Q: Why Did Aragorn Forget Thranduil’s Name in the “Two Towers” Movie?
ANSWER: A fan-made video uploaded to YouTube has been circulating for years, claiming that Aragorn forgot Thranduil’s name when introducing himself, Gimli, and Legolas to Eomer.
It’s a funny “awkward” moment but when you compare it to the original scene you can easily tell how the shots were spliced to create a hoax.
People have tried to explain how or why Aragorn would forget such an important name. When I first saw the hoax video I thought, well, they couldn’t use names from — and then I realized that Thranduil’s name is used in The Lord of the Rings. So there was no “rights” conflict, as some people surmised.
The simple truth is that the first video is a joke. It’s a funny, clever distortion of an important scene in the movie but it was never filmed that way and there would be no reason for Peter Jackson to edit the scene to look that way.
So, no, Aragorn did NOT forget the name of Legolas’ father. The scene wasn’t written that way. He knew who Thranduil was in the story. But Thranduil was not a character in The Lord of the Rings, so why add an unnecessary name to the dialogue?
Be wary of clever fan edits of big movies. You should be able to find original scenes to compare to whatever someone uploads to the Internet for a good laugh.
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“Thranduil was not a character The Lord of the Rings, so why add an unnecessary name to the dialogue?”
The same reasoning could be used for Gloin. But Gloin gets mentioned, so why leave out Thranduil?
Actually, that question should go to Tolkien directly IMO. I looked it up in The Two Towers and the introductions are spread across a whole scene, where Aragorn introduces himself first as “Strider” and only later as “Aragorn son of Arathorn”. Legolas he names as an elf “from the Mirkwood Realm” (no mention of Thranduil). After a short banter between Eomer and Gimli, the latter introduces himself as “Gimli, the Dwarf Gloin’s son”.
So, the film dialogue keeps pretty close to the version as written in the books concerning the names that are mentioned and leaving out Thranduil.
I agree the movie follows the book’s usage closely. However, Gloin participated in Elrond’s council in the book.
In the movie other Dwarves attended the council but I don’t know that any of them were assigned names. And I don’t recall any of them having dialog, even in deleted scenes.
So, really, I think the question would be better put to Peter Jackson or one of the other writers. Why did they think it was important to mention a character who played no role in the movie?
Honestly, I don’t care. I saw a discussion on Reddit from a few years ago where people tried to explain this hoax scene. They were unaware it was a fan-edited video. I thought it would make an interesting article since the video was recently mentioned on Facebook as well.
Why mention a character in the movie who doesn’t appear in it? The same reason JRRT mentions all sorts of people, places, and things that do not directly figure in LoTR. Allusion and back story adds depth. In the case of Glóin its easy to argue that Jackson was pleasing fans of the books. How could Gimli not be ‘son of Glóin’?
Thranduil was certainly a character in LoTR-the-book. The index shows 11 references and full-test search finds several more. The Battle Under the Trees of Mirkwood (rather than the Battle of Five Armies) was arguably his finest hour. Most pertinent, though, from The Council of Elrond, “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.”
It’s possible that “Thranduil” appears more often in LoTR than “Elvenking” appears in The Hobbit, and if we disregard what Peter Jackson wrought “Thranduil” appears not once in The Hobbit.
But why was the Prince of Northern Mirkwood never referred to as Legolas son of Thranduil? If you were his age, would you want to still be known as your father’s son? I think we’d be hard pressed to find any Elf using that naming convention. Legolas ben Thranduil, Legolas ibin Thranduil, Legolas Thranduilson… Let’s face it, an Elf waiting around to inherit a parent’s title and estate is something of a fool’s errand. Elf realms are far more likely to fall after a single, exceedingly long generation of leadership than pass from parent to offspring.
OK, I jest. Said Celeborn, “Welcome son of Thranduil! Too seldom do my kindred journey hither from the North.” And we find a fair amount of Elvish “sons of” in tales of the Elder Years, such as Silmarillion, Ch. 9, Of the Flight of the Noldor, “Then Manwë spoke and said, ‘Hearest thou, Fëanor son of Finwë, the words of Yavanna?'”
Still, much of the “son of” seems to be there for the sake of the narrative, to remind us of an individual’s lineage. It seems unlikely that Celebrimbor or Gil-galad were heralded at high feasts as Son of Curufin or Son of Fingon, respectively.
Then there’s the obverse question; Was Legolas a character in The Hobbit? (running and ducking for cover). Well, seriously, Jackson’s treatment of The Hobbit managed to pull off some of the concordance between LoTR and The Hobbit that JRRT might have produced one day, had he managed to pass the Old Took.
Perhaps he was following the traditions of the dwarves in naming Gimli, “son of Gloin”. Perhaps it was just the way of Dwarves to names themselves this way while Elves didn’t.