What does legolas look like?

[Legolas]

Red hair is not controlled by the blond/brown hair gene. It's located elsewhere in the human genome - not even on the same chromosome. Every red-haired person has a gene for blond or brown hair, but the red hair gene cancels it out - to have red hair, you must have GG or Gg (G = red pigment, g = no red pigment). People with GG will be more likely (obviously) to have intensely red hair, while I imagine Feanor's sons had a Gg genotype, displaying a more auburn hair colour (since that's how Tolkien describes it, and their trait came only from their mother, it is said, from her father, Mahtan; I can't think of any reason to expect Feanor having a gene for it). Having a gg genotype would of course result in no red pigment. The amount of red hair that comes through is dependent on the extent of the brown or blonde genes. It's actually not stated that Nerdanel had red hair (that I can remember), so it's possible that hers did not show through much. The number of possibilities of the genotypes of these elves makes it almost silly to speculate because of the lack of information given. That website is accurate (what I read of it, anyway).

I think it's quite possible for Finwë to have a recessive blond gene in there, but in the case of Fingolfin and Finarfin, Indis's dominant blond gene probably took over. Fingolfin's hair color isn't really mentioned, so he can be either dark or blond.

This is entirely false. Fingolfin's hair IS mentioned in that Finarfin and his house alone are the only line of Finwë's house to inherit the blonde hair of his mother, Indis. The only person to have blonde hair in the Noldorin royal family (outside of Finarfin's line) is Idril, daugther of Turgon, son of Fingolfin. Idril (obviously then) inherited her blonde hair from her Vanyarin mother, Elenwë.

Finarfin The third son of Finwë, the younger of Fëanor's half-brothers; remained in Aman after the Exile of the Noldor and ruled the remnant of his people in Tirion. Alone among the Noldorin princes he and his descendants had golden hair, derived from his mother Indis, who was a Vanyarin Elf (see Vanyar). 63, 69, 75. 93-6, 100, 117, 202, 213, 310. Many other occurrences of the name of Finarfin relate to his sons or his people.

[ June 27, 2003: Message edited by: Legolas ]