[Formendacil]

While I have pretty much no hope at all that PJ&Co. will ever read this thread--or at least ever read this thread and actually apply any suggestions that might be made--I think it could be a useful thought experiment to try devising a "canonically plausible" Tauriel. At the very least, when the movies come out, and we all go and see them, we'll have some standards of comparison already stocked up for our inevitable vitriol.

Now then, it seems to me that the logical place to begin in creating an "Elven forest-daughter character" is to take a look at the female Elves who do appear in the canon somewhere. The following come to mind immediately:

Míriel
Indil
Nerdanel
Aredhel
Galadriel
Lúthien
Nellas
Finduilas
Arwen

There are probably a few more, wives of some of the more peripheral Elvenkings, but I doubt they are likely to reveal much more than these. As for these, however, we've already got an Elvenqueen on the fringe of The Hobbit in the person of Galadriel (who has a possible inclusion at the White Council), so I think we should probably eliminate most of the Noldor as possible templates for Tauriel. In the same way that Thranduil and his halls are imitative of Thingol and Menegroth, Tauriel is likely to have more in common with the two Sindar on this list: Lúthien and Nellas.

Although Lúthien is obviously of a far more exalted destiny than PJ can give Tauriel, as the daughter of one of the Calaquendi and a Maia, she is nonetheless an "active" Elvenprincess.

Nellas, on the other hand, is not a princess at all, but is the only non-royal female Elf I can think of who appears in The Silmarillion. She is also not an adventurous character... but as far as that goes, it would probably make her inclusion far more plausible.

Oh. And it just occurred to me that Nimrodel's briefly told story in The Lord of the Rings might also make for a plausible example to look back at.

What does all this add up to? What can Lúthien, Nellas, Nimrodel, and others from the canon contribute to an inserted character into The Hobbit? I have a few thoughts, but they're rather vague, and perhaps someone else should take a stab at them first...