Woodland Realm

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Revision as of 18:13, 6 December 2015 by Elf-esteem (talk | contribs) (→‎Fourth Age: We do not know that Thranduil refused the call in the First Age; there is no evidence he was alive then, and we do not know if he faded or not.)
Woodland Realm
Alan Lee - Gandalf's Farewell.jpg
General information
LocationNorthern Mirkwood
CapitalElvenking's Halls
People
PopulationSilvan and Sindar Elves
LanguageSilvan Elvish, Sindarin, Westron
History
FoundedEarly Second Age

The Woodland Realm was a kingdom of Silvan Elves in Mirkwood, from the Second Age onwards.

History

Second Age

The Woodland Realm was established by Oropher in S.A. 750, a Sindarin lord of Doriath, after the War of Wrath.[1] Unlike most Sindar, Oropher and his household declined the Valar's offer to depart from Middle-earth for Valinor. Instead he migrated eastward and became the King of the Nandor of Greenwood the Great. The few Sindar who had come with him were soon merged with the Silvan Elves, adopting their customs and language and taking names of Silvan form and style.[2] Oropher and his household wished to return to a simple existence natural to the Elves before they had been disturbed by the Valar.[2]

Originally Oropher's realm encompassed the entirety of Greenwood, with its capital at Amon Lanc. However, during the Second Age, he and his people migrated north three times.[3] According to one tradition, the first movement was northward beyond the Gladden Fields, due to Oropher's desire to distance himself from the increasing encroachments of the Dwarves of Moria and his resentment of the intrusions of Celeborn and Galadriel in Lothlórien. However his people did maintain constant intercourse with their kin west of the Anduin.[2] Oropher was also disturbed by the reports of Sauron's rising power and by the end of the Second Age he dwelt in the western glens of the Emyn Duir or Dark Mountains and his people lived north of the Men-i-Naugrim or Dwarf-road.[3]

In S.A. 3430,[4] Oropher and Amdír led their combined forces against Sauron as part of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. During the Battle of Dagorlad the Silvan contingent refused to obey the orders of the Noldorin king Gil-galad, instead charging the enemy alone. They fought valiantly, but being ill-equipped and outnumbered most were slain, among them Oropher.[note 1] Over the course of the war, which ended with the Siege of Barad-dûr in S.A. 3441, third-thirds of the Silvan army had been lost. Thranduil led the remainder of his people north back to the Greenwood.[note 2]

Third Age

Anke Eißmann - Thranduil

Oropher's son, Thranduil, succeeded him as king of the Woodland Realm[2] and ruled for the duration of the Third Age.

Around T.A. 1050 an evil entity known as the Necromancer (later identified as Sauron) inhabited the abandoned halls of Amon Lanc, and Greenwood grew infested with Orcs and giant Spiders.[5] The Wood-elves retreated yet further north[2] and many landmarks were renamed: Greenwood became Mirkwood, the Emyn Duir the Mountains of Mirkwood or Emyn-nu-Fuin, and Amon Lanc was known as Dol Guldur, the Hill of Sorcery.

By the middle of the Third Age the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood were much reduced in number, though Mirkwood still had a greater population of Elves than Lindon, Rivendell, or Lórien. To avoid the encroachment of the Necromancer from the south, they dwelt in the lands north of the Forest River, living mainly in and around the Elvenking's Halls.[note 3] They also had become increasingly withdrawn and wary of strangers, though they did trade with the neighbouring realms of Erebor and Dale, and imported wine from Dorwinion via the River Running. The former traffic came to an end upon with the destruction of Erebor by the dragon Smaug in T.A. 2770,[5] who also attacked the Woodland Realm itself, putting further pressure on the beleaguered elves.

Quest for Erebor

In T.A. 2941[5] Thranduil's people were disturbed by a band of Dwarves while feasting in the forest. Perhaps still resentful over the Dwarves' role in attracting Smaug to their borders, or simply cautious, they imprisoned them for trespassing onto their lands. The Dwarves' leader, Thorin, refused to reveal the purpose of their journey from their halls far to the west in Eriador.[6] After many days of imprisonment the dwarves escaped with the help of their companion, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins who had avoided capture using a magic ring.[7]

Sometime later the elves heard that Smaug, provoked by the escaped Dwarves, had left Erebor to attack Lake-town where he was slain by Bard the Bowman. Thranduil immediately assembled an army to claim part of the dragon's hoard in compensation for the destruction it had caused to the Woodland Realm. On the way they met messengers from Bard seeking aid for the people of destroyed Lake-town. Thranduil accepted, bring food and helping the people erect shelters for the winter. He and Bard then joined forces and marched north to claim the dragon's hoard and divide it between Bard, the people of Lake-town, and the Wood-elves.[8]

