Legolas: Biography

One of the Nine Walkers. Being the son of Thranduil he was of Sindarin descent, too, and prince of Mirkwood.
The first we hear of Legolas is that his father sent him as a messenger to Imladris to report about the recapture of Gollum by Orcs in 3018 TA. Lord Elrond chose him to be the Elven representative in the Fellowship of the Ring. During the Quest he mainly served as a scout and often guarded his companions sleep, because as an elf his senses were sharper than anyone else's and he did not tire easily. Legolas was an excellent archer and even brought down a Nazgūl's winged mount which was flying high above the Nine Walkers in the middle of night. He was also often re-telling stories of old for the Fellowship or singing ancient songs of his people.
At Amon Hen where the Fellowship was resting to decide its further course of action, Legolas voiced that he'd prefer going to Minas Tirith, though would not leave Frodo under any circumstances. But when Boromir is killed shortly after and Frodo and Sam are secretly leaving for Mordor, Legolas became one of the Three Hunters (the other two being Gimli and Aragorn) who were following the Uruk-hai to free Merry and Pippin from their clutches. Here we learn how fond he actually was of the hobbits, he could barely stand the thought of them being prisoners. In Fangorn the three met Gandalf who was bringing word from Galadriel. Legolas received a dark prophecy from the Lady of the Golden Wood:

"Legolas Greenleaf long under tree
In joy thou hast lived. Beware of the Sea!
If thou hearest the cry of the gull on the shore,
Thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more."

In the Battle of Helm's Deep Legolas and Gimli, in a strange kind of competition, were counting the enemies they killed. During this time the Elf prince rarely ever left Aragorn's side wishing to protect him.
Legolas stayed true to Aragorn and just like Gimli, he even followed him through the Paths of the Dead. Yet, in doing so he came to Pelargir on Anduin where he heard the gulls wailing. Thusly, Galadriel's prophecy came true and from then on Legolas suffered from the perilous sea-longing, finding no peace under the trees any longer. Whenever there was a short rest between the battles he became lost in thought, wandering around restlessly and singing sad songs of the sea.
He was in the march toward the Black Gate of Mordor and when the War of the Ring had come to an end, he witnessed the wedding of Aragorn and Arwen. Later he travelled through Middle-earth in company of his now best friend Gimli. His friendship with the dwarf is what I personally see as his greatest achievement in the WotR, because the mistrust between Elves and Dwarves is deeply rooted and it takes something to overcome such ancient prejudices. Together they went to explore Fangorn Forest and the Glittering Caves.
In spite of his terrible longing for the sea, Legolas refused to leave Middle-earth while his friend Aragorn was still alive. So instead he led some of his folk to Ithilien turning it into the most beautiful of all countries in the west.
The prince is last mentioned in Appendix A of 'The Lord of the Rings'. There we can read that after Aragorn's passing, he gave in to his heart's desire and built a grey ship to sail over the sea as the last of the Nine Walkers. With him he took his friend Gimli and until then it had been a thing unheard of that a dwarf should accompany an elf into the West.

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