||||||||||
| Division: | Silvan Elves1 | ||||||||||||||
| Culture: | Elves of Mirkwood | ||||||||||||||
| Meaning: | 'Legolas' means simply 'Green Leaf' | ||||||||||||||
| Titles: | Greenleaf | ||||||||||||||
[edit] A prince of the Silvan Elves
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The son of Thranduil, and so a prince of the Woodland Realm in the northeast of Mirkwood, Legolas was descended from the Sindar, but counted himself one of the Silvan people. The date of his birth is not known, but he seems to have been several thousand years old at the time of the War of the Ring2. Of his life before the end of the Third Age, we know almost nothing. During Bilbo's adventures on his journey to Erebor, he spent several weeks in Thranduil's halls, and later encountered the entire army of the Wood-elves. It seems more than likely, then, that he would have encountered Legolas at this time, but if the two ever met, the fact is nowhere recorded.
He entered history proper on 25 October III 3018. Travelling westward to Rivendell as a messenger of his father, he was called to attend the Council of Elrond, where he reported the escape of Gollum. Afterwards, he was selected to join the Fellowship of the Ring as the representative of the Elves. He accompanied the Fellowship on its long journey into the south, following Gandalf and (after Gandalf's fall in Moria) Aragorn until the breaking of the Fellowship beneath Amon Hen.
After the division of the Fellowship, Legolas travelled with Aragorn and Gimli in their chase across Rohan in search of Merry and Pippin. Eventually their trail led them to Fangorn Forest, which enchanted Legolas to the extent that he revisited it with Gimli after the War. There, they discovered that the Hobbits were safe, and that Gandalf had returned as Gandalf the White. The Wizard led them to Edoras to meet with Théoden, whom he cured of Saruman's baleful influence. For a time after this, Legolas fought alongside the Men of Rohan. At the Battle of the Hornburg, he slew at least thirty-nine of the enemy, by his own count.
After journeying through Rohan, Aragorn elected to take the Paths of the Dead, and Legolas accompanied him, along with a company now swollen with Dúnedain out of the north and the sons of Elrond. With this Grey Company, Legolas travelled through the darkness beneath the White Mountains, where Aragorn made alliance with the Shadow Host, and then on through the southern lands of Gondor to Pelargir. There, Legolas fought alongside the Dead Men as they captured a Corsair fleet. In that battle he first heard the crying of gulls, and it awoke the sea-longing, filling him with the desire to take ship into the West.
From Pelargir, he sailed aboard the captured fleet to the Harlond, the docks south of Minas Tirith, and he fought alongside Aragorn in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. After the battle, he again followed Aragorn to the hopeless diversionary assault on the Gates of Mordor, and so was present at the downfall of Sauron.
During the War of the Ring, Legolas had formed a great friendship with Gimli the Dwarf, a remarkable thing between two races that normally held profound mistrust for one another. After the War, they journeyed together, visiting Aglarond and Fangorn Forest before travelling to their homes in the north. Soon, though, Legolas and Gimli returned into the south with many of their kindred. Legolas and his Elves of Mirkwood settled in the land of Ithilien, and it came to be called the fairest of all the western lands.
Legolas remained in Ithilien until the death of Aragorn in IV 120. At that time, he gave in to the sea-longing that had awoken at long before at Pelargir, and sailed out into the Great Sea and away from Middle-earth. Legend tells that he took his great friend Gimli with him into the West.
[edit] Footnotes
| 1 | At least, Legolas seems to refer to himself as a Silvan Elf. This is confusing, because his father Thranduil is elsewhere identified as one of the Sindar. The explanation lies in the the events following the arrival of Thranduil's father among the Silvan Elves of Greenwood the Great. That small band of Sindar merged themselves completely with the Silvan people of the Wood, leaving behind their Sindarin inheritance. That's why Legolas thinks of himself as a Silvan Elf, rather than one of the Sindar. |
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| 2 | Though Legolas' age is never established with certainty, he hints several times that he has lived for a very long time indeed: he would appear to be several thousand years old. Circumstantial evidence suggests that he was probably born sometime during the Second Age. We know from The Tale of Years that his father, Thranduil, passed into the east of Middle-earth from Lindon in the first millennium of the Second Age. However, this account doesn't mention Legolas his son, strongly suggesting that he had not been born at that point. The fact that Legolas saw himself as one of the Silvan Elves also supports this idea, as his father had not settled among the Silvan people at that time. Most likely, then, he was born after Thranduil had settled in Mirkwood, presumably in the latter part of the Second Age. Roughly speaking, this would make him somewhere between 3,000 and 5,500 years old during the War of the Ring. |
