The Encyclopedia of Arda The Encyclopedia of Arda Interactive Edition available now
ALPHABETICAL • RACES • PLACES • MISCELLANEOUS • SITE SERVICES • ARTICLES & GUIDES • INTERACTIVE
Latest • Maps • FAQ • Chronicle • Calendar • Excyclopedia • Old & Rare Words • Links • Random
Dates
Slain in the Battle of Dagorlad, II 34341
Race
Elves
Division
Sindar
Culture
Elves of Mirkwood
Pronunciation
o'rofair
Meaning
Uncertain, but likely 'tall beech-tree'

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 21 April 2003
  • Updates planned: 1

Oropher

A Sindarin lord of the Silvan Elves

Encyclopedia of Arda Timeline
Years of the TreesFirst AgeSecond AgeThird AgeFourth Age and Beyond
Oropher
Thranduil

According to some sources, the father of Thranduil and grandfather of Legolas, who ruled a great realm of Silvan Elves in Greenwood the Great (later to be called Mirkwood). He went to the War of the Last Alliance, where he was slain with two-thirds of his army, but his son Thranduil survived and returned to rule his father's woodland kingdom.

(This account is from Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. It does not sit easily with a statement in Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings that Thranduil was one of the Sindar who travelled eastward from Lindon to found forest realms. These two accounts aren't completely contradictory, but they are awkward to reconcile.)


Notes

1

We have no date of birth for Oropher, but he does seem to have been among the wave of Sindarin Elves who travelled eastward across Middle-earth before the year II 1000. He doesn't appear in any of the accounts of the First Age, which suggests (though does not prove) that he was born in the first millennium of the Second Age.

See also...

Elves of Thranduil, King of the Silvan Elves, Silvan Elves, Woodland Realm

For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.

Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 2001, 2003. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ.