Was 🧝Legolas in Mirkwood During the Events of the Hobbit?

[Gloranthan]

The wiki on my man Legolegs says,

Not much is known about Legolas or his life and achievements or tragedies during the Third Age. When the War of The Ring started, Aragorn took Gollum as his captive and the Elves of Mirkwood agreed to keep him as a captive there but Gollum somehow managed to escape. Legolas was assigned the duty to bring forth this bad news to Rivendell.

The first sentence there probably indicates that there's no canon answer, and probably no indication in the notes of Tolkien. But if Legolas was sent to Rivendell to tell of the escape of Gollum from Mirkwood, that would imply that at the start of the War of the Ring Legolas was initially in Mirkwood with his father Thranduil. I find it rather amusing to imagine that maybe Legolas drank a bit too much wine as some clever barrel-riders escaped the captivity of his father.

Like many people I read The Hobbit before I read The Lord of the Rings, and I was already enchanted by the elves of Mirkwood before I got to meet those later elves who helped Frodo. I've always wanted to delve more into them and their little enclave, but I haven't found much in the various volumes of extrensic material (Tolkien's notes, History of Middle-Earth, etc.) Much of the Silmarillion deals with rather older and more powerful groupings of elves, and of the dark elves (not to be confused with The Dark Elf, Eol) get short attention.

One of the reasons I used to purchase MERP modules was for all the details they filled in about the East and the Elves, although this was simply the invention of ICE's staff and nothing canonical.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

It's reasonable to assume he was there -- though he didn't "exist" yet.😄

 

[Elthir]

It's reasonable to assume he was there -- though he didn't "exist" yet.😄

Did too. He came from Gondolin [early text], and at some point he probably fell off part of a mountain, klonking his Elf-dome just enough to forget some stuff like the fact that he'd already seen the sea, for example.

Or . . . what you said.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

 

[Elthir]

LOL!

And mighty messy was the great fall of Eggolas.

 

[Ent]

My dear @Gloranthan - one thing you'll find is there's rarely an opportunity for an 'egging' of some kind that's missed here.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Too true, I'm afraid.

 

[Gloranthan]

He is clearly a lego, not an eggo.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

 

[Gloranthan]

Dwarves would make awesome legos.
Mithril.

 

[Ent]

And there you have it. Back to (other) "On Fairy-stories".