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So, I've been watching mom's LOTR special edition DVD with the actors' commentary and I'm wondering something. How old is Legolas? I know Arwen was the last Elf born on middle earth, and she's 3,000, but I'm thinking that Legolas can't be that much older than she is. Like 50 years at the most.
Orlando Bloom says he discussed with Peter Jackson what Legolas' reaction to Gandalf's death should be, and what they finally settled on (and what I think Orlando expresses wonderfully in his face) is one of shock, followed by complete confusion. Because he's never known anyone who's died before. I'm sure it was something he'd heard about, but he never understood the permanance of it until that moment. So, he can't really have been around for the great war which would've been the last time a significant number of Elves had died. He wouldn't be so shocked by death if he had been.
Tolkien never seems to go into the particulars of Elvish reproduction, though I would imagine it's something that's planned very carefully. Because really, overpopulation could quickly become an enormous problem to a race of people that never die. But I'm also thinking that after the great war with Sauron there must have been some sort of Elvish baby boom in an effort to replenish themselves after losing thousands of people to the war. I would imagine, also, it's probably the most active the Elves have ever been in reproducing. Something else the movies haven't touched on-Arwen isn't Elrond's only child. She's just the youngest and the only girl.
My point-I don't think that Legolas is very old. At least as Elves would reckon.
Orlando Bloom says he discussed with Peter Jackson what Legolas' reaction to Gandalf's death should be, and what they finally settled on (and what I think Orlando expresses wonderfully in his face) is one of shock, followed by complete confusion. Because he's never known anyone who's died before. I'm sure it was something he'd heard about, but he never understood the permanance of it until that moment. So, he can't really have been around for the great war which would've been the last time a significant number of Elves had died. He wouldn't be so shocked by death if he had been.
Tolkien never seems to go into the particulars of Elvish reproduction, though I would imagine it's something that's planned very carefully. Because really, overpopulation could quickly become an enormous problem to a race of people that never die. But I'm also thinking that after the great war with Sauron there must have been some sort of Elvish baby boom in an effort to replenish themselves after losing thousands of people to the war. I would imagine, also, it's probably the most active the Elves have ever been in reproducing. Something else the movies haven't touched on-Arwen isn't Elrond's only child. She's just the youngest and the only girl.
My point-I don't think that Legolas is very old. At least as Elves would reckon.
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I don't ever remember reading anywhere in canon (the actual Tolkein books) that Arwen is the last elf born on Middle Earth. I am almost to the end of "Return of the King" (this must be at least my third reading). Where does it say that? Good questions and thinking on his age! But as far as I know, he could only be a few hundred years old, so I would love to know where you heard that Arwen was the last elf born and that she is only 3,000. Could this be movie canon and not book canon?
And did thousands of elves die? Or is that what Jackson says of his movie?
Really good speculations! Excellent LJ!
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It's fuzzy on the actual numbers but in the book, when Frodo and Sam cross the swamp it goes on for miles and it's full of dead men and elves.