Flawed, but Reasonable

These are notes on how I play Thranduil and why.  They'll be edited as I keep figuring things out.


Prejudice

This flaw is more notable in Oropher, Thranduil's father. Oropher moved the Greenwood elves further north to get further away from Lothlorien because Celeborn and Galadriel visited there. Noldor cooties, ew. Oh, and also dwarves were starting to do their thing in the Misty Mountains, and dwarves are shifty bastards. This may not be prejudice so much as a "once bitten twice shy" sort of deal, and that's how I tend to play it in Thranduil.  The wariness against the Noldor seems to have eased by Thranduil's time, since he's perfectly willing to allow a visitation from Celeborn and Galadriel around the time of Amroth's death, and later to meet with Celeborn and even hand over some newly-shadow-free forest to him after the events of The Lord of the Rings.  Oropher's prejudice was so strong that he refused to follow Gil-Galad's leadership in the War of the Last Alliance. He was killed when he led his company forward at the Battle of Dagorlad before Gil-Galad had given the signal. That's stubbornness.

It is not clear if Thranduil, suddenly king at the very beginning of this war that would partially define him, proceeded to be wiser than his father and follow Gil-Galad's direction, but considering what we know of him, it's likely he at least managed a sort of cooperation the way he managed with Bard and later Dain. He seems to understand the value of lives by the time of The Hobbit, and it's likely he learned it during the war better than anywhere else. Tolkien is not greatly explicit about it, though, saying that the Silvan kings tended not to follow Gil-Galad, but only specifically mentioning Oropher and Malgalad/Amdir. Considering how much this war haunted Thranduil later, either is possible, since his later tolerance of Galadriel could be chalked up to character development. I suspect at the very least, he must have relented toward the end, or he would simply be an unfit king, which we know he is not.

Still, it seems that the Mirkwood elves and the Lothlorien elves have lost touch with each other at least since Amroth died in 1981. Legolas indicates that they haven't always been sure if the Lothlorien elves still exist. This seems like astounding ignorance—until you remember that the Necromancer wedged himself between them and made contact into a deadly problem.  Moreover, because Thranduil entertained Galadriel and Celeborn just after Amroth's death, I tend to think that Oropher's prejudice against the Noldor is less present in his son. If I am to make a choice for headcanon purposes, I'd call Thranduil wary of the Noldor, but not altogether dismissive. He did survive two Kinslayings in which the Noldor were the perpetrators, but he also saw Gil-Galad's great valor in the Last Alliance—an advantage his father did not live to have.  Those Noldor associated with Fëanor would be the only ones he really has a problem with.

Thranduil's prejudices tend, obviously, more toward dwarves, judging more by the things his son says than anything Thranduil himself says. His automatic assumption when they come upon his people in their feasting is that they are attacking, and without giving them a chance to demonstrate one way or the other. When Thorin explains they were starving and holds his tongue about any other aspect of their quest, Thranduil accuses him of lying and tosses him in prison. Now, the dwarves were trespassers, and it can be argued that Thranduil was within his rights, but it presents a contrast with his compassionate behavior toward the Men of Lake-Town and Bilbo Baggins.  He does not starve or otherwise mistreat the dwarves while they are detained, but he may not have detained them at all had they not been dwarves.  But this is hard to say, 

Racist or no, he's willing to acknowledge Thorin's nobility at the end, returning to him Orcrist (albeit posthumously). A civil peace with Dain is hardly out of the question, but it is not the Battle of Five Armies that dissolves the animosity between the Elves and the Dwarves. It's the friendship of Gimli and Legolas, with clearly no thanks whatever to Legolas' upbringing (“A plague on dwarves and their stiff necks!”). The wood-elves of Mirkwood (and Lothlorien, for the matter) seem relatively xenophobic, possibly less so than they were under Oropher but still demonstrably enough. They did, after all, treat Gollum with greater tenderness than they treated Gloin, as the latter recalls bitterly. 

