What colour is Legolas` hair?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Abercrombie, my friend, I have found what you seek while sifting through The Unstarted Tales, but what was before unknown is that Elmerf's son did not try to usurp his father's place... Elmerf had a brother:

And so Elmerf departed his much loved homeland in much sorrow, but for a cause he deemed crucial. Fighting with his big and pointy teeth, the hare travelled to far distant lands with his beloved Legolas, leaving his Mirkwood power in the hands of his brother. Abusing the priveleges of heirdom, Princejohnamir made a dispicable attempt to sieze permanent control, being thwarted by the bravery of loyal hares (many of which were outlawed), and the last minute return of Elmerf from battle.

I hope that helps?

Fea

[misty's hopping mt.]

Well that explains the first attempted usurp of the throne of the Supreme Ruling Pet of Mirkwood, but if you read Abercrombie's first post on the previous page, there was a final battle to the death between Elmerf and his son and the question posed was what is the name of this hare, his son? I personally have a feeling it started with M because Tolkien might have wanted to keep the name in accordance with Mordred, from King Arthur. Just an intuition.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

I had been reading a secret text in the Purple Book, called Athrabeth Elmerf ah Legolas, or the debate of Elmerf and Legolas. Mostly it involves discussions of hairstyles and colours, and ends in a catfight over who's the greatest, but every now and then they say something that almost makes sense.

But having not finished my reading and analysis, I shall post more elaborately tomorrow.

Oh, boy. The Prince of Procrastination makes a promise to post tomorrow. I'll bet half my life he can't make it.

Considering the precedent on New Movie Script, yes. I'll chip in three pieces of mithril.

[Assasin]

Orlando Bloom's hair is dark. Legolas' WIG is blonde.

[misty's hopping mt.]

no it his hare as in rabbit not hair.

[Assasin]

Oh. Well, I would think his hare would be brown.

[AbercrombieOfRohan]

EUREKA! I have found it at last! Mallapin is the name of Elmerf's son, the hare that caused the sundering of the hares of Mirkwood and lead the remnant of his people south and defeated the remaining evil hares of Dol Guldur that the White council missed.

So family tree looks like this right?
Father?
'
Caerwen & nameless brother& Elmerf=Yosmite
'
Mallapin

Sorry the family tree didn't work quite as well as I had hoped I'll fix...

[AbercrombieOfRohan]

Alright I hope this works... http://www.fakeurl.com/elmerf

[wilwarin538]

Thank you very much for that very nice tree Abercrombie, its beautiful.
Mallapin, that sounds right. I like that name very much. So Elmerf's brother took the throne, I suppose he needs a name also, and about Elmerf's mother, I can't remember her name but, I believe she was Galadriel's hare for a time, but she favoured Celebrian and left Middle-Earth with her.

~*Wilwa*~

[AbercrombieOfRohan]

Just keep the names coming folks (I don't have time to look them all up). I will update my website as is necessary. It will be our history within a history. The part Tolkien never got to write becuase he was too distracted with the possible ending of the world.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

Ahem. Anywhen, here was the promised analysis of the Athrabeth. It was very hard to analyse, as it was written rapidly in pencil, and the manuscript is blurred at many places.

Wow. He's really posting it on time.

[Elmerf: ]‘[ I ]n the great ages after, Men shall see thee, and say “I lyk legolas more, hes soooo hot!!!!!1”, yet me they will not know, for I have done no mighty deed, save be coloured [?purple].’
‘Know then,’ said Legolas, ‘that thou they will see, and thou they will know, for the fates of the Rabbit-realms of Mirkwood are entwined with the continued life of the “What colour is Legolas` hair?” thread, and thus is the wrath of the Wight stayed upon the frivolity of those Men. And they will hold thee in reverence.’
‘But my fur is [?purple], and my tail cottony, and thus I fell to evil ways. What then will they say if they knew that the Rabbit-realms were mine no longer, that [?my] . . . . . * took them from me by force, and that I am left for a wandering waif, with an androgynous Elf and a snoring Dwarf for company?’
‘What is “androgynous”?’ and Legolas took a threatening step towards the hare.

