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Falagar 05-25-2003 04:51 PM

Thranduil the Goldenhaired?
 
I recently came across a passage in The War of the Jewels, where Tolkien states the the Sindar had dark hair, and were hard to tell apart from the Noldor exiles. That made me think of Thranduil, who, as far as I have heard, is a Sinda, and yet he is a blonde!

Now, is there something I have missed? Did Tolkien later go back on this statement? Is Thranduil a 'special case', one of the few exceptions? Now that I think of it, somewhere I remember someone mentioning him being akin to Thingol. That would imply him having silver or grey hair, wouldn't it?

Thanks for any reply, I have this weird feeling of this being a very stupid question and that I have overlooked something somewhere...

[ May 25, 2003: Message edited by: Falagar ]

Tar Elenion 05-25-2003 08:13 PM

Take the passage as speaking in general terms and everything becomes much clearer. In general the Sindar had dark hair, but not every Sinda was dark-haired. Similarly it was a Noldorin trait to be dark-haired, but not all Noldor were (witness Glorfindel).
Off hand what cause me to think that Thranduil was akin to Thingol was that Celeborn (Thingol's nephew) called Legolas his kin. But this interpretation can be considered supposition, and not dirictly supportable from a genealogy or family tree. I like to imagine that both Thranduil and Amroth were descended from Elmo, younger brother of Elwe and Olwe.

[ May 25, 2003: Message edited by: Tar Elenion ]

Legolas 05-26-2003 10:15 AM

Indeed - not every elf of every kindred is going to have the same colour hair. All of the elves came from 144 original elves - they didn't separate into kindreds on the basis of hair colour. Just so happens that some characteristics are more common among each kindred.

MrGreenleaf 05-26-2003 10:34 AM

In "Unfinished Tales" it says that Thranduil is part silvan (in the Galadrial and celeborn section) which adds to his people's speech... perhaps this too adds to his hair color...

Finwe 05-26-2003 03:28 PM

Just as different races of humans have different hair colors, the Elves had different hair colors. The reason Glorfindel had golden hair was that he had Vanyarin blood. Most of the Noldor had dark hair, and I am assuming that all of the Teleri had grey to silver hair. As for the Silvan Elves, they were a mixture of all the Elves who remained. So there could have been Vanyar, Noldor, and Teleri in there, who just didn't go to Valinor. Thranduil could have inherited his hair color from an Avar ancestor who was of the kindred of the Vanyar but remained behind.

piosenniel 05-26-2003 03:37 PM

Look at these links:

HERE

Genome

and

HERE

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 5:49 PM January 15, 2004: Message edited by: The Barrow-Wight ]


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