Concerning Legolas

[MatthewM]

After reading a quote on a thread here from "The Book of Lost Tales" and articles on the great site "From pointy ears to Grima's tears: investigations of a Tolkien enthusiast" I came to an interesting conclusion concerning the debatable question of Legolas' hair color. Here's my elaborated conclusion:

For people like me who care about the little details (if you don't stop reading), the color of Legolas' hair has been debated since the dawn of LotR. Tolkien never once mentions the color. We are told in The Hobbit that his father is described as "a woodland king with a crown of leaves on his golden hair." So, one may assume that as the father's traits are mostly dominant, he would have golden hair as well. However, many use this quote in defense of Legolas having dark hair:

"Frodo looked up at the Elf standing tall above him, as he gazed into the night, seeking a mark to shoot at. His head was dark, crowned with sharp white stars that glittered in the black pools of the sky behind." -The Great River, The Fellowship of the Ring.

But this quote leaves holes and provides no truth, as it was very dark in the night. Legolas couldn't even see what he was shooting. So what's the verdict? Your always going to have some people who say golden, others dark. We will never know the right answer, we leave it to the imagination. But, this quote from Tolkien about Gollum could sway many people's opinions:

"He is often said to be dark or black. At his first mention [in The Hobbit] he was 'dark as darkness': that of course means no more than he could not be seen with ordinary eyes in the black cavern - except for his own luminous eyes; similarily 'the dark shape' at night [The Lord of The Rings, Books II, Chapter 9]. But that does not apply to the 'black (crawling) shape' [in Book IV, Chapter 1], where he was in moonlight.
Gollum was never naked. He had a pocket in which he kept the Ring. ... His skin was white, no doubt with a pallor increased by dwelling in the dark, and later by hunger." (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Quoted from The Lord of the Rings Companion, The Taming of Smeagol.)

So even though Gollum is described as "dark" and "black" many times in tLotR, Tolkien confirms his skin was white and the darkness comments were only given to describe the dark shape Gollum was, not his actual skin. The same case can be said for the quote on Legolas' head. If this is how Tolkien wrote, why wouldn't the same rules apply for Legolas? Therefore, I'm going to say that Legolas indeed had golden hair. Of course, we'll never be 100% sure, but the insight on Gollum definitely brings us to a fathomable solution.

Just to add on Legolas...I must admit I thought him to be a little "fairy-like" or feminine in a lot of parts in the books. But don't dismiss this Elf as simply that. From my main source "Legolas of Mirkwood: Prince Among Equals":

"Legolas' grace, his singing, his emotional and poetic language, Tolkien's early conceptions of Elves as fairies, and popular impressions about elves in general have given many readers the impression that he is a bit of a lightweight. Tolkien later had to set the record straight, as his son noted:

Long afterwards my father would write, in a wrathful comment on a 'pretty' or 'ladylike' pictoral rendering of Legolas:

'He was tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong, able swiftly to draw a great war-bow and shoot down a Nazgûl, endowed with the tremendous vitality of Elvish bodies, so hard and resistant to hurt that he went only in light shoes over rock or through snow, the most tireless of all the Fellowship.'

The Book of Lost Tales 2, p. 333."

Tell your friends that next time they make fun of Legolas and his movie counterpart Orlando Bloom.




Bibliography:

Brundige, Ellen. "Legolas of Mirkwood: Prince Among Equals". http://www.istad.org/tolkien/legolas.html.

[LadyLúthien]

I guess because Tolkien generally likes to describe absolutely everything he can, I don't think of the descriptions as a big deal. But when there's a description that contradicts with another, it becomes interesting! So, with that being said, I'm going to say Legolas has dark hair.

After watching the films though, I will picture Legolas from now on as a blond Orlando Bloom, but I'm guessing Tolkien imagined him with dark hair. I'm basing this soley on this quote you provided:

"Frodo looked up at the Elf standing tall above him, as he gazed into the night, seeking a mark to shoot at. His head was dark, crowned with sharp white stars that glittered in the black pools of the sky behind." -The Great River, The Fellowship of the Ring.

