Thranduil

The Elvenking of Mirkwood.

Thranduil is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, the Elvenking who rules the woodland realm of Mirkwood in The Hobbit and is first named in The Lord of the Rings.

Quick Facts

Series: Middle-earth
Race: Elf (Sindar)

Facts from the source article.

Background

He is one of the Sindar, the Grey Elves, and his name means vigorous spring in Sindarin. Unfinished Tales makes his father Oropher the founder of the realm, set up among the Silvan Elves of Greenwood the Great, the forest later known as Mirkwood. The Hobbit gives him golden hair and a crown of red leaves and berries in autumn, and a crown of flowers in spring.

Thranduil marched with his father to join the Last Alliance of Elves and Men against Sauron at the end of the Second Age. Oropher was killed in the Battle of Dagorlad, and Thranduil, now king, led home only a third of the army. In the Third Age he moved his people to the north-east corner of the forest and made an underground fortress of great halls, inspired by Thingol's Menegroth and built with the skill of the Dwarves.

His realm traded with the Dwarves and Men of Erebor, Dale and Esgaroth. When Bilbo Baggins and a company of Dwarves arrive on their quest to reclaim Erebor, his guards capture the Dwarves and he locks them in his dungeons, from which they escape inside barrels. After the death of Smaug he joins the people of Esgaroth in demanding a share of the treasure of Erebor. The confrontation with Thorin's company nearly leads to war, and is averted only when Gandalf intervenes as an army of Orcs and wargs arrives.

The Hobbit films of the 2010s expand his role, and he is played there by the American actor Lee Pace.