__________
* The word is very blurred, and the only part clear is the ending “–er”. [Editor’s note]

Athrabeth Elmerf ah Legolas, Purple Book

There are many things to say about the work. Christopher Tolkien dropped the analysis on the entire text, saying ‘I have not the ability, nor the temperance, to analyse the fashion sense of the two in discourse.’

But here we have a possible solution to the usurper’s question. The “-er” part might help, as it excludes his son from the takeover, as Fea had said. But what else ends in “-er”? Brother? Sister? Father? Mother? Driver? Butter? Deer? Are the deer of Mirkwood prone to staging coup d’ etat?

On a final note, the “snoring Dwarf” Elmerf and Legolas had for company could very well be Gimli, which means that perhaps Leggy’s Dwarven “friend” joined them in exile after the ousting of Elmerf.

[AbercrombieOfRohan]

Excellent Find NIL, thank you immensely for sharing that with us. So this means that Mallapin did not usurp the throne from Elmerf, but Mallapin did in fact inherit the throne, one way or another. Right? No disagreements?

So then who did take the throne? Fea's post does lead me to believe that it was indeed his brother (Prince Johnamir? Is that his name?) that stole or tried to steal the throne from Elmerf. Did Elmerf ever reclaim his throne before Mallapin became king? I mean after he went off and had his adventures with Legolas did he return to Mirkwood and oust (Johnamir?) from the throne?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Princejohnamir, my friends. I was led to believe that it is pronounced "Prin-say-ja-nom-eer", but the reliability of The Unstarted Tales is occasionally questionable.

Fea

[AbercrombieOfRohan]

page updated http://www.fakeurl.com/elmerf

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

I have just purchased from swindler.com all the writings of Tolkien regarding the hares of Middle-earth from 1917 up to his death. I am now currently deep in analysis, and, I'm telling you now: it ain't gonna be pretty.

I may be back with a post tomorrow.

[AbercrombieOfRohan]

Nilp?

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

The funny thing is, I still am not finish with the analysis. The material is too vast, and my time is too short, what with the ending school year and all. So there.

I'll try to do it now, and hopefully come up with a complete report within the week.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Within the week?

The scoundrel...

Anywho, I stumbled upon a fairly odd collection in a local bookshop: A copy of Tolkien's letters which was published in Holland. It is mostly the same, however some bits are missing and some new pieces are inserted throughout. He goes into lengthy detail regarding a spat he had with a butcher.

Anyway, the main point of interest here is that he made direct reference to the question posed in the title of the thread. Legolas' hair was a luscious golden brown. I, for one, am willing to suppose the total credibility of this seemingly bizarre edition and accept the claim.

But go ahead and talk about Elmerf. The little critter is a far more interesting character than, say, Aldarion...

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

OK, so accounts of my posting on time might have been exaggerated. So sue me.

Or not. He once killed his entire clan over pizza.

Hush, Alice.

Enedwaith, forgive me for not posting the aforementioned analysis, but, as Eomer will attest, I have spent months tracking down traces of Wargish influence in Filipino culture.

But now, with my timetable seemingly clear--though that could be deceptive--I will proceed with full force on the analysis of the texts.

Hopefully,
Nilpaurion Felagund
Slayer of the Uchiha clan.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

The Wargs of the Brown Lands tell tales of a mysterious ghost, dancing in the form of a hare.

Pardon me for getting excited but I feel a need to reconcile some legends here. What can Wargs tell us of Elmerf and his treacherous dynasty?

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

What can Wargs tell us of Elmerf and his treacherous dynasty?

Presumably nothing, since none of those whose eyes ever rested upon Elmerf lived to tell the... tail. Why else, do you think, would all legends and accountings of him be so vague and inconclusive?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

And who claimed that 'none of those.....' ever lived to tell? Whoever said that was almost definitely schooled in the traditional anti-Warg methodology.

I will investigate further. Don't believe everything you read in this thread.

[The Saucepan Man]

The Wargs of the Brown Lands tell tales of a mysterious ghost, dancing in the form of a hare.

