In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Bilbo and Thorin’s Company of Dwarves traveled through Mirkwood to the Lonely Mountain. Mirkwood was home to the Woodland Realm, the kingdom of Legolas from The Lord of the Rings, but it was far more dangerous than the forests surrounding the other Elven Realms. Mirkwood was a dark and dangerous place, afflicted by mysterious curses and swarms of monsters. As Beorn described in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug film, “A darkness lies upon that forest. Fell things creep beneath those trees. I would not venture there except in great need.” Yet Mirkwood was not always this way; it was once a safe and beautiful forest known as Greenwood or Eryn Galen in the Elvish language of Sindarin. So what caused its sickly transformation?

Greenwood was the largest forest in the charted regions of Middle-earth, far exceeding the size of Fangorn Forest or the Old Forest. It’s northeast of the continent, between the Misty Mountains and the Iron Hills. Its earliest inhabitants were the Silvan Elves or Wood Elves. They were the descendants of the Elves who decided to stay in Middle-earth rather than following the Valar to Valinor in the First Age. In the early days of Greenwood, the Elves seemed to have a strong relationship with the Dwarves to the west. Durin’s Folk built the Old Forest Road through Greenwood to facilitate travel between Moria and Erebor. There were also some Men called Woodmen who lived in Greenwood, but Tolkien wrote little about them.

Sauron Turned Greenwood Into Mirkwood

The Dark Forests of Mirkwood Were Once Verdant and Green

Though Greenwood was the home of the Silvan Elves, its rulers were the Sindar Elves or Grey Elves. This tradition began with Legolas’ grandfather, Oropher. After the fall of Doriath, Oropher’s homeland, he led a small group of Sindar Elves to Greenwood and founded the Woodland Realm. The Silvan Elves not only welcomed the new arrivals but chose to follow Oropher as their king. Tolkien did not specify why they were so willing to accept a stranger as their ruler. However, in the chapter “Of Men” from The Silmarillion, Tolkien described that Oropher’s people “had greater wisdom, and skill, and beauty” than other non-Valinorean Elves.

The Silvan Elves likely sensed these traits in Oropher and believed he would make a good leader. Throughout the First Age and most of the Second Age, there was peace in Greenwood, as the Woodland Realm did not involve itself in conflicts with Morgoth or Sauron. However, High King Gil-galad convinced Oropher to aid him in the War of the Last Alliance against Sauron. Though the Elves were victorious, Oropher lost his life, and his son Thranduil became the King of the Woodland Realm, a position he held in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Elven Realms In The Lord of the Rings

Rivendell
Elrond

The Woodland Realm

Lothlórien
Galdriel and Celeborn

Lindon
Círdan

In the Third Age, two Maiar settled in Greenwood. The first was the wizard Radagast the Brown, who lived at Rhosgobel along the edge of the forest. He was a nature-loving Wizard who communed with the plants and animals there and did his best to protect the land. But the second was none other than Sauron, who inhabited Dol Guldur in an abandoned region of Greenwood. Sauron infected Greenwood with his evil, just as his master Morgoth had infected the entirety of Middle-earth before the First Age. The trees grew to blot out the sky, the air became thick and stifling, the plants and animals became inedible or at least unpleasant to taste, and the water of the Enchanted River turned black, causing any who touched it to fall into a deep sleep. Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey also showed wildlife like Sebastian the hedgehog falling ill. The Elves began to refer to Greenwood as Mirkwood, the Forest of Great Fear.

Middle-earth’s Most Evil Monsters Were Drawn to Mirkwood

Mirkwood Became a Hub For All Kinds of Darkness and Evil

Some creatures thrived in Mirkwood. Giant moths, bats, and spiders infested the forest, as did Orcs from Dol Guldur. The spiders were especially dangerous, as they covered Mirkwood in webs large enough to ensnare even Elves and Men. In the chapter “Queer Lodgings” from The Hobbit, Beorn warns Bilbo and the Dwarves that “the wild things are dark, queer, and savage” in Mirkwood. Not all of these creatures were creations of Sauron, nor did they necessarily serve him. Rather, his aura attracted beings that flourished in the darkness. The spiders, for example, had migrated north from the mountains of Mordor. They were the offspring of Shelob, the spider-like monster that Frodo and Sam encountered in The Lord of the Rings.

