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we should give him a name that can still be recognized by people who haven't read HoME.
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Putting aside for a moment the
(im)plausability of the LotR Legolas being the same as the FoG Legolas, I don't think our decisions, especially decisions such as this, should be made with respect to the confusion or lack thereof of a reader. The question is a canonical one, not a literary one.
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Is there any reason that Legolas of Gondolin wasn't killed in the Battle at Sirion's Mouth, and then, after an age of penance and contemplation in the Halls of Mandos, his soul was sent back to be born into Middle-earth again as the son of Thranduil?
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Elvish rebirth was rejected by Tolkien sometime during the 1950s, and replaced with reincarnation. In this latter version, the bodies of Elves are simply reformed by the Valar and reinhabited by their
fear. Legolas is quite definitely the son of Thranduil, ruling out the possibility of reincarnation.