Q: How Is Thranduil Different from the Book?
ANSWER: Ah, Thranduil, known to us bookies as “the Elvenking” (or “the Elven-king” for the hyphenators among us). How does the immensely talented Lee Pace character differ from the character in the book? That strikes me as an interesting exploration because, frankly, there are three characters (possibly four) in the books who fill the role of Thranduil the Elven-king of The Hobbit. Let me ‘splain.
In the beginning there was Thingol, who was a rather nasty unpleasant fellow in The Book of Lost Tales. By virtue of Beren’s love for Thingol’s daughter he was carried forward into new stories where he became less unpleasant, but he had a destiny and no matter how the story was rewritten Thingol was to die at the hands of Dwarves.
John Rateliff tells us in The History of The Hobbit that at one point (he believes) Bilbo and his companions did meet Thingol, but J.R.R. Tolkien changed his mind and transformed the Elvenking of Mirkwood into a new character, a less renowned Elvenking whose fate was to differ from Thingol’s.
This new Elvenking had a fondness for jewels and feasting in the woods but he was compassionate and trustworthy toward his friends (such as the Men of Lake-town). This Elvenking met Thorin Oakenshield, who was traveling through elf-lands without permission. The Elves apparently knew the Dwarves were passing along the road but left them alone until the Dwarves strayed in the woods. When Thorin refused to explain what he was doing the Elvenking locked him up. But Thorin and his companions escaped captivity, went on to rouse the local dragon, and claimed a vast treasure for themselves.
At this point the Elvenking went into action, leading an army toward the huge treasure. But he quickly turned aside to help the Men of Lake-town, whose homes had been destroyed in battle with the now-dead dragon. From there the Elvenking went on to the Dwarven mountain expecting to find no one alive; instead Thorin surprised them and refused to negotiate with anyone because the Elvenking had imprisoned him. And then there was a great battle and Thorin died and the Elvenking became friendly with Thorin’s cousin and successor.
The third incarnation of Thranduil was as a background character in The Lord of the Rings. Here he became the father of Legolas, a not-so-well-traveled elf who was older than trees and who had been sent to Elrond’s house to let everyone know that troublesome little Gollum had escaped. By the time Legolas returned home he had a song in his heart and a desire for the sea. He led away some of the Elvenking’s people to dwell for a time in far Ithilien (which had once been home to other Elves). This Thranduil was the adventurer from Lindon who founded a kingdom among the Silvan Elves of the east.
The fourth incarnation of Thranduil came in an essay titled “The Princes of the Silvan Elves”. Here he became the son of a Sindarin adventurer, Oropher, who ventured east from Lindon early in the Second Age. This version of events does not contradict any others because Thranduil could have traveled with him (but we don’t know what Tolkien intended). Oropher joined Gil-galad’s alliance against Sauron at the end of the Second Age and he died in battle; in the Third Age Thranduil led the remnant of his father’s army north to Greenwood the Great (not yet renamed Mirkwood).
This fourth version of Thranduil led his people further north to found the kingdom that Thorin eventually traveled through. He was a traveled elf who had seen horrors in war. He was wise and good but reluctant to play any further part in the great affairs of Middle-earth.
So where does Lee Pace’s Thranduil fit into all this? My feeling is that his character owes a little something to each of these four kingly characters. The Thranduil we see in the movies is more complex than the Elvenking of The Hobbit. I think there is good reason to make him complicated, because the character in the book plays such a small role in the story he would seem little more than a contrivance on the screen; something akin to, say, a street vendor rather than a great king.
In the book the Elvenking suspects that Thorin and his friends intend to visit the Mountain and he bides his time; so it is not unnatural for Lee Pace’s Thranduil to be willing to wait 100 years for Thorin to strike a deal. That is very similar to how the story unfolds in the book. But one thing Peter Jackson did was to have Thranduil pay homage to Thror (you see this in one of Bilbo’s narrative flashbacks, I think in the first movie). For unexplained reasons (other than, perhaps, the greatness of Thror’s kingdom) Thranduil surrenders up a box full of white gemstones to Thror.
These gems appear to be his only interest in the treasure of Erebor (in the movie). In a recent spy report from TheOneRing.Net Thranduil seems to only be interested in the gems. Why? I don’t know. I think we’ll have to wait until all the Extended Editions are out to understand some of the back stories for these characters.
