[Findegil]

Posted by Man-of-the-Wold:

Nevertheless, until one gets to the appendices of LotR, Legolas comes across as very much the wood elf, chosen as the representative of the Elfin race, and not as one of the great and wise to possibly bring special abilities to aid the ringbearer, as Elrond considers in the context of possibly selecting one from among his own household.

Agreed completly. But to have a long and complicate history behind makes him in my view an even better representative of the Elven-race in general. We should not make the mistake to think that being in Gondolin would make Legolas at once one of the very improtant Wise elfes of Middle-Earth. The role that Legolas of Gondolin playes in the Battle does not show him as one of the councilmembers of Turgon or one of the great heros of the Battle. He is just a kind of pathfinder in the dark, that does a good job in guiding the host of fugitives over the plian in the dark.

Posted by Man-of-the-Wold:

I cannot tell what of my other conclusions is unaccepted.
Judgment and impression is all one has sometimes. Facts and hard evidence are hard to come by.

Non of your conclusions are unacceptable, but also no of them is forcing. To make up your mind about Legolas is one of the tasks that a reader has to undertake, and the results are often quiet diffrent and should be so. Our work is not meant and should not end any such Discussion as this if it is not neccesary for the forming of the text we are willing to produce. If all evidence allows for more than on interpretation of a charachter that is fine and should be so in our version of The translation from the Elvish as well.

Posted by Man-of-the-Wold:

But the fact that Legolas talks about hardly ever having ventured beyond Mirkwood, and that his father (though a elven lord) is not even a member of the White Council or necessarily accounted among the Wise at the time of the Necromancer's expulsion from Dol Guldor might suggest that Legolas was not present during the Goblin Wars. If he had been around for the Last Alliance, it seems strange that such great lore and experience does not arise in the narrative of the LotR.

I agree that Legolas was porbably not in the war of the last Alliance, but their could very good reason for that: After all his father and Grandfather went to that daedly war. Some one has to be left behind as a steward to guard the realm and a hier of the throne is a probable choise for this. Especially if he knows as Legolas did for sure what so ever his former history has been, that the Elves were alowed to sail West and how and were this could be done.

It is true that Legolas does not come over as the very old and expirenced Elf all the time in LotR. But he as some other minor charachters in the book go through some development after wards. A very prominent excample of this is Celeborn. When the main body of the text was written he was clearly a Woodelven Lord who had never left his realm. His wife, one of the great of the noldor had come to him and he had kissed here to stay. In the Appendix he is already changed to one of the Sindarin rulers of Woodelven relams and a relativ of King Elwe Thingol. Later on Tolkien considered and even more drastical change to a Telerin Prince from Valinor.
Or take Galdor of the Havens, he is a meassenger of Círdan in the text and nothing more is said about him. Later on we hear in Tolkiens late writing that he was one and the same Galdor of the Tree, one of the greatest heros of the Fall of Gondolin.

Posted by Man-of-the-Wold:

Nevertheless, it makes sense to nolderize and modify the earlier personage in order to avoid confusion or debates about reincarnations ala Glorfindel.

Is it our aime to ripe readers of our text of this confusion and debates that we so much enjoy? I don't think so! If our sources by our best judgement hold still the potential for such confusion and debate it is our task to preserve it. Christopher Tolkien had set in his work all this things straight. But that lead to a thiner book and to the wish of a 'Rivised Silmarillion'.

I see this a point were in the end we have to say, 'we do not know for sure'. And in such a case our text should not strenghten one side or the other.

Therefore I would vote for keping Legolas as it is, if the voting would be reoppend. But as I said before the change {Legolas}[Laegols] is acceptable for me, even so it is on the boundary.

Respectfully
Findegil