Anyone who’s read both The Silmarillion and The Hobbit will have noted the strong similarities between the Elvenking of Mirkwood and Thingol Greycloak. In this article, Tolkien scholar Michael Martinez examines whether, at the time Tolkien was writing The Hobbit, the Elvenking was intended to be Thingol himself.
John Rateliff addressed this question in The History of The Hobbit without really closing the issue, although he favors the view (based on the available evidence) that the Elvenking of The Hobbit (whom we learn is named Thranduil in The Lord of the Rings) is NOT to be equated with King Thingol in The Silmarillion. Continue reading “Was the Elvenking of The Hobbit supposed to be Thingol?”
