The following is copied
verabtim from the "Ask About
Middle Earth" website (FWIW)
( Link to website:
Legolas' age )
Legolas’s age is something of a
mystery. It’s actually odd, even for
Tolkien. In the Appendices at the end of Return of the King is a fairly thorough timeline of the Second and Third
Ages, but there is
absolutely no mention of Legolas (birth or otherwise) before the
Council of Elrond. Based on Legolas’s experience, comments, and personality, though, we can estimate when he was born:
Thranduil, Legolas’s father, is mentioned in the
First Age, though Legolas is not. Beyond this, he claims that the
Noldor elves were a “strange people” to him, so we can assume that Legolas was born after the War of the Jewels. Again Thranduil is mentioned in the
Battle of the Last Alliance and Legolas is not (also, Legolas often shows a lack of familiarity with death, making it very unlikely he’s fought it any great
battles before), so we can assume he wasn’t born in the
Second Age either. Also, it was once common for the elves of
Mirkwood and
Lorien to visit each other. Since Legolas has never been to Lorien it can be assumed that he wasn’t born until after this
travel became less common (when
Sauron once again became a presence in
Dol Guldur, around the year 1000 of
the Third Age). This means that at most Legolas was likely not much older than 2,000 years old.
During the Two
Towers, when Legolas,
Aragorn, and
Gimli are in
Fangorn, Legolas talks about the forest, stating “It is old, very old. So old that almost I feel young again, as I have not felt since I journeyed with you children.” I’d imagine that, for an immortal people, there has to be a pretty significant age difference for one
elf to consider another grown person as a child (considering elves come of age at 50). So I’d say Legolas must be at least twice Aragorn’s age, making him at least 200.
So Legolas is
most likely somewhere between 200 and 2000 years old during the
War of the Ring. Not very helpful, I know. For the movie, the writers did choose a specific age for Legolas (2931, setting his birth year early in the Third Age), though it seems that this date was chosen randomly ((
EDIT: Or maybe not? According to the movie people, Legolas is 2,931 years old - and according to the book people, Aragorn was born in the year 2931 of the Third Age, meaning that during the quest his birth year is the same number as Legolas’s age. Coincidence? Or did the movie makers purposefully reuse this number?))
