(( FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT DESPITE WHAT IS SAID IN THE MOVIES, BOOK!THRANDUIL DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE AGAINST THE SILVANS
IN FACT
THERE’S THIS WHOLE CULTURAL BLENDING THING GOING ON IN MIRKWOOD
THRANDUIL, OROPHER, AND THE SINDAR MOVED TO MIRKWOOD BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO RETURN TO THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE SILVANS
NOT BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO INSTALL THEMSELVES AS THE RULERS OVER A PEOPLE THEY VIEWED AS LESSER THAN THEMSELVES
Compared with the Elves of Doriath, his Silvan folk were rude and rustic. Oropher had come among them with only a handful of Sindar, and they were soon merged with the Silvan Elves, adopting their language and taking names of Silvan form and style. This they did deliberately; for they (and other similar adventurers forgotten in the legends or only briefly named) came from Doriath after its ruin and had no desire to leave Middle-earth, nor to be merged with the other Sindar of Beleriand, dominated by the Noldorin [High-elven] Exiles for whom the folk of Doriath had no great love. They wished indeed to become Silvan folk and to return, as they said, to the simple life natural to the Elves before the invitation of the Valar had disturbed it.
(The History of Galadriel and Celeborn)
I want to make this post into a big, neon billboard and cover it in flashing lights and put it out in front of my house.
