I think Legolas was intended to have blue eyes. Orlando Bloom on the other hand has brown eyes. I don't think it would have mattered if P.J. left them brown. In a close-up the contacts look pretty fake anyway. Maybe they forgot to put them in occasionally or maybe they saved Orlando Bloom the discomfort for the long shots.
I don't remember anything in the books either, Glorfindel. The only 'heritage' we know of for Legolas is Eldarin, through his father, and Tolkien generally describes the Eldar as dark-haired and grey-eyed (Thranduil is golden haired in any case, although externally this is arguably a 'leftover' from The Hobbit story).
That doesn't mean Legolas is grey-eyed necessarily, but that's my guess if there's nothing else.
Galin wrote:I don't remember anything in the books either, Glorfindel. The only 'heritage' we know of for Legolas is Eldarin, through his father, and Tolkien generally describes the Eldar as dark-haired and grey-eyed (Thranduil is golden haired in any case, although externally this is arguably a 'leftover' from The Hobbit story).
Interesting. What is your view on The Hobbit as a source of lore?
Interesting. What is your view on The Hobbit as a source of lore?
To me The Hobbit shares top shelf with all other texts published by Tolkien himself. That said, like some of the poetry in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, one wonders if parts of The Hobbit are wholly true, even if wholly part of the Red Book. Tolkien said this in the original foreword to The Lord of the Rings (first edition):
'I have in this tale adhered more closely to the actual words and narrative of my original than in the previous selection from the Red Book, The Hobbit. That was drawn from the early chapters, composed originally by Bilbo himself. If 'composed' is a just word. Bilbo was not assiduous, nor an orderly narrator, and his account is involved and discursive, and sometimes confused: faults that still appear in the Red Book, since the copies were pious and careful, and altered very little.'
Taking the golden hair of Thranduil, for example: judging by the statement published much later in Appendix F one would think Thranduil should not be golden haired. Yet, considering that elsewhere not all the Eldar outside of the house of Finarfin are dark-haired, I think Appendix F is to be taken as a general guide, allowing for exceptions.
So rather than seeing this as a mistake by Bilbo, or his invention, I imagine Thranduil as golden-haired, an exception to the general rule, even though I know that, externally speaking, this detail as first written was really about the 'Elven-king' of Mirkwood -- not Thranduil of the Sindar (thus of the Eldar) particularly, father of Legolas.
I also give the 1960 Hobbit is 'strong position' on a somewhat lower shelf (the 'never published by Tolkien' shelf), because JRRT wrote this version with intent to fix 'mistakes' or arguable problems with The Hobbit, and have the story fall better in line with The Lord of the Rings. Thus it is not readers who are characterizing things that needed revision here, but Tolkien himself.
And although the '1960 Hobbit' did not get very far at all, not even close to find out if the golden hair of Thranduil was due to Bilbo's inventive mind or not, there are still a few interesting points to note in the revisions.
I really do need to get another copy of Tolkien Miscellany in which the Tom Bombadil Story is. I gave it as a present to a less fortunate Tolkien friends overseas. But there are some good thoughts here.
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Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, Jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!