Mirkwood Trivia

The Sindarin name for Mirkwood was Taur-nu-Fuin.
Taur-nu-Fuin was also the name of a corrupted forest in Beleriand during the First Age.
Surprisingly, Tolkien did not give an Elvish name for the Woodland Realm.

To avoid the monsters that now plagued his land, Thranduil ordered the construction of the Elvenking’s Halls in the caves beneath Mirkwood. In the chapter “Flies and Spiders” from The Hobbit, Tolkien wrote that the halls were “lighter and more wholesome than any goblin-dwelling, and neither so deep nor so dangerous.” However, they did not compare to the beauty and majesty of Rivendell or Lothlórien; Elves preferred to be under the sky, among the trees. These halls served as Thranduil’s home, treasury, and stronghold. The borders of the Woodland Realm shrank, and its inhabitants rarely interacted with the outside world aside from some trading with Lake-town. Thranduil did not possess a Ring of Power like Elrond or Galadriel, so he was no match for Sauron. The Elves survived, but Mirkwood belonged to the Dark Lord during The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Mirkwood Was Healed After The Lord of the Rings

Sauron’s Defeat Gave the Elves a Chance to Cleanse the Forest

Sauron’s defeat at the end of The Lord of the Rings did not automatically cleanse Mirkwood. However, without his influence, the Elves finally had a fighting chance against the monsters that had taken over the forest.Elves from the neighboring realm of Lothlórien came to Mirkwood to stamp out Sauron’s evil once and for all. Once the monsters were gone, the forest began to heal, and the Elves renamed it the Wood of Greenleaves, or Eryn Lasgalen. The Woodland Realm’s borders expanded to encompass more of the forest and Lothlórien claimed a region of the south. Beorn’s descendants, the Beornings, also moved into the Wood of Greenleaves, joining the Woodmen who already lived there.

Mirkwood Trivia

Beorn said that nuts were the only good food that grew in Mirkwood.
The Elves of the Woodland Realm imprisoned Gollum shortly before the events of The Lord of the Rings.
Some Elves from Mirkwood moved to Gondor after the War of the Ring.

Tolkien’s works were full of environmental messages, and the plight of Mirkwood was no exception. Though not as literal as Saruman’s industrialization of Isengard and the Shire, Sauron’s corruption of Greenwood served as a metaphor for pollution. Sauron’s selfish actions choked out the life of the forest and rendered it uninhabitable to those who originally called it home. In the chapter “Lothlórien” from The Fellowship of the Ring, Haldir referred to Sauron’s aura in Mirkwood as “a black cloud,” imagery that called to mind the smog of smokestacks. Even once Sauron was gone, it took great effort to undo the damage he had wrought, and some of Greenwood’s majesty was lost forever. However, there was hope for the Wood of Greenleaves. The Elves were destined to leave one day, but by the end of The Lord of the Rings, the forest was a prosperous land where many kinds of Elves and Men lived.

What Happened to the Elves of Mirkwood?

Thranduil and the Other Elves of Mirkwood Eventually Left Middle-earth

After reclaiming the forests of Mirkwood from the forces of Sauron and defeating the dark lord once and for all, the Silvan Elves had even more power over the realm than ever before. With the War of the Ring won Thranduil’s territory expanded greatly, as certain portions of the Woodland were reclaimed and parts of Lothlórien were gifted to the Silvan Elves. Thranduil’s son, Legolas, was active in this period as well, helping to improve the city of Ithilien. This became known as one of the safest and best-regarded locations in the wetlands during the Fourth Age.

Upcoming Lord of the Rings Films

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim – December 13, 2024
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum – 2026

However, even the wood-elves of the West did not reside in Middle-earth forever. Thranduil’s fate is never addressed in Tolkien’s books, but it is most likely that he sailed to the Undying Lands at some point during the Fourth Age, as did many of his kin. Legolas did the same many years later, sailing to Valinor alongside his old friend Gimli, the first Dwarf to be given access to the Undying Lands. The forest once known as Mirkwood would have slowly lost the Elf population living there as Men took over Middle-earth. While the Elves left during the Fourth Age, the forest of Greenwood most likely remained free of the darkness that once ruled it for many years thereafter.