Compassion

This is not a virtue commonly associated with the king who locked up thirteen starving dwarves. Or, from his point of view, locked up thirteen dwarves who repeatedly attacked his people (really, everyone just needs to have better communication so we don't have mix-ups like this). However, it's a virtue we see when, riding up to Erebor with dual purposes of safeguarding the area and picking a bit through a giant pile of treasure, Thranduil sees the state Lake-Town is in and sends aid. Looting is put on hold while we do some disaster relief. Afterwards, Thranduil's claim on the treasure of Erebor is less direct, more of a way for Bard to repay him for his help. “The Elvenking is my friend,” says Bard.

When Bilbo Baggins does a bit of off-the-record peace-brokering, Thranduil is the first to express concern that this could have negative backlash on the titular hobbit. He suggests he stay with their camp. Bilbo declines, but later, as the battle is about to begin, chooses to stand on the side of the Elvenking. By the end, they appear to have become very good friends. “May your shadow never grow less (or stealing would be too easy!)” Thranduil says as his parting words after naming Bilbo Elf-friend.  Overall, he seems capable of great coldness as well as great warmth, all depending on which side you happen to fall on.

Wisdom and Honor

Tolkien has an interesting way of making Thranduil, in his words, “wise, but not quite right.” If Thranduil lived in Doriath as is implied, he must be older even than Elrond. He is not, however, of high-elven blood, giving him a disadvantage in the ways of both wisdom and power (at least, the high-elves would have you believe this), but this does not mean he has neither. He is able to work out most of what the dwarves are up to, and he is highly reluctant to fight a war for gold even though he will back up his ally and friend Bard. He's still fallible and capable of making the incorrect assumption, as is seen very clearly with the dwarves. He accuses them of attacking his people in the woods, when in fact the dwarves merely wished to beg for food. Still, he is capable of correcting his assumptions, and by the end, honors Thorin by placing Orcrist on his grave with his own two hands (reminiscent of a gesture to grant parole to an honorable prisoner, perhaps correcting an action he should have taken first thing). He sees greater value in Bilbo Baggins than in the Arkenstone, and tempers his vice of greed with a perspective of the world that comes only with age.

Papa Wolf

This much is clear from the book—you do not mess with Thranduil's people. He will throw you in his dungeon to think about what you did.

Considering the history of the wood-elves, this is no surprise. Considering Thranduil's personal history, it's even less of a surprise. Thranduil fought in the War of the Last Alliance, according to the Unfinished Tales. In fact, the wood-elves of then-Greenwood made up a heck of a force. At the time, his father, Oropher, was king. Oropher, as I discussed earlier, had a grudge against the Noldor and would not follow Gil-Galad's lead in the war. This wound up getting him killed. Moreover, the wood-elves, being far more primitive than others, wore little armor. Thranduil returned home with barely a third of the people his father had first led into battle. Then, just over a thousand years later, Sauron moved in next door, causing the wood-elves to migrate further and further north to escape his shadow as it turned their own home into a dark, hostile environment. From the northeastern sliver of Mirkwood, Thranduil and the wood-elves held off the shadow and continued to live as merrily as they could.

The Sindarin princes of Silvan elves had originally come to re-adopt and preserve a way of life natural to the Eldar before the meddling of the Valar. Thranduil was not the originator of this ideal, but he was its inheritor. It is made clear from his treatment of the dwarves that he is fiercely protective of his people, even when the dwarves offered no threat or harm.  In Thranduil's mind, dwarves are not to be trusted, so he assumes they are up to something shady and does not risk the lives of his people by letting the dwarves loose before he knows what they're up to.

Thranduil even joins his people for their midnight picnic bash, perhaps as backup and perhaps because he's simply there to enjoy himself. Either way, he seems to be a good king to his people (by adoption, yes, I'm aware) and they enjoy having him around.

