Is there a character you're obsessed with?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by mindil

I forgot that piece of authorial chronology.
So Legolas as written wasn't a prince at all. And JRRT didn't retcon any royalty into his behavior.
Was he originally from Mirkwood?

Originally he was called Galdor (a name Tolkien used for several Elves at various times), and for a long time Galdor/Legolas* was simply a messenger from Mirkwood, not the king's son (in the same way that Galdor in the final version was simply a messenger from the Havens). The Mirkwood connection was there from the start, because it was he who brought word of Gollum's escape.

*Both names were borrowed from the original Fall of Gondolin, where Galdor, Legolas and Glorfindel were all heads of Houses.