Q: Legolas Will Be In The Hobbit Movie but Is Legolas in The Hobbit Book?
ANSWER: Technically, Legolas does not appear in any version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit. Some people have expressed concern that Peter Jackson is departing from the spirit of the books by expanding the story of “The Hobbit” to cover two three movies. Unfortunately, that is just the way movie making goes. We should all hope that the “Hobbit” movies are great movies that tell an interesting story. There is no point in fretting about how faithful the movies will be to the book.
But there are certainly many ways that the “Hobbit” movies can be faithful to the ideas that J.R.R. Tolkien expressed in books like The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Here are a few examples.
In the chapter “The Clouds Burst” Tolkien writes:
Day drew on. The goblins gathered again in the valley. There a host of Wargs came ravening and with them came the bodyguard of Bolg, goblins of huge size with scimitars of steel. Soon actual darkness was coming into a stormy sky; while still the great bats swirled about the heads and ears of elves and men, or fastened vampire-like on the stricken. Now Bard was fighting to defend the Eastern spur, and yet giving slowly back; and the elf-lords were at bay about their king upon the southern arm, near to the watch-post on Ravenhill.
So who were those elf-lords? It seems reasonable to suggest that Legolas could have been one of them. But if you want a little more support for that idea, there may be some. For example, earlier in the book Tolkien wrote:
Now the dwarves took down mail and weapons from the walls, and armed themselves. Royal indeed did Thorin look, clad in a coat of gold-plated rings, with a silver hafted axe in a belt crusted with scarlet stones.
“Mr. Baggins!” he cried. “Here is the first payment of your reward! Cast off your old coat and put on this!”
With that he put on Bilbo a small coat of mail, wrought for some young elf-prince long ago. It was of silver-steel which the elves call mithril, and with it went a belt of pearls and crystals. A light helm of figured leather, strengthened beneath with hoops of steel, and studded about the bring with white gems, was set upon the hobbit’s head.
So Bilbo is wearing some armor that was originally made for an elf-prince. But does that mean it had to be Legolas? Of course not! Still, what if we can find something that connects the Elvenking with Bilbo’s armor? Allowing for circumstantial evidence, we can do that. When Bilbo presents the Arkenstone to Bard to use in negotiating with Thorin, Tolkien writes:
The Elvenking looked at Bilbo with a new wonder.
“Bilbo Baggins!” he said. “You are more worthy to wear the armour of elf-princes than many that have looked more comely in it. But I wonder if Thorin Oakenshield will see it so. I have more knowledge of dwarves in general than you have perhaps. I advise you to remain with us, and here you shall be honoured and thrice welcome.”
So while we cannot say that Thranduil recognizes the armor as having been made for his own son, it certainly is an object that is familiar to him. And there are darned few Elven realms in the vicinity of Dale, other than his own.
I think this is sufficient support for the idea of including Legolas in the story of The Hobbit, perhaps even to the extent of allowing him to meet Bilbo (or be in Bilbo’s proximity) as one of his father’s retainers.
Of course, in the official background material for the “Lord of the Rings” movies Brian Sibley wrote that Legolas was over 2900 years old. The idea that Thorin’s father and grand-father might have made armor for Legolas as a child is absurd, but it is reasonable to assume that Peter Jackson’s version of Middle-earth history can accomodate Legolas’ presence in any scenes relating to Bilbo’s adventures.
And readers of the books can look at these passages and feel that even if Legolas had not yet been fully imagined and named, perhaps Tolkien was thinking that the Elvenking was a father when he wrote The Hobbit. You don’t have to feel guilty about picturing Legolas in The Hobbit.
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
If there is a way to get Legolas in the movie, I say go for it! Love Legolas!