Is Legolas an Elven Prince?

Q: Is Legolas an Elven Prince?

ANSWER: Yes, Legolas is an Elven prince, or a prince of Elves. Although J.R.R. Tolkien did not use the word “prince” in reference to Legolas, there were no formal Princedoms among the Elves, as in the Princes of Belfalas in Gondor, but Tolkien often referred to the princes of the Elves. As the son of an Elven king (Thranduil, King of the Wood Elves of northern Mirkwood) Legolas was in fact a prince and a prince among Elves.

However, some readers resist making this connection for they believe that only the Elven-wise should be accounted princes among Elves. This thinking is based on Tolkien’s identification of the Elven-wise with the “lords of the Eldar”, especially the lords of the Noldor who came out of Valinor. However, Legolas accounts himself one of the Silvan (Wood) Elves of northern Mirkwood rather than one of the Eldar. He distances himself from the Noldor when speaking of their legacy in Eregion.

The distinction that Legolas draws between himself and the Elves of Eregion is the only trace of the idea that Legolas’ family did not see itself as Eldarin in nature despite the fact that Tolkien later wrote that Thranduil was originally one of the Sindar who migrated east from Lindon to the Vales of Anduin. In yet later writing Tolkien devised a father for Thranduil, Oropher of Doriath, who hated the Noldor and wanted to be as far removed from them as possible.

In this final conception Legolas might be at most only one quarter Sinda in origin, but Oropher and his companions — according to the texts published in Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth — forsook their Sindarin customs, language, and heritage to meld with the Wood Elves of Greenwood the Great. Oropher’s people were apparently descended from the Nandor who settled in the Vales of Anduin, never migrating west to Beleriand; they may have been joined by some of the Avari, especially those Avari descended from the Nelyar, the kindred from whom the Teleri were derived. The Teleri were the ancestors of the Nandor, Sindar, and Falmari (the Sea-elves of Aman).

Legolas’ royal heritage would have been unquestioned for Thranduil had ruled over the Elves of Northern Mirkwood for three thousand years; and his father Oropher had been a king for about three thousand years before that. Both Oropher and Thranduil were thus kings for several times the length of the history of the Noldor in Beleriand, whose kingdoms lasted only a few centuries at most. Legolas was therefore a prince of a quite ancient royal family, if not as ancient as the kings of Valinor and Beleriand.

See also:

• Legolas Will Be in the Hobbit Movie But is Legolas in the Hobbit Book?
• Speaking of Legolas

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