Lee Pace’s Thranduil strikes me as darker than the Elvenking of The Hobbit but at the same time he seems to incorporate some of the history that Tolkien shared in the other sources. And then there is the relationship between Thranduil, Legolas, and Tauriel. She is, of course, only a cinematic character but Thranduil’s warning to Tauriel not to encourage romantic hope in Legolas’ heart reminds me of Thingol’s disdain for Beren in The Silmarillion. This hoighty toity attitude may be appropriate for an arrogant king who believes he comes of a superior caste but it’s not clear that Thranduil (in the books) saw himself that way.
Oropher (by one account) wished to distance himself from the Noldor and their Dwarven friends, so he subsumed himself in the Silvan elf culture. For legal reasons Peter Jackson’s team cannot incorporate that directly into their characters, so maybe they decided to go the other way in order to give Thranduil a sense of emotional conflict with his son.
The cinematic Thranduil is thus more interesting to the audience: he is meddling in his son’s romantic life and he seems to be an unreliable ally in war. But Peter Jackson’s Thranduil may also be following in the footsteps of the irrational Elf-Dwarf hatred he introduced into “The Lord of the Rings” (there is nothing like this in Tolkien’s stories). Tolkien’s elves and dwarves don’t hate each other; in fact, they have experienced many thousands of years of great friendship. But by the end of the Third Age all the races have been driven apart by Sauron’s designs, and so they mistrust each other.
I had kind of hoped Peter would tone down the hatred theme in “The Hobbit”, and in a way he did, but instead of doing a complete about-face on the topic he is retro-engineering an explanation for why Gimli bursts out with “never trust an elf!” at the Council of Elrond. It is at once both a clever construction and an unfortunate choice because these movies will forever cloud the discussions of Middle-earth with confused and ill-informed commentary (that was already in place but only magnified after the first film came out). (UPDATE: In fact, people criticize this article because they continue to overlook the many references Tolkien made to the thousands of years of Elf-Dwarf friendship.)
So, on the one hand, Lee Pace’s Thranduil makes perfect sense. His complicated relationship with the Dwarves of Erebor seems to imply that we won’t see the great friendship between Elves, Men, and Dwarves at the end of Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” story which Tolkien created at the end of his Hobbit story. Or, if we do, people are going to be GREATLY surprised and confused (because then that destroys Gimli’s rational credibility altogether).
On the other hand, this is really not the Thranduil of the book. This character is more developed, has multiple motivations and concerns, and stimulates (I think) more interest than the original Elvenking of The Hobbit. J.R.R. Tolkien for his part seems to have recognized both the need to elaborate on Thranduil and he justified doing so gradually by addressing obvious questions.
See also:
- Why Does Thranduil Wear Rings in the Movies?
- Why Did Thranduil Refuse to Help the Dwarves of Erebor?
- Was the Elvenking of The Hobbit Supposed to be Thingol Greycloak?
- How Faithful is Peter Jackson’s Hobbit to Tolkien’s Book?
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Interesting thoughts as always, Michael. It will be interesting to check in on this after we see the final film (and even more so once the extended edition is released).
I have heard that Thranduil’s obsession with the white gems is related to his mysterious and missing spouse, but whether that will actually be made clear in the film or is just part of the backstory that the filmmakers create but only include in some tie-in books (or completely untrue), I don’t know.
Thanks for the tip, Doug. Something I originally intended to mention, but forgot to because I was interrupted while working on this article, is that white gems are mentioned in the book. The first mention comes when the Dwarves watch the Elves feasting in the woods:
Of course, Dain eventually gives the necklace of Girion (“made of five hundred emeralds green as glass”) to the Elvenking.
Well it is said that specifically he had weakness for silver and white jewels in book (but he also liked green) so the silver as I understand is liked by elves of third kindred more than other metals, Noldor maybe like more gold? :). But what the movie version had in mind with those gems I have no idea it seemed that those were rather ordered gemstones that were supposed to be bought by him and for some weird, totally unexplained reason withheld from him (extended edition of Unexpected Journey).
Ah, the Elvenking…Chrismas is coming and we will probably see the last new movie from Middle Earth for decades to come. That thought makes me a little sad, especially since I came to regard the Hobbit Trilogy as a wasted potential. This had all the ingredients to be great – but Peter Jackson’s idiosyncrasies and obsessions got in the way.