Tell your friends that next time they make fun of Legolas and his movie counterpart Orlando Bloom.

I'll be sure to!

[Mänwe]

I would like to throw a bit of science into this equation. The father's traits are infact not the most dominant. The Male 'Y' chromosome infact does not 'code' for anything. It is the Female 'X' chromosome that carries alleles for certain traits.

"They were tall, fair of skin, and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finarfin..." - (Return of the King, Appendix F)

Using this quote we can surmise that the Teleri Elves, of whom the Silvan Elves are descendants, and of whom Legolas is born into, had dark hair.

"Thranduil Sindarin Elf, King of the Silvan Elves in the north of Greenwood the Great (Mirkwood); father of Legolas, who was of the Fellowship of the Ring. 371" - (Silmarillion, Index)

Thranduil and his son were Silvan Elves.

[Valier]

I agree with MatthewM on this one. I believe it is a way of describing his look and the mood of the setting at that moment.

"Frodo looked up at the Elf standing tall above him, as he gazed into the night, seeking a mark to shoot at. His head was dark, crowned with sharp white stars that glittered in the black pools of the sky behind." -The Great River, The Fellowship of the Ring.

I think he was saying that the night was so dark that Legolas was seeking a mark. His head was dark in contrast to the "crown" of sharp white stars that glittered in the black pools of the sky beyond. Everything was dark compared to the stars. He was talking about the blackness of the night, just as he was commenting on how "black" Gollum looked. It is describing the contrasts between characters and scenery. As well as the ambiance and mood of a scene, not the colour of hair or skin.

And I do think Legolas would have had golden hair as did his father.

[Gothmog]

MatthewM:

So, one may assume that as the father's traits are mostly dominant...

As Mänwë said, this is not true. The traits are inheritated equally from both parents, with the exception of sex-linked genes on the X-chromosome (the Y chromosome actually do code for some proteins, Mänwë, but it's only a few and mostly connected to sex determination). I'm not sure Tolkien ever imagined any special ways of inheritaing traits in ME (I'm not too sure he ever thought about evolution either, but that do not belong here...), but if we assume that the same genetic laws that control humans also are the ones that effect elves, haircolor is hardly sex-linked. Besides, things like colors of skin and hair are controlled by more than one single gene (polygenic inheritance). And even if one simplifies things, as is often done, and say that hair color is controlled by one single gene, the gene for blonde hair (b) is recessiv to the brown (B) (dominant).

That means that even if the quote from The Hobbit about Thranduil's golden hair is "correct", that Tolkien meant him to have golden hair, Legolas' hair color will also be dependent on his mother's genes. Her hair color was probably dark, as she was a Silvan elf. Why Thranduil is described as golden haired is a mystery, for what Mänwë says is again true...

I'd say Legolas is dark haired. What his hare's color is is an other question...

Thank you for taking time to read this boring genetic-lesson-post!

[Aiwendil]

Manwe wrote:

"They were tall, fair of skin, and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finarfin..." - (Return of the King, Appendix F)

Using this quote we can surmise that the Teleri Elves, of whom the Silvan Elves are descendants, and of whom Legolas is born into, had dark hair.

Actually, it's not that simple. The quote you give is one of a few infamous "errors" that crept into LotR as published. In the first draft, this statement was intended to refer only to the "Gnomes" - the word Tolkien at one time used for the Noldor. At some point, he decided that "Gnome" in modern parlance inevitably conjured up images of diminutive garden creatures, so he set about excising the word "Gnome" from his writings, including LotR (this was before it was published). In removing the term from the passage regarding hair colour, he inadvertantly changed the subject of the statement from "Gnomes" (i.e. the Noldor specifically) to "Elves".

That this was a mistake is evident from the fact that in all the writings both preceding and following LotR, only the Noldor are portrayed as generally having dark hair. The Vanyar, in fact, are consistently given golden hair - in fact, Finarfin's golden hair is attributed to his Vanyarin blood (his mother was a Vanya). The Teleri seem to have a variety of hair colours; Thingol's was silver.

So there is actually nothing mysterious about Thranduil's golden hair, though of course that still leaves the colour of his son's hair a mystery.