Did it have bright eyes burning like fire?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Um.....I think that's a joke but I'm too slow-witted to understand it.

[Mithalwen]

Eomer .. The Saucepan man tells, I believe of a ghostly vision of a beast of the order Lagomorpha (though possibly of the Syvilagus rather than Lepus genus) recounted by Simon, the Garth-Uncle, which could be related to the incident quoted. Certain atmospheric conditions were necessary for the vision to be seen (high wind in the trees, fog, strange glow in the sky). However it was possible that it was merely a dream. This story was very well known when I was a child but maybe the younger generation have not heard of it?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Sounds like a cracking yarn; my research must evolve; to the English countryside I go!

[Mithalwen]

You should try for the Hampshire Berkshire borders for there the legend originated though the Garth-Uncle is not a native of that place.

I must study this thread more fully since clearly it touches on my own theories regarding Isildur's Hare...

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

You know, I've heard tales that Elrond had twin hares. The question, I suppose, is whether that was common, and what shape their ears were. Were they elongated? Were they slightly pointed, or softly rounded? Or even more disturbing... did they flop?

[Mithalwen]

Ah well Elrond did keep Isildur's Hares for specific puposes, I believe ... but that tale was told in the Old Fogey's clubroom...

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I was under the impression that he had custody of Isildur's hare-looms. Did he ever weave with them, just to keep them in good shape? And what exactly was their use in the Third Age... The questions simply keep arising.

[Mithalwen]

check out page seven of the Tolkien Coming of Age Club 2 thread..

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

On Hare Colour

A poem on the Ringarë 3021 issue of Candy and Eldar casts some serious doubt on the purple-hare theory.

A, Rabbit-hair, gilded and fair,
Silver pens of Míriel.
O, Menel, a car made by hand,
Ach! a red palantír, Ariel!
O, Galadriel, in your wrath,
Fans are lost, like Linda Thorn.
Narf! a meara! See! Enough! I, R. Gon.

The “R. Gon” at the end of the poem helps to identify who the author is. A majority of scholars believe that it was none other than Aragorn, son of Arathorn, who wrote this verse. Some surmise that he wrote the staves after missing the hares he played with in Imladris as a child. None of these bunnies survived past the Fourth Age, for it is believed that Elrond deep-sixed those that remained in Rivendell before he left for the Havens.

In the poem we see the variety in colours of the rabbits of Rivendell: gold, silver and red. But no purple was mentioned. Why? Surely, Elmerf’s purpleness would stand out.

A clue to this mystery can be found in the Súlimë 2974 issue, published a month before Elmerf was first seen with purple hair. There this advertisement was published:

Tired of your boring, pathetic existence?
Then get a life! Set yourself apart!
Start with a new hair colour!
Try PUMPERNICKEL PROUDFOOT’S
SPECIALLY FORMULATED PURPLE HAIR DYE!

Order now! Limited slots available!

In the box of this product was written a warning that it would take one month before the dye took effect. On Narië 8, 2974, a month after the Candy and Eldar issue containing the advertisement was published, more than two hundred people from Minas Tirith were executed for “hair colour unbecoming of a canonical Númenórean descendant.” Later it was discovered that on the same day, Radagast the Brown disappeared from Rhosgobel, although a purple-haired “cousin” of his appeared in the said area for two years before the return of Radagast, after which the “cousin” was nowhere to be seen. Make what you will of that.

The discovery of these startling pieces of evidence in the back issues of Candy and Eldar casts serious doubt on the natural purpleness of Elmerf’s hair. Next time I shall publish my reports on the coup d’ etat in Mirkwood, gleaned from Tolkien’s infamous essays On Harey Stories and Shoelaces of Fëanor.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

Candy and Eldar is a monthly randomness magazine published in Dol Amroth.

Just had to make that clarification.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

It's been more than two months. Have all lost interest in Elmerf and the Hares of Mirkwood, or are you impatiently awaiting my promised (and long-delayed) account of the coup d' etat in Mirkwood?

Uh, right. We'd be interested in that. The nerve . . .

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Coup d' etat, I assure you.