Greenwood
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Greenwood the Great was the forest in which the
"Elf-king", Thranduil,
established and held his kingdom, the Woodland Realm. Legolas was his
son. (Thranduil was first written of in The Hobbit. Tolkien did not
come up with Legolas until the Lord of the Rings, however.
Had JRRT known the future, he would have surely mentioned the son by
name. Some have suggested he might have been the kindly captain of the
guard.)
After the shadow rose in Dol Guldur, the forest
became known
to men as Mirkwood.
After the forces of Thranduil and Celeborn freed
Mirkwood from the
shadow, they renamed the forest Eryn Lasgalen, "The Wood of
Greenleaves". Then Thranduil ruled Lasgalen in the north down to the
border of the mountains in the south, and Celeborn ruled the wood in
the south below the Narrows, naming it East Lorien. The wide forest
between was given to Beorn and the Woodmen.
After the passing of
Galadriel, and a time of ruling East Lorien alone, Celeborn left it to
stay in Imladris with the sons
of Elrond. Very few elves remained in Lothorien, as the golden wood
faded without the power of Galadriel's ring.
Legolas took a part
of the Silvan Elves of Eryn Lasgalen (and perhaps Lothlorien, although
this is not said) to Ithilien with him, blessing the
woods that had been harmed by Sauron, once again making them fair,
before Legolas passed to the West after the death of Aragorn.
But "in
the Greenwood, the Silvan Elves remained untroubled."
References: Hobbit, LotR, "Appendix B" of RotK.
see also "Halls
of Thranduil"
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