Legolas -- we don't know when he was born but I'm guessing after the elves come back from Valinor

I have not myself read the specific notes and passages where this is talked about, but a friend more versed than I did once explain to me that Legolas is slightly less than three thousand years old.

Thranduil (Legolas' dad) was at the battle of the Last Alliance (along with Elrond), but Legolas was not, as he had not been born yet. He was born some time in the next thousand years, and is 2000 and change.

More to the point, Neither Legolas nor Thranduil headed to Valinor. Although they have a permanent invitation, they'd never taken it up. (Unlike Galadriel who went, got in a snit, and came back again.) I got the general impression that a lot of the time, the "lesser" elves were just as happy to stay out of the Noldor's way, and be left alone.

Neither Legolas nor Thranduil headed to Valinor. Although they have a permanent invitation, they'd never taken it up. (Unlike Galadriel who went, got in a snit, and came back again.)

Huh. This thread is better than the Silmawhatsion.

Calli, you have no idea how much Tolkien nerds love to show off. Or you do, if you'll recall how we fell all over ourselves to explain canon to Allyson last fall.

I believe the Dark Lord came to be called Bob in that frenzy. It was a thing.

we fell all over ourselves to explain canon to Allyson last fall.

That was where "Get in the damn boat, Fodo" came from, right?

you have no idea how much Tolkien nerds love to show off. Or you do,

During a lull at work last summer I went back and read every post in the TT thread. I was able to astonish and amaze my friends with the tidbits I picked up. So here's a resounding Thank You!!! to all Tolkien nerds, past and present. Y'all made me look smart.

If only there'd been an "Organic Chemistry: Life and Timing According to ME" thread back in college (or an internet, for that matter). It could have changed my whole career path.

This is edifying. Thank you.

Tests her luck.

So who are the Noldor, and what are the different races of Elves? Which of them speak Quenya and which Sindarin?

Actually, I believe in the Silmarillion, Morgoth names Sauron "Bob" originally. "Bob the Schmuck" or something. I can't remember.

And there was the whole epic saga of Who Drank the Last of the Valar's Coffee and Didn't Fill Up the Pot Or Chip In To The Coffee Fund And, By the Way, I Specifically Laid Claim to The Cinammon Donut and It's Not Here, Now Why Is That Bob?

It's buried in there, but you can find it.

(Unlike Galadriel who went, got in a snit, and came back again.)

Huh. Was this before or after the events of RotK?

So who are the Noldor, and what are the different races of Elves? Which of them speak Quenya and which Sindarin?

Lessee, off the top of my head: There is elfs, and at base they're all the same, and all invited to the Eternal Party in the undying lands. Way back when, some elves went all the way to the party, some of them got distracted before they arrived, and some of them didn't bother starting out. Then, some uncounted years later, some of the elves who were at the party had a screaming argument, and headed back to Middle-earth.

(There was drama! There was kin-strife! There were the Helcaraxe Ice Capades [tm Katie], in which some of the exiles took the boats and left the rest of the exiles behind, and the remainder of the exiles had to walk across the ice way in the frozen north! Galadriel was one of those walkers, FYI.)

[eta: Long past history. When Galadriel goes party-ward at the end of Return, she intends to stay there.]

The Noldor are the party-exiles. In Middle-earth, they're special elves, because they've been to the party, and "still have the light of it in their faces". Their children count as Noldor too: Elrond, Arwen, etc. [Elrond is a lot younger than Galadriel, but he's still pretty damn special.]

Then there are grey-elves (the ones that got distracted) and green elves (the ones who never left the house). Cirdan the Shipwright is one of the former, and is that random elf guy standing to the right of frame during the Grey Havens scenes in the movie; Thranduil and Legolas are the latter. [They're hot shit, you'll notice, but the Noldor shit is smokin' by comparison.]

As for languages, Quenya is sort of like the Latin of Middle-earth. Nobody speaks it conversationally, but Frodo's invocation of the Elvish flashlight and Strider's quatrain at his crowning are both in Quenya. I think much of the lore is supposed to be written in Quenya. But elves all speak Sindarin conversationally, and in the Faramir chapters it is sort of implied that much of Gondor speaks Sindarin, or some simplified dialect of Sindarin, in addition to the default mannish "westron" language.

[edited to prove I'm not illiterate, and to add a few details in brackets]