The Lord of the Rings novels are some of the most iconic and inspiring tales of good triumphing evil that have inspired millions of fans, filmmakers and novelists for generations and will continue to do so for many more.

Humble hobbits join forces in The Lord of the Rings with a grand wizard, an Elf, a Dwarf, and men to rid the one ring that rules them all in the fires of Mount Doom and put an end to Sauron and his mass armies looking to consume control of Middle-earth once and for all.

In 2001, Peter Jackson graced us with arguably the greatest movie trilogy ever inspired by the J.R.R Tolkien novels, namely, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Though the same perhaps cannot be said for The Hobbit movie trilogy.

For the most part, each of the three The Lord of the Rings movie adaptations were faithful retellings with a few changes here and there. However, the singular The Hobbit novel was stretched out into three movies meaning that a lot more filler content was needed.

To be fair, the same can be said for most novel to movie/TV adaptations and one of the changes made in The Lord of the Rings movies was the archery specialist and popular Elf, Legolas. In The Hobbit movies, Legolas was quite broody though he did lighten up in The Lord of the Rings movies.

It’s been a while since I’ve read the novels, but from what I remember, Legolas is more high-spirited in the novels than he is in the movies. However, one factor that remains true is his skills with the bow and arrow.

Legolas more than played his part in the demise of Sauron by not only assisting his Fellowship members to take down hordes of bad guys but he was also known to help spur his comrades on when the moment called. Yet, according to the main man himself, Legolas may have been the most ineffective member of the Fellowship.

A quote shared on the Tumblr page of maedhrosrussandol, from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales, he once said: “In Sauron’s final overthrow, Elves were not effectively concerned at the point of action. Legolas probably achieved the least of the Nine Walkers.”

Much like Hawkeye of The Avengers, both he and Legolas have saved the day more than once and can be considered somewhat unsung heroes of their respective groups.

Despite J.R.R. Tolkien stating that Legloas may have achieved the least of the Nine Walkers, that’s not to say that the legendary writer didn’t have respect for the beloved character. Maedhrosrussandol also shared the following passage from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Book of Lost Tales: Part Two (The History of Middle-earth #2):

“He [Legolas] was tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong, able swiftly to draw a great war-bow and shoot down a Nazgûl, endowed with the tremendous vitality of Elvish bodies, so hard and resistant to hurt that he went only in light shoes over rock or through snow, the most tireless of all the Fellowship.”

So there you have it, just like Hawkeye, Legolas deserves all the respect and J.R.R. Tolkien agrees.