Thranduil
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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 briefly in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.
In literature
Thranduil first appears in The Hobbit as the Elvenking, when Bilbo and the Dwarves enter his realm in the northern part of Mirkwood. The Dwarves are captured by Thranduil's guards and locked in his dungeons when they refuse to divulge their intentions. The Dwarves are rescued by Bilbo, who has remained in hiding with his use of a magic ring of invisibility.
After the death of the dragon Smaug, Thranduil along with the people of Lake-town demanded a share of the treasure of Erebor. War with the Dwarves was averted by the arrival of a goblin/warg army and the ensuing battle.
Thranduil is one of the Sindar. His father's name was Oropher and he is the father of Legolas Greenleaf, a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings. The gradually-established friendship between Legolas and the Dwarf Gimli, the son of Glóin of The Hobbit, helps to reconcile Thranduil's people and the Dwarves. The appendices to The Return of the King note that Thranduil withstood attacks by Sauron during northern battles of the War of the Ring, meeting with Celeborn and his people to together destroy Dol Guldur and cleanse Mirkwood of Sauron's taint of evil. Also, 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.
Tolkien describes Thranduil as having a crown made of red leaves and berries in the autumn, and wearing a similar crown of flowers in the spring. Like all of the Sindar, he would have been beardless, tall, and gray-eyed.
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, joining Elrond, Arwen, Glorfindel, and the Dwarves in destroying Dol Guldur in the final battle of the Good version of the game, and falling to the Goblins mustered by the Mouth of Sauron in the penultimate struggle of the Evil one along with all Mirkwood itself.
In the film adaptation of The Hobbit he is portrayed by American actor Lee Pace. Peter Jackson announced the casting news on 30 April 2011, while simultaneously revealing that Pace had been a favorite for the part, after he saw his performance in The Fall. The character first appeared in the prologue in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was featured prominently in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and is set to appear in the third movie. Thranduil's role in The Desolation of Smaug places him as one of the key antagonists in the movie aside Smaug, Azog and the Necromancer. At one point in the movie, he mentions he has encountered dragons before and reveals the memory of a massive scar on his face caused by battle with a dragon.
See also
References
- Tolkien, J. R. R. (1937). Douglas A. Anderson (ed.). The Annotated Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (published 2002). ISBN 978-0-618-13470-0.
- Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955). The Return of the King. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Appendix B, "The Tale of the Years". OCLC 519647821.
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