Summary
Mirkwood Forest existed as a part of Middle-earth since the earliest days of Arda, when the Valar were still creating the world. In fact, Oropher, grandfather of everyone’s favorite Elf Legolas, made Mirkwood the primary home of the woodland Elves during the Second Age of Middle-earth. Back then everyone knew it as Greenwood the Great. It wasn’t until Sauron took refuge within its depth and cast his shadow across it in the Third Age did Men start referring to it as Mirkwood. His presence twisted its visage, making those who strayed from the light feel invited.
Even after Sauron retreated to Morder, the forest was never the same as its Second Age iteration. It became overrun by spiders, and outsiders feared entering since its roads had long vanished. However, after the War of the Ring, when the Fourth Age began, and the free people regained their lands, changes came to Mirkwood. It was a time of rebuilding and restoration. The Elves were quick to return to their ancestral home and cleanse it of its dark roots. Even Elves that didn’t call Mirkwood home entered its borders to restore it to its former glory. It even earned a new name.
Where is Mirkwood?
Mirkwood is a large, great forest, sometimes called Mirkwood the Great due to being the largest forest in all of Middle Earth. It was 600 miles long and 250 miles wide, with nearly no clear routes through it save for one called Old Forest Road. The Mirkwood Elves, however, had their own pathways through the forest, but those remained hidden from outsiders. The forest’s trees grew close together, making it dense and dark. During the time of Sauron, it wasabnormally dark as the spiders that inhabitedthe vast woodland were everywhere and covered the canopy in their webs, ensuring sunlight did not breach the treetops.
Another cause for the forest’sdarkness was the existence of Dol Guldur, an old Elven fortress. Sauron, disguised as the “Necromancer” took the fortress for himself and resided there for years after the fall of Numenor. This blanketed the great forest in darkness, making it easy for Shelob’s offspring and other dark minions to sink their fangs into the woodland realm and corrupt it. And people wonder why the Mirkwood Elves are more aggressive than other Elves. It probably has something to do with monsters living on their doorstep.
The great forest layeast of the Misty Mountainsin a region known as Rhovanion that stretched just outside of Lothlorien -home of Galadriel- and all the way North to the Lonely Mountain. It might surprise some cinematic fans that the great forest’s most southern point was just a stone’s throw from Lothlorien, on the other side of the Anduin River. That would be the river the Fellowship sailed down after Gandalf fell off the Bridge of Khazad Dum. Had Legolas decided to be done with the War of the Ring, it wouldn’t have been a long journey to the forest. Actually reaching his home, on the other hand, would have been quite the trek.
What Happened to Mirkwood after LOTR?
Even with Sauron’s threat gone, there was a lot of work to do after the war. Most of the early years after theWar of the Ringsaw the free people of Middle Earth rebuilding. Not only were the likes of Minas Tirith ravaged by the war, but also many of the different forests scattered around Middle-earth. Galadriel saw to the complete decimation of Dol Guldur, ridding the forest of the shadow the fortress cast over it. With the forest once again green as it once was, Thranduil renamed the forest “Eryn Lasgalen,” which translates to Wood of Greenleaves.
Thranduil gifted the southernmost portion ofMirkwood to Galadriel and Celeborn, which they renamed East Lorien. He also gave the midsection of the forest to Beornings and Woodsmen while keeping the northern region for himself and his people. But what of the spiders that infested every inch of Mirkwood? When Galadriel rid the world of Dol Guldur, she also cleansed the forest of all the filth, using the light of her Elven ring Nenya. This light is what restored the clarity of the trees, earning its new name along with Thranduil’s gift.
Despite Mirkwood being Legolas’s home, he didn’t spend much time there after the war. He returned for a short time to assist with ridding the woodland realm of its monsters, but he never strayed too far from his new best friend Gimli. In fact, Legolas accompanied Gimli back to Helm’s Deep and helped build a new Dwarven outpost in the Glittering Caves there. Eventually, as the Elves retreated to the Undying Lands in the east, Mirkwood, along with the other forests, emptied out without a trace of any Elves.
