Legolas is one of the most iconic fictional characters in the original The Lord of The Rings trilogy and in The Hobbit trilogy. He was a Sindar Elf, who was a part of the Fellowship of the Ring in The Third Age. We know he was Mirkwood’s prince and the son of the Elven king Thranduil of Mirkwood, but who was his mother? And what happened to her?
We don’t know anything about Legolas’ mother. J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t mention her once in all his works. The only mention of her is in The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, when Legolas recalls her horrible death in Gundabad. But, there are some theories that offer some reasonable facts about her origin and possible death.
Was she even a Sindarin elf? How does the origin of Legolas’ name help us narrow down her origin? And is Legolas’ beautiful blond hair even cannon? These questions and a lot more fun theories will be discussed in this article- so keep reading.
How Was Legolas’ Mother?
Today, most people know who J.R.R. Tolkien was, and how his stories about Middle-earth changed the world. His stories were magical, filled with complex mythology and inspiring creatures. And we know his primary passion was languages. But, one thing missing from his stories was complex women. He didn’t write in detail about many female characters, except Galadriel, Éowyn, Arwen, and a few others in The Silmarillion and the History of Middle-earth series. It is the same thing with Legolas’ mother. There are a few possibilities about her origin.
First, she can be a Sindar elf, like Thranduil. That is unlikely because Tolkien wrote that said that Thranduil followed his father Oropher to the Greenwood, not that Oropher led his family to the Greenwood. But, maybe she was of nobility she followed Thranduil and his father to the Greenwood. Next, she is almost definitely not Silvan. Thranduil is against the union between Tauriel and his son because he considers her a “lowly Silvan elf”, so there is little chance that his wife was Silvan.
Lastly, for the last theory, we are going to use the help of Parf Edhellen, an elvish book dedicated to the fictional languages in Tolkien’s legendarium and Legolas’ name. “Las” is the Sindarin for “leaf”, which makes sense since his father is a Sindar. “Lego” however derives from “laeg” which is a Sindarin word, but is quite an unusual way to say “green”, since the more common word would be “calen” from which derives the word “galen” (e.g. Eryn Lasgalen = Wood of Greenleaves).
The thing is that “laeg” (from which derives “lego”) is a bit more common in Quenya because it derives from the Quenyan word “laika” or “laica” which also means “green”. In conclusion, his name is a mix between Sindarin and Quenya. And who spoke Quenya? The Noldor. So, she might be a Noldor.
What Happened to Legolas’ Mother?
We have no clue as to what happened to Legolas’ mother, but we have a few theories. We don’t even know if she is dead or alive. If she is still alive, she is probably still living with Thranduil in northern Mirkwood and she is just never mentioned or seen. Or we can take go with the fate Peter Jackson gave her. In the last Hobbit movie, Legolas recalls how she was tortured by Orcs and that he cannot even grieve her at her grave. This is a pretty tragic fate for the character. On a lighter note, another likely scenario is that she grew weary of the world and went into the West seeking the light of Valinor. So, her final faith can only be speculated on.
Another interesting theory is that Legolas wasn’t an only child. Maybe, he had an older sibling. He is one of the youngest elves we meet in the series (he is around 700), and Legolas being used as a messenger, makes more sense this way. If he was his only, oldest son, he would he been treated as Thranduil’s heir, not a spare. Again, we can only make wild guesses.
Legolas is one of the most iconic Tolkien characters and we don’t even have a description for him. The only thing he wrote is that Legolas wore green and brown at the Council of Elrond. His blonde hair was something people only guessed because his father Thranduil was blonde. In the end, we know nothing about Legolas’ mother, but this is proof you can create an incredibly complex and vivid world, without describing every, single little detail.