Greed

I think if you asked most people what Thranduil's main flaw is, they would state this one. Maybe because the word “greed” looks to us so extreme that it leaves no sliding scale the way most vices do. A collector of rare paintings can be said to have greed, after all. It is not clear in canon how crippling this greed really is to Thranduil or his people, but we have no examples of his desire for treasure overriding his sense of humanity. Of the leaders of the first three armies, he is the last to consent to warring over treasure. When presented with the Arkenstone, surely the most spectacular jewel since the Silmarils, Thranduil winds up staring more at Bilbo Baggins than the jewel before heaping praise upon him for his clever peace-brokering and offering him a safe haven to keep from Thorin's wrath.

The vice exists nonetheless, even if it appears to be controlled. Tolkien does not often say of his hero characters that they “love” treasure, and it appears to be what Tolkien considered Thranduil's singular weakness. This makes sense, in the way that even though Thranduil's prejudice can be said to be a greater vice, it has led him to build walls around his people, not given his enemies an area to exploit.

Still, like many of his flaws, it's one that seems to be tied to his past. Tolkien said that Thranduil wished to have a treasure-store comparable to the kings of the First Age, although he was nowhere near that. Considering Thranduil based even his underground halls off Menegroth, as discussed in the Silmarillion, Thranduil even in this is something of a Thingol-wannabe. The comparisons between them are inevitable, although Thingol is certainly more extreme in almost every negative way. Still, if Thranduil dwelt in Doriath in his youth, the memory of it, as is the way with Elves, would not fade. He remembers the splendor of the Elven kingdoms in Middle-Earth in their glory days, and perhaps despairs that is remains only a memory. Perhaps, in many ways, Thranduil is a remnant. But, as seems to be the case, he also really loves pretty, shiny things.

This does not mean he hoards his wealth to keep all for himself. His people are said to have jeweled belts, while he himself wears a crown of leaves and berries in the fall and flowers in the spring. This crown setup sounds pretty modest for a king over people who are very fond of their bling, and perhaps it's a nod to a certain humility (one way in which he would contrast greatly with Thingol) or the relatively primitive people he commands.

Shell-Shocked Veteran

“But there was in Thranduil's heart a still deeper shadow. He had seen the horror of Mordor and could not forget it. If ever he looked south its memory dimmed the light of the Sun, and though he knew that it was now broken and deserted and under the vigilance of the Kings of Men, fear spoke in his heart that it was not conquered for ever: it would arise again.”
-Unfinished Tales, “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn,” Appendix B: The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves

Thranduil lost his father and two-thirds of his forces in the War of the Last Alliance, but that is not what Tolkien says haunts him, although it undoubtedly does. The context of this quote comes from a paragraph talking about the Silvan elves of Greenwood growing more reclusive as the world began to change at the beginning of the Third Age, with men inhabiting areas very close to them and the Wild Men waging wars against all men of the West. The chaos that is described as being caused by the Wild Men was terrible, but in Thranduil's heart was an even deeper shadow. The uncertainties of the new age were nothing compared to the fear of Sauron rising again.  Considering the Battle of Dagorlad in which his father was slain was only the beginning of a seven-year siege in Mordor itself, it's not surprising that Mordor haunts Thranduil as it does.

To make things even better, Sauron took up residence in the south of Mirkwood, where the wood-elves dwelt. They were forced northward. Tolkien's description of Thranduil's fear of Sauron's rise provides for an interesting perspective on this. After nearly two millennia of living with Sauron as a close neighbor, we have the events of The Hobbit. Thranduil's people are not only braving the dark of Mirkwood, but feasting in it. To go from one extreme to the other would almost be inevitable after two thousand years of fending off the darkness. Possibly it's an act in defiance of fear, among other things. It is still their forest, with or without the unwelcome intruder. Legolas still expresses keen sorrow that “Mirkwood is again an evil place” in The Lord of the Rings. The wood-elves don't like this setup, and I imagine it is particularly personal for Thranduil. For him to fear this rise of Mordor and have it rise again in his own realm must have been a nightmare.  While he may not have known Sauron himself was growing in his woods (even Gandalf did not, for many years, and only told a few when he learned), the shadow must have brought back memories.