Thanks for exploring the possible facets of Thranduil’s character given by Tolkien himself.
I have to confess the mystery of Thranduil is the only thing which keeps me still being interested and looking forward to the third installment of this so unfortunately uneven trilogy.
Whatever you may say about Peter Jackson’s style – he has a wonderful eye for casting great and unforgettable actors. Lee Pace as Thranduil is quite something. He outshines Orlando’s Legolas lights out. Hopefully we will learn more about what makes Thranduil tick. And hopefully we don’t have to wait for the extended edition in order to understand him fully.
Congratulations: you manage to say interesting things regarding the film, which is no mean feat! And I completely agree with Sabine: Jackson’s Hobbit is wasted potential indeed (not to put it stronger).
This quote from towards the end of Chapter 8 is interesting: “In ancient days they had had wars with some of the dwarves, whom they accused of stealing their treasure. It is only fair to say that the dwarves gave a different account, and said that they only took what was their due, for the elf-king had bargained with them to shape his raw gold and silver, and had afterwards refused to give them their pay. If the elf-king had a weakness it was for treasure, especially for silver and white gems; and though his hoard was rich, he was ever eager for more, since he had not yet as great a treasure as other elf-lords of old. His people neither mined nor worked metals or jewels, nor did they bother much with trade or with tilling the earth.” Here and in the surrounding paragraphs he seems to use “elf-king” to mean both the ancient Thingol and the contemporary Thranduil as if they are, in fact, both one and the same. In other words, for THE HOBBIT he has mined parts of the Thingol story for the Elvenking’s backstory. This would also be the source of the movie character’s weakness for treasure, I guess.
Hmm I have different opinion on the movie version of character (not o mention that I think that book Elvenking Thranduil wasn’t all that simplistic character, even though he was minor character in book, for me personally he had more complex personality than movie version which was bend seriously towards one-dimensional jerk :)).
For me he was needlessly ‘villainized’ in movie. He is so cold and indifferent, sometimes even seemingly gIeeful at the prospect of dwarves having bad things happen to them, thinking only about himself. Also while Lee Pace might have done good job for me personally at times his character was too theatrical, overacting, comparing it to previous portrayal of Elves as those emotionless, awkward guys, the difference with emotional reactions is glaring. I actually don’t get why this ‘conflict’ between his son involving Tauriel is at all needed in movie. First we have no actual conflict per se between Legolas and Thranduil in movie plot, it is seen that Legolas at one point questions decision of killing the interrogated Orc (”you promised to release him” and his father viciously says, I did, it is then that character seems even darker as you pointed) but from then on there is no actual conflict, sure Legolas goes against his orders (which are completely irrational and not feasible at all, closing his kingdom? What Peter Jackson thought the the ‘kingdom’ in question is this underground stronghold? Hahaha), but he does so pursuing or rather reluctantly following Tauriel. The main drama and conflict between Thorin and Thranduil would suffice (my goodness this movie has more and more needless drama 🙂 it gives DoS overly dark tone through that).
If they really wanted to put Tauriel and Legolas to good use it would be sufficient to have them being sent on purpose by the more reasonable bookThranduil version. In book Elvenking actually is wiser, kinder, more reasonable, more engaged in local policies and concerned about what’s going on in the world in contrast with indifference, isolationistic behaviour of movie version (though possibly Wood Elves from books are a bit isolated :)). Elvenking in book sent out his spies and messangers as far as shore of Long Lake, his working class elves were often staying at Esgaroth feasting merrily with people there in friendship, there is nothing of that in movie at all, it’s as if elves in DoS are the eliticist guys who do not lower themselves to be associated with Men and the arrogance of movie version of king is highlighted through this talk about ”lowly silvan elf”.