Capucine Mazille - The Battle of Five Armies

On arriving however they found Thorin and his company alive, and he refused to relinquish his claim on any of the treasure and had secured Erebor against an assault. Thranduil and Bard then lay siege to the Dwarves, who awaited aid from their relatives in the Iron Hills to the east.[9] Hoping to avert battle, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins earned the respect of Thranduil and was named 'Elf-friend' by delivering the Arkenstone to the Wood-elves and Men so they could use it to bargain with Thorin.[10] Negotiations were cut short however by the arrival of a host of Orcs and Wargs from the Misty Mountains. In the ensuing Battle of Five Armies many Wood-elves were slain, [11] as was Thorin Oakenshield, but afterwards an agreement was reached as to the division of the dragon hoard.[12]

In the same year the White Council, including Gandalf, drove the Necromancer from Dol Guldur.[13]

War of the Ring

Michael Kaluta - Legolas Draws the Bow of Galadriel

Sauron, now revealed as the evil presence which had abandoned (not, as it had been thought at the time, driven out of) Dol Guldur, from his rebuilt stronghold in Mordor sent three Nazgûl to reoccupy Dol Guldur in 2951.[5] On 20 June 3018 a force of Orcs attacked the Woodland Realm from this base, the purpose of this raid being to provide a distraction and facilitate the escape of Gollum[14] who had been entrusted to Thranduil's care by the Ranger Aragorn.

In the wake of this Thranduil sent his son, Legolas Greenleaf, to deliver news of Gollum's escape to Aragorn and Elrond in Rivendell. Upon arriving Legolas participated in the Council of Elrond where the full details of Sauron's resurgence were revealed. [15] Legolas was chosen to represent the Elves in the Fellowship of the Ring, and journeyed with the Ring-bearer Frodo Baggins towards Mordor. After the Breaking of the Fellowship Legolas continued to accompany Aragorn, fighting in the Battle of the Hornburg, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and the Battle of the Morannon. Legolas also developed a close friendship with the dwarf Gimli, son of one of Thorin's companions: Glóin. This friendship did much to improve relations between the two peoples.

Meanwhile, on 15 March 3019 Sauron attacked the Woodland Realm in force, resulting in the bloody Battle Under Trees. Thranduil led his forces to victory, however, and then set about a campaign to clear Mirkwood of orcs and other evil beings. On Elven New Year he met Celeborn, lord of Lothlórien, and the two agreed to rename the forest Eryn Lasgalen. It was then divided: Thranduil was to rule north of the mountains, the forest south of the Narrows became East Lórien and the rest was given to the Beornings.

Fourth Age

During the Fourth Age the Woodland Realm prospered, free of enemies. A group of Wood-elves led by Legolas helped rebuild Minas Tirith and settled for a time in Ithilien.

The eventual fate of the Woodland Realm is unknown. In Fo.A. 120 Legolas, having seen the sea during the War of the Ring, eventually sailed west to Valinor, reputedly with Gimli at his side.[16] Like all Elves the people of the Woodland Realm were destined to either leave Middle-earth for Valinor or to 'fade' and become rustic woodland spirits. Given Oropher's refusal to leave Middle-earth at the end of the First Age was rooted in a desire to 'live naturally' as Elves had before being contacted by the Valar, it seems likely that the latter was the fate of Thranduil and most of his people. However, the ultimate fate of the last Elvenking and the remaining Elves in the Fourth Age is unknown.

Notes

  1. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn", "Appendix B: The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves" "The Silvan Elves were hardy and valiant, but ill-equipped with armour or weapons in comparison with the Eldar of the West; also they were independent, and not disposed to place themselves under the supreme command of Gil-galad. Their losses were thus more grievous than they need have been, even in that terrible war."
  2. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn", "Appendix B: The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves" "When the war ended and Sauron was slain (as it seemed) he led back home barely a third of the army that had marched to war."
  3. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 347, (dated 17 December 1972) p. 425, In a note for this letter which mentioned that by the Third Age more Men would have known or spoken Quenya and Sindarin in Middle-earth than Elves, because there were more Men than Elves in Lindon, Rivendell, or Lórien, he qualified that "the Silvan Elves of Thranduil's realm did not speak S. but a related language or dialect." This could be the result of the Sindarin and Silvan Elvish linguistic mingling. And it could be understood as an implication that Thranduil's realm still had a notable and larger population of Elves than others.

References