[Cúdae]

I'm confused. And not for the first time. This too much for me to get through me concussed head without straightening it out first.

So we have several ideas here about election (or some form of it, not necessarily what we think of) and lordship. Then we have the whole "I say you're King" and "No, I'm not King, I'm a lord" ideas. Followed quickly by something about Thingol and Thranduil. I'm not lost at all.

Personally, I think that Oropher (let''s just say he started the Woodland Realm in Mirkwood without arguing whether it was him or Thranduil) became King because he was both Sindarin, which is "higher" than the Silvan Elves and because he had some leadership qualities. What they were is practically a mystery, but I'd take my chances on overbearing power. Then we have Oropher killed in the battle at the end of the Second Age (what was that called again?) and succeeded (sp?) by his son- Thranduil, the Elven-King. Alright, so there's evidence that the rule was passed from father to son (or possibly daughter). Then we have Legolas in the Lord of the Rings refered to as the "son of Thranduil" who, or course, is the King of the Elves in Mirkwood, but Legolas is not referred to as a prince. Now we come to the ideas of why not.
I do not think that Tolkien ever went into any great detail of thought about Legolas family, so we can pretty much get rid of the idea of Legolas having an older brother who has the title of Prince.
The idea that the title was not claimed because of the Elvish immortality is interesting. Perhaps the title would not be claimed by Thranduil's son until Thranduil was thinking about doing something like going off to war on the slopes of Mount Doom and getting himself killed.
Another idea was that the title was simply not claimed by Legolas because he wasn't interested- as seems true with a lot of the Sindar, as many of them mingled with the Silvan Elves so that they could live as they thought Elves should, without all the cares of the world. So maybe Legolas did not claim the title because that was his thought- after all, he did refer to himself as Silvan Elf, although we know that his father at least was Sindarin, so he was at least part Sindarin.
Here's another idea, Legolas could have not claimed the title of prince because he had other things to do. We know he was a messenger, at least once. We also know that Elrond chose him to represent the Elves. Could this be because he had a relatively high position in Mirkwood that he gained in a way other than his birth? Perhaps his own leadership or courage or bravery earned him a military honor or something of that like.

Alright, I'm trailing off, little by little, so I think I'll stop.
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