I think what was done in movie is setting a contrast between Tauriel and Thranduil for the sake of invented female character. To give her place and depict her as somewhat better, more open minded, and ‘oh so nobler’, than her leader. To portray her as rebellious, but without bad connotations, to make her more sympathetic for viewers, because oh look she is struggling with this bad king who is trying to stifle her free spirit, who is making bad decisions so she could shine through with her inner goodness and sense of right and wrong. It is basicaly sacrificing one character for the sake of promoting another. She is made so to satisfy modern political correctness, need to put in story ‘strong female presence’ (which is misguided in portraying women as warrior or man-like tough and oh so deadly ughh, though next they proceed to make Tauriel swoon over tall attractive dwarf immediately bonding the two with little reason or build up to it, and she chases to save him concerned and the Orc questioned in her presence as if knowing her affection directs to her taunt that the attractive dwarf will die from morgul arrow the most ridiculous invention so far, sure there are apparently darts with potent poison used by Nazgul but Orcs don’t have such weaponry and certainly simple poisoned Orc-arrow would do the trick here, but I also see no reason to actually make this subplot since so far the characters did so many ridiculous CGI made special stunts that there is no sense of danger for their safety if they can bounce through a great chasm like in first movie without injury).
I could write more but it’s not important, I also think that there is no point in analyzing the character in so many different versions, sure Tolkien developped his ideas and stages, it in the end it does not make that big difference. Book of Lost Tales version of Thingol is also out of question since as you told Book of Lost Tales stories are not connected with main Middle Earth legendarium as we know it now. Thingol after all wasn’t as bad as he is portrayed by people from fandom, he also showed kindness even towards lesser Elf Nellas and thought her words important in judgment of Turin, even making a joke to relax her nervousness a bit, he was for Turin like a father, he accepted finally Beren, was moved by his love for his daughter and he loved his child very much, he had a bit of pride and that was his flaw.
Similarly Thranduil character, the Elvenking in The Hobbit book in Lotr is retconned to be given name and son Legolas (as those elements are not mentioned in Hobbit proper narrative), and the version of him coming to start his kingdom from West is only drafted in appendices. And only in Unfinished Tales this is more elaborated upon, but I see no glaring differences to his origin in The Hobbit and background, and as he was introduced in Lotr: ,,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”. He in the end is made a different character altogether he might have elements to him similar to that of Thingol but that doesn’t mean that we have to take them as exact copies of each other. Whatever influences of the First Age stories there are in Hobbit are only alluded to and the main Hobbit plot is now fully set in Third Age and given it’s internal history and place in the imaginary world.
A little late to this talk, but…
“For me he was needlessly ‘villainized’ in movie.”
In fairness, though, he’s an unsympathetic character in the book, too – until he shows up at the survivor camp of Laketown, where Tolkien now makes clear that Thranduil was not quite so bad as the Dwarves’ perception made out – “he had pity” on the survivors, and “he was the lord of a good and kindly people.” That said, there’s enough in what little characterization and background Tolkien provides to provide for some more ambiguity and even sternness to his character for an adapter. More to the point, Jackson clearly wanted drama, and drama requires conflict. Thranduil’s sternness was emphasized to provide that conflict.
It’s interesting that the “The Battle of the Five Armies” forgoes the chance to soften him by excluding any of depiction of him after the battle, such as Bilbo’s meeting and gift to him; Jackson likely cuts out almost everything post-battle as anti-climactic; but I think a brief scene wrapping up a few loose ends could have been done. Perhaps it will make the Extended Edition.
Hello Michael,
It’s interesting to revisit your comment that “we won’t see the great friendship between Elves, Men, and Dwarves at the end of Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” story” in light of what we now know after the release of “Battle of the Five Armies.” Jackson is largely silent on the point, since almost nothing is depicted after the battle save for Bilbo’s farewell to the Dwarves until his arrival at the Shire. But who knows what will make the Extended Edition?
To the extent that Jackson leaves this unresolved tension, it is clearly another case of retconning THE HOBBIT to fit very snugly as a prequel to THE LORD OF THE RINGS at every turn. Since we know Tolkien himself engaged in such retconning (and wanted to do more), that’s perhaps defensible; but it does create its own tensions.
One quibble about the depiction of Thranduil and the Wood Elves in general: both end up depicted as an unmistakably “High Elven” culture, with vast halls on par with Caras Galadhon, its army a highly regimented and spectacularly armored array of serried ranks, Thranduil himself (notwithstanding his Sindarin background) an Elvenlord of power and wisdom to rival Elrond or Galadriel. A depiction of them as a bit more rustic, greener, a bit wilder, would have been more accurate as more dramatically useful, and would have avoided the risk of making them so powerful as to become a kind of deus ex machina in the final act.