Thranduil
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King Thranduil is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is a supporting character in The Hobbit, and is referenced in The Lord of the Rings.
[edit] In literature
As revealed in The Fellowship of the Ring, Thranduil 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 Mirkwood. In The Hobbit, he is said to have blond hair.
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 guards 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 Thranduil the Arkenstone (which meant more than a river of gold to Thorin).
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.
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 Aragorn. The last time Thranduil was mentioned was soon after Sauron's final defeat.
[edit] Adaptations
In the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit, Thranduil is voiced by Otto Preminger.
He is one of the playable Elven heroes in The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II real-time strategy game.
Thranduil
Cadet branch of the House of the Sindar
Born: ? Years of the Trees Died: ? Years of the Trees |
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Preceded by Oropher |
King of Mirkwood |