Thank tou so much! I've always wanted to know about his life and where he came from! This is very interesting and I am sure Im going to read the Silmarillion and the Unfinished tales books. Please see if you can write more about elves. (Particularly Legolas!)

I love The Lord of the Rings, both books and movies, but I've never thought about it before. It's true isn't it? Tolkien doesn't say much about Legolas. And it's also true, Legolas only becomes trully famous after the release of the movies.

This piece of writing was very interesting. And well written. Keep writing!

O.o WOW! That was very interesting. I can't believe you were able to gain all that information. You truly are a skilled writer!

~AmandaMicel ;Þ

Great essay, I love reading stuff where pieces of Tolkien's work has been put together to try to figure stuff out. Great job!

*blinks* Well, that was sure interesting. I wish I had your thought process. Then maybe I could unravel the mysteries of Middle-earth. I guess I'll just have to rely on your interpretations, which sound perfectly all right to me. In my opinion, Tolkien would be proud of you. Are you sure in some way Tolkien's not working THROUGH you? It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Well, guess that's about all! Continue with the good work!

I must begin by saying that this essay is a great source of information. It is very professonally written and has helped to clarify several questions I have had regarding Legolas's heritage. In the future, I would be most happy to see other written works of this kind maybe explaining the bloodlines of other charaters also. You did a most excellent job and devserve the highest of praises!

i have always loved the books and the movies LOTR.. allthough i have never taken the time to research the genololgy. i do find it extremely interesting though... the essay was very confusing at times but i liked it... wasn Tolkien amazing to have created this entire world? he must have either have been very bored with no life or a genius.

nicely written. I've always wondered about Legolas. Good job ^_^

~Arayuldawen~

A very good, thorough and interesting essay, Vikki. You did ask for ruthless input, so I'll be picky :) But really it's very impressive already.

I saw at least one occasion where you used 'to' where you ment 'too':
"a group of Sindarin Elves that believed the ways of Elves had become to complicated"

I found some of the paragraphs a little bit too condensed to the point where they became difficult to follow.

"Why did Oropher desert the ways of the Sindar Elves? Nothing is said of Oropher prior to his trip east over the Misty Mountains; we only know for certain that he is Sindarin, and that he departed East after the destruction of Thingol's realm. However, there may be a few clues to be found. "Welcome son of Thranduil!" Celeborn hails Legolas upon the Fellowship's arrival in Lothlórien. "Too seldom do my kindred journey hither from the North." Note that Celeborn is actually the grandnephew of Elu Thingol, so he too is a Sindar Elf; the broader interpretation accepts the idea that Celeborn is merely hailing an Elf of the same Sindarin clan. However, a narrower interpretation might be taken as well; perhaps Legolas is in some way related to Celeborn. "

This paragraph starts off asking why Oropher abandoned Sindarin ways and then switches immediately to a quote from FotR establishing Legolas' kinship with Celeborn. The quote doesn't really have anything to do with why Oropher went native. It's just there to establish that Oropher's family may be a noble family of Doriath. I'd deal with the geneology issue and *then* ask the question later, immediately before you answer it. If you see what I mean :)

"(Interestingly, Dwarves have a bad history with Thingol as well; when they set a Silmaril (a magical jewel) in a piece of jewelry for him, they were overcome with lust for the Silmaril and killed Thingol over it (The Silmarillion, The Sack of Doriath). Mayhap the grudge against Dwarves goes deeper in both Legolas and Celeborn's families …)"

I think it's fairly certain that the hatred of dwarves among all the Sindar *originates* in the fact that dwarves murdered Thingol and sacked Doriath. All their later anti-dwarf prejudice stems from this. So I would put that *first* in your explanation of why the Sindar don't like dwarves, rather than in a footnote.

Otherwise...great :)

Marnie :-)

I like it...very well written for those LOTR fans who never really got the lineage of everyone involved in the book. And just because you mentioned Legolas, which made me think of Orlando Bloom, you get extra brownie points!

Wow! I was very impressed with this work. It really helped to explain and summarize parts of the Simarillion. I really loved the way you were able to pull things together. I hope that you won't mind if I use your theories in my writing? Good job!

A good essay, and vastly improved compared to the first draft. Here are Hellga's nitpicks.

Paragraph 2 of the "The Early History of the Elves"

"Melkor, an Ainur", should be Melkor, an Ainu

Shouldn't you mention Stars, they were the most important and most beloved by the Elves of all the sources of light?

Again, I personally disagree with that theory of Orc creation, following the later ones. Is there some way to indicate that it is the Published Silm's version, and there are alternative ones? It is not necessary, it is just that to me this theory seems being in disagreement with the metaphysics of Tolkien's world, just like early behavior of Manwë from the Lost Tales would seem out of place in the Silmarillion.

Paragraph 3 of "The Genealogy of the Telerin Elves"

"demigods, called Maia" should be demigods, called Maiar

Besides, calling them demigods is not, strictly speaking, correct. And I am not sure there were many of them there, but this is arguable.

Paragraph 7 of

'Legolas' means 'Green-leaves' should be 'Legolas' means 'Green-leaf'

this was so enlightening, not to metnion beautifully written! i have always wondered about legolas since tolkien provides very little information about him.