Thingol just sounds like a place-holder name to me

"Thingol comes from sindacollo, 'grey cloak'", according to Arda.

Also:

In his early life, millennia before the beginning of the First Age, Thingol journeyed to Valinor with Ingwë and Finwë, and was returned to the Eldar who dwelt at Cuiviënen. From the travellers' reports of the Blessed Realm, many of the Elves marched westward across Middle-earth, seeking the land of the Valar, and the third and greatest host of the Elves, the Teleri, were led by Thingol and his brother Olwë.

As they neared the western coasts of Middle-earth, Thingol came upon Melian the Maia in the wood of Nan Elmoth. Long years passed, and at length he remained with Melian in Beleriand, though many of the Teleri passed West over the Great Sea. With Melian, Thingol founded the woodland realm of Doriath in the central regions of Beleriand, and there ruled the Sindar for many years. Thingol's doom came upon him when Beren brought him a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown as the bride-price of his daughter Lúthien. He summoned Dwarves from the Blue Mountains to set the jewel in the necklace Nauglamír, and the Dwarves became so enamoured of their work that they slew Thingol in his own treasury.

I'm scanning the movie quotes on IMDB, and I just noticed a capitalisation which makes me laugh:

Eomer: We cannot attain victory through strength of arms.
Aragorn: Not for ourselves, but we can give Frodo his chance if we keep Sauron's eye fixed upon us, and keep it blind to all else that moves.
Legolas: A Diversion.

It's probably a typo, but that's exactly how he says it. He had the worst lines.

It is, and he does. At least he looks more like an elf than a blacksmith.

We cannot obtain victory through strength of pants.

Hee.

I don't blame Orlando, since the lines the elves are given are generally weird, but his are weirdest. "A red sun rises, blood has been spilled this night. " Yeah, no. Viggo pulls off some stiff ones, but his aren't that bad, and he's also got a huge understated yet overwrought thing going with Aragorn.

True enough, I just have a knee jerk snarking reaction to Legolas, and a similar reaction to Bloom, though not in a really mean way.

Of course, What Ewan MacGregor managed to do with the fountain of terribleness they had him spewing in Send In The Clones is little short of awe inspiring. Dude was the most credible thing in that picture, IMO.

I love Ewan, I really do. But I can't watch another SW prologue. So I'll never know his brilliance therein.

I liked A Life Less Ordinary, fer crissakes.

It's Lothlorien that did it to him. Before they get there, he's speaking in complete sentences that say things other than statements of the complete obvious. But after they leave, it's all "The horses are restless. The men are quiet."

"The horses are restless. The men are quiet."

I like that one, actually. Though it did take me until the second viewing to appreciate it.

I know he had dramatically fewer lines in the second two movies, but couldn't PJ have let him still be able to make sense?

I wonder -- which characters have most of the lines Tolkien gave them?

My problem is I get the same vibe listening to him on commentary.

There are only four things I like about Send in The Clones, and two of them are my own jokes at it's expense. Then there's MacGregor's work, which is very much acting into the face of hell itself, and then there's the one little moment where Samuel L Jackson stops trying to act like he's not Samuel L. Jackson.

Off the top of my head, with no evidence to back me up, I'd guess Gandalf.