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Dates
Silvan Elves had lived in Mirkwood since the time of the Great Journey; either Thranduil or his father1 founded a realm there in the early Second Age
Location
These Elves originally settled around Amon Lanc in the south of the Forest, but at the end of the Third Age, the Woodland Realm occupied the far northeast of Mirkwood
Origins
Derived from the Nandor who abandoned the Great Journey and became the Silvan Elves
Race
Elves
Divisions
Silvan Elves ruled by Sindar
Settlements
The Elvenking's Halls
Other names
Elves of Mirkwood, Elves of Thranduil, Elves of the Wood, Wood-elves

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About this entry:

  • Updated 3 December 2025
  • This entry is complete

Folk of the Wood

The Elves of Mirkwood

A name for the Wood-elves who dwelt under Thranduil's rule in the northeastern reaches of Mirkwood. They were a Silvan people, descended from a branch of the Teleri who broke away from the Great Journey in the distant past, though Thranduil their ruler was himself descended from the Sindar. The term 'Folk of the Wood' is encountered as a complement to the 'Folk of the Mountain', the Dwarves of Erebor who dwelt close to the Elves of Mirkwood. Both these people sent representatives to Gondor after the restoration of the Kingship, where they helped to rebuild the city of Minas Tirith and the beauty of the South-kingdom.


Notes

1

When the Second Age dawned, the Folk of the Wood had been living in the Great Wood since ancient days. At the beginning of the Second Age, many of the Sindar departed from Lindon into the Middle-earth beyond the Blue Mountains, and among these was Thranduil, who would become the Elvenking of the Folk of the Wood. Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings implies that he travelled directly to the Wood and took up his rule there, but other sources suggest a slightly more complex series of events. Following notes in Unfinished Tales, it seems that when Thranduil went eastward, he accompanied his father Oropher, and it would be Oropher who was to rule the Folk of the Wood until he was slain in the War of the Last Alliance at the end of the Second Age.

See also...

Lord of the White Tree

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 3 December 2025
  • This entry is complete

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