I lowkey have a headcanon that Thranduil is one of the most powerful elves in Middle Earth. Thranduil is the only elven ruler that doesn’t have a ring, and yet his people are some of the most powerful out there. In LotR his armies tied up a lot of Sauron’s forces because of how close Mirkwood is to Mordor which helped the Fellowship a lot. So yeah I have a headcanon that he has a type of magic which protects the elves of Mirkwood and helps them fight and be more in touch with their surroundings
Whoo boy, Nonny-moose! You’re reading my MIND! *cracks knuckles*
Thranduil is definitely one of the most powerful elves in Middle Earth.
First of all, there’s no such thing as a weak leader of elves. Tolkein wrote his elvish rulers as having a sort of divine right/might to rule, meaning they had to be powerful in order to be accepted as leaders. Considering that, out of all the great Elven Lords/Ladies of the time, ONLY Thranduil was considered a “king”, he would have to be very powerful indeed.
(He was also the son of Oropher, who was actually chosen by the Silvan elves to be their king when they hadn’t even had a king before, soo….yeah. Powerful genes.)
Now consider this: Galadriel and Elrond are also great Elven Ladies/Lords, yet they needed the power of their Rings to maintain the beauty and lushness of their realms. Once the power of the Rings was ended, both Lórien and Imladris fade.
Our buddy Thranduil, on the other hand, maintains an entire kingdom WITHOUT A RING.
While it’s true that Mirkwood’s dark and dangerous, it’s still a place where elves can live. Since elves physically cannot live in evil places, that must mean there is still life, beauty, and good magic in Mirkwood. Even with Sauron literally squatting inside Thranduil’s borders for centuries, Mirkwood was never completely over-taken by the shadow.
Why? Well, if Sauron’s Dark Fëa was the cause of the Shadow, then there must have been some powerful Fëa of the Light resisting it to keep Greenwood from falling completely. In fact, in the Hobbit, Gandalf tells the other elves that the Greenwood elves have only recently begun using the term Mirkwood, because it took that long for the shadow to effect the forest enough to warrant a change in name.
Which means Thranduil Oropherion single-handedly holds off the might of a tainted Maiar for MILLENNIA.
And he’s doing it without a Ring.
Now, could Thranduil personally defeat Sauron? No, of course not. Sauron’s the Tolkein-world equivalent of an greater angelic Power, for goodness’ sake! Thranduil’s totally fighting a losing battle, and we know his people are forced to retreat slowly northward over the years. But then again, none of the elves could have defeated Sauron alone, not even Gil-Galad; that’s why they sent a Hobbit, lol.
Still, Thranduil’s power at least keeps Mirkwood from becoming Darkwood, preserving enough of the goodness of the forest that his people can still live there, that Men can still live there; and not just live, but thrive. I mean, have you seen the Mirkwood Army?
Remember, 2/3 of their forces were slaughtered at the Battle of Dagorlad, where Oropher was killed. The rest barely made it home. And yet here, only 3000-odd years later (not a long time in terms of Elvish reproductive cycles,) he can field an army of thousands with, what? A week’s notice?
Conclusion? Mirkwood elves must breed like rabbits. But…how?? How do the female elves, who have to invest significant spiritual energy to create even a single child, have enough space/health/support/wherewithal to have several children apiece while living under a Shadow?
And how, in a place that is ostensibly “mirky” and “tainted”, does one raise a ball of elvish sunshine like Legolas? How are the elves of Mirkwood still a merry and good and honorable people, (if a bit suspicious of “furriners,”) whilst surrounded by so much darkness? How have they not become tainted, too?
Someone must be standing between them and the darkness; making them feel safe, preserving that light and goodness so they can live their lives.
Not to dismiss the actual boots on the ground work that the elvish guard does in protecting Thranduil’s people, of course. Obviously, it’s a team effort, and each elf of the Woodland Realm must strive to maintain it. But as neither all of Elrond’s folk nor all of Galadriel’s would have succeeded in maintaining their realms without their leaders, we can reasonably conclude it’s the same with the Silvan elves.
Not only does Thranduil hold the borders of his kingdom without help, he’s secure enough to actually leave Mirkwood for short periods of time. This either means his power has a really long range, or that the echoes of it are enough to sustain the Wood for a period of time.
And remember, Mirkwood is BIG: 600 miles long by 250 miles wide (or 150,000 mi^2, or over 96 million acres.) For a mental picture, Mirkwood is about the size of the distance from Los Angeles to Mt. Shasta, CA; a distance which covers most of the state. Even if you estimate conservatively, and say that Thranduil’s power could only cover the northern third, that’s still ~32 million acres under his protection.
So strong is the power of Thranduil that during the War of the Ring, Sauron sent two separate armies to destroy Mirkwood, out of fear that Thranduil’s army would come to the aid of Men; one army of orcs, and one of Easterlings. The Easterlings were distracted by the dwarves of Erebor and the Men of Dale; but the other army of orcs/goblins/etc engaged the Mirkwood elves. It’s not explicitly stated, but reading between the lines it looks like Sauron’s guys got trounced so badly that they panicked and tried to BURN THE WOOD TO THE GROUND.
And even THEN, they lost.
(And yeah I know, Celeborn’s army came to help destroy Dol Guldur itself; but a part of the reason they succeeded is that Thranduil had already destroyed Sauron’s armies in the region. Celeborn, BTW? Fellow Sindar, also a huge power without a ring. I headcanon that Celeborn and Thranduil get along like gangbusters.)
Then let’s talk about after the War of the Ring, when Sauron’s power is broken and the shadow is lifted from Mirkwood forever. Without Sauron actively suppressing it, Mirkwood becomes Greenwood again, a realm of beauty possibly on par with Lórien or Imladris. In fact, Celeborn actually claims the southern third of the Wood as East Lorien, and his people are perfectly happy living there; which suggests it must be at least as nice as Lórien (sans the giant trees.)
Now, even after Sauron is defeated, the other elves are diminished. They go into the west, their kingdoms fade away.
Thranduil’s realm apparently flourished, entering into a sort of Golden Age that lasted well into the Fourth Age. Of the elvish rulers, he’s the only one who hasn’t gone into the west by the time Tolkein’s timeline ends. Which means even in a time of fading magic, when elves have lost their dominion and the time of Men has come, Thranduil’s kingdom endures.
There’s a reason the Elves of the Greenwood call Thranduil Oropherion their Greatest King.
