King Thranduil

Through The Ages:

 

Thranduil was the only son of Oropher, King of the Woodland Realm. He was born during the First Age, and lived in Doriath at some point prior to the Second Kinslaying. At the beginning of the Second Age, some Sindar traveled east and Oropher eventually founded the Elven realm in Greenwood the Great.

 

In SA 3434, Thranduil and his father fought in the Battle of Dagorlad. Oropher was slain and Thranduil returned to Greenwood with roughly a third of the army that had marched to war. He claimed his inheritance and became King of the Woodland Realm, reigning over the whole of Greenwood the Great.

 

As the Third Age progressed, however, a sorcerer known as the Necromancer (later revealed to be Sauron returned) took over the abandoned Elven fortress of Amon Lanc and turned it into Dol Guldur. Under his malign influence the Greenwood grew dark, becoming known as Mirkwood, and infested with Orcs and giant spiders. The Wood-elves of Mirkwood were reduced in number and retreated to lands in the north of Mirkwood. By the time of the events of The Lord of the Rings, Thranduil's title was King of the Elves of Northern Mirkwood.

 

In his realm, both Sindarin and Silvan Elvish were spoken, though not all members of his Woodland folk spoke Sindarin.

 

After the fall of Sauron, Thranduil fixed the southern boundary of his realm as the Mountains of Mirkwood, and his realm flourished well into the Fourth Age. He may have stayed on as the king of the Great Forest

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History:

 

Thranduil marched with his father and a large army of their people to join the Last Alliance of Elves and Men in their war against Sauron at the end of the Second Age. The Elves suffered serious losses, including Oropher, who was killed in the Battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate of Mordor. Following the war, Thranduil, now king of his people, led the remnants of his army, only a third of what had set out, back to their woodland home in Mirkwood. Hearing word of the Disaster of the Gladden Fields shortly after their return, Thranduil set out to aid the Dúnedain; he arrived too late to save them, but was able to finish the destruction of the Orc horde and prevent the mutilation of the dead.

 

During the Third Age, Thranduil led his people to the north-east corner of the forest and there created an underground fortress and series of great halls. He was inspired in this enterprise by Thingol's halls of Menegroth in Doriath during the First Age, and like Thingol, he used the skill of the Dwarves to aid in making his stronghold.

 

Being far in the north, and on the eastern edge of an increasingly perilous Mirkwood, Thranduil's realm was somewhat isolated, but he traded with the Dwarves and Men who lived nearby in Erebor, Dale, and Esgaroth (Laketown). An attack by the dragon Smaug destroys Erebor and Dale, and reduces Esgaroth to a shell of its former self, though there remains a healthy wine trade between the lake and the wood. This situation changed with the arrival of Bilbo Baggins and a company of Dwarves, on their quest to reclaim Erebor. The Dwarves were captured by Thranduil's guards and, suspicious of their intentions, he had them locked in his dungeons from which they later escaped inside barrels.

 

“In a great hall with pillars hewn out of the living stone sat the Elvenking on a chair of carven wood. On his head was a crown of berries and red leaves, for autumn had come again. In the spring he wore a crown of woodland flowers. In his hand he held a carven staff of oak.”

 

After the death of Smaug, Thranduil along with the people of Esgaroth demanded a share of the treasure of Erebor, beginning a confrontation with Thorin's company, who were reinforced by an army from the Iron Hills, that nearly led to war. War with the Dwarves was averted by the intervention of the wizard Gandalf upon the arrival of the allied forces of Orcs and wargs. The combined army of Elves, Dwarves, and Men was victorious in the ensuing Battle of the Five Armies, but at great cost of life.

 

During the events of the War of the Ring as depicted in the Lord of the Rings, Thranduil does what he can to aid his allies, including holding the creature Gollum in his dungeons for interrogation by Gandalf on the history of the One Ring. Gollum later escapes with the aid of Orcs who attack Thranduil's realm, and his son Legolas is sent to Rivendell to seek the counsel of Elrond and Gandalf. Thranduil and his people withstood attacks by Sauron's forces during northern battles of the war. Having routed their foes in the north, Thranduil's forces moved south, and joined with the armies of Lorien under Celeborn and Galadriel in destroying Dol Guldur, cleansing Mirkwood of Sauron's taint of evil. In the aftermath, Thranduil, along with Celeborn, renamed Mirkwood Eryn Lasgalen, The Wood of Greenleaves. Thranduil's realm expanded after the wars, and he and his people enjoyed peace.