Prince Legolas - whose name in Elvish means "Greenleaf" - is the son of King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm. He has traveled south to Elrond's Council at Rivendell to act as the envoy of the Woodland Elves who inhabit the great northern forest of Mirkwood.

The Elves being a long-lived race, Legolas knows the Ranger Strider of old and is well aware of his true identity. Like many of his people, he has a distrust of Dwarves, which will result in a prickly relationship with the envoy of the Dwarves of Erebor, Gimli, son of Gloin.

Legolas brings a number of unique and beneficial skills to the Fellowship of the Ring. Elves have the preternatural ability to move more lightly across the ground than the other peoples of Middle-earth; Legolas is able to run swiftly and effortlessly across the roughest terrain, barely leaving footprints even upon new-fallen snow. As a forest Elf, he is a master of woodcraft, able to scan his environment in order to read even the most minute traces and tracks left by the birds and beasts of the world. He can also see with greater clarity and over longer distances than the rest of the Fellowship, and is a supurb and deadly shot with an Elvish longbow, which he pledges in Frodo Baggins' service.

Legolas also carries two Elf-knives: long white knives with filigreed blades - deadly weapons, for the Elves make the keenest of all blades in Middle-earth.

-Jude Fisher