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K Legolasový vlasům:
Note on the hair color of Legolas:
Legolas's hair color is not stated anywhere in the text of The Lord of the Rings. There is one vague description that might be taken to mean that Legolas had dark hair.
Frodo looked up at the Elf standing tall above him, as he gazed into the night, seeking a mark to shoot at. His head was dark, crowned with sharp white stars that glittered in the black pools of the sky behind.
The Fellowship of the Ring: "The Great River," p. 403
However, this passage is ambiguous because Frodo may only have seen the silhouette of the Elf's head in the dark night.
In The Hobbit, Legolas's father Thranduil is described as having golden hair:
... at the head of a long line of feasters sat a woodland king with a crown of leaves upon his golden hair ...
The Hobbit:"Flies and Spiders," p. 165
If this passage is considered accurate, then Legolas may have inherited golden hair from his father.
Elven hair color is addressed in a comment in the Appendices:
They [the Quendi] were a race high and beautiful, the older Children of the world, and among them the Eldar were as kings, who are now gone: the People of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars. They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finarfin ...
Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings: Part II, "On Translation," p. 415-16
This passage is frequently taken to mean that the only Elves with golden hair were those of the House of Finarfin and that since Legolas was of Sindarin descent, he should not have golden hair but be dark haired. However, in Christopher Tolkien's commentary on "The Cottage of Lost Play" in The Book of Lost Tales I, he suggests that this stricture on golden hair did not apply to all Elves, but only to the Noldor (who were originally called Gnomes):
In the last paragraph of Appendix F as published the reference to 'Gnomes' [for Noldor] was removed, and replaced by a passage explaining the use of the word Elves to translate Quendi and Eldar ... This passage - referring to the Quendi as a whole - continues however with the same words as in the draft: 'They were a race high and beautiful, and among them the Eldar were as kings, who are now gone: the People of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars. They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finrod [later corrected to Finarfin] ...' Thus these words describing characters of face and hair were actually written of the Noldor only, and not of all the Eldar: indeed the Vanyar had golden hair, and it was from Finarfin's Vanyarin mother Indis that he, and Finrod Felagund and Galadriel his children, had their golden hair that marked them out among the princes of the Noldor.
The Book of Lost Tales I: "The Cottage of Lost Play" (commentary), p. 44
If this is correct, then the comment about Elven hair color from Appendix F does not apply to the Sindarin Elves, who were a group of the Eldar separate from the Noldor, and thus it could be possible that some among them might have had golden hair.
There is another clue on the appearance of Sindarin Elves in a reference to the origin of the name Sindar, which means "the Grey" or "the Grey-Elves":
The Loremasters also supposed that reference was made to the hair of the Sindar. Elwe himself had long and beautiful hair of silver hue, but this does not seem to have been a common feature of the Sindar, though it was found among them occasionally especially in the nearer or remoter kin of Elwe (as in the case of Cirdan). In general the Sindar appear to have very closely resembled the Exiles, being dark-haired, strong and tall, but lithe.
The History of Middle-earth, vol. XI, The War of the Jewels: "Quendi and Eldar," p. 384
This passages states that the majority of the Sindar were dark-haired, but it also allows that there were exceptions in the case of silver-haired Sindar. Thus it seems possible that there might also have been exceptions of Sindar with golden hair, such as Thranduil.
In the end there is no definitive word on the color of Legolas's hair, be it dark, golden, or otherwise. |