Thranduil

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Character from Tolkien's Legendarium
Name	Thranduil
Titles	Elvenking
Race	Elf
Culture	Sindar
Realm	Northern Mirkwood
Book(s)	The Hobbit

King Thranduil was a fictional character in the Middle-earth universe created by J. R. R. Tolkien. He was a supporting character in The Hobbit, and was referenced in The Lord of the Rings.

[edit] In literature

He was a Sindarin Elf who had traveled eastward from Lindon before the building of Barad-dûr, and king of the Silvan Elves in the northern part of Greenwood the Great (Mirkwood), which lay just east of the Misty Mountains. In The Hobbit he is said to have blond hair ("golden hair"), which is unusual for a Sinda since blond hair was found mostly among the Vanyar or those with partial Vanyarin descent. It is possible however that Thranduil somehow did have some Vanyarin blood, but that was never specified.

In The Hobbit he is simply called the Elvenking. When Thorin Oakenshield and his party of Dwarves enter northern Mirkwood they are captured by Thranduil's elves and locked up when they refuse to divulge their intentions, before being freed by Bilbo Baggins. After the death of the dragon Smaug, who had brutalized the Silvan Elves for years, Thranduil demanded a share of the treasure the Dwarves recovered from Erebor, Smaug's hideout. Thorin refused until Bilbo gave the Arkenstone (which meant more than a river of gold to Thorin) to Thranduil.

Thranduil was son of Oropher and father of Legolas. In The Lord of the Rings, the gradually-established friendship between Legolas and the Dwarf Gimli, the son of Glóin of Thorin’s company, helps to reconcile Thranduil's people and the Dwarves.

It is debatable whether Thranduil himself or his father founded the kingdom of elves in Greenwood the Great. Thranduil did not become king until his father was killed in Dagorlad during the War of the Last Alliance in the Second Age.

The Halls of the Elven King in the Black Mountains of North Mirkwood were established as a withdrawal in the face of the power of Dol Guldur. In that sense, Thranduil may be seen as the founder of that fortress realm as his name can be read as: thra - nduil, across the water, or river (the Forest River). During the Third Age Thranduil leads his army in numerous battles against the forces of Shadow including: the Battle of Five Armies and the Battle Under the Trees.

The appendices to The Return of the King note that Legolas and the Silvan Elves later worked together with Gimli and the Dwarves to rebuild and improve Minas Tirith, capital city of Gondor, the realm of their mutual friend King Elessar. The last time Thranduil is mentioned is soon after the Dark Tower's overthrow. On April 6, 3019 T.A., he met with Celeborn in Mirkwood. Since they met to determine the kingdoms of the two lords, one can assume that he would have ruled afterwards from the renamed Eryn Lasgalen.