Appendix: Action Elves Are Canon

*Many people seem to think that Legolas's stunts in the films are over-the-top, and deserving of scorn. They say that such stunts are a deviation from Tolkien. This list is to show that the contrary is true – Tolkien created and used such 'action elves'. It is, in fact, an inherent part of being an elf.*

They now marched on again in silence, and passed like shadows and faint lights: for Elves (even more than hobbits) could walk when they wished without sound or footfall. - Lord of the Rings, Three is Company

Legolas watched them for a while with a smile upon his lips, and then he turned to the others. “The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over grass and leaf or over snow – an Elf.”

With that he sprang forth nimbly, and then Frodo noticed as if for the first time, though he had long known it, that the Elf had no boots, but wore only light shoes, as he always did, and his feet made little imprint in the snow.

“Farewell!” he said to Gandalf. “I go to find the Sun!” Then swift as a runner over firm sand he shot away, and quickly overtaking the toiling men, with a wave of his hand he passed them, and sped into the distance, and vanished round the rocky turn.

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“But happily your Caradhras has forgotten that you have Men with you,” said Boromir, who came up at that moment. “And doughty Men too, if I may say it; though lesser men with spades might have served you better. Still, we have thrust a lane through the drift; and for that all here may be grateful who cannot run as light as Elves.” - Lord of the Rings, The Ring Goes South

The bow of Legolas was singing.

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The last arrow of Legolas kindled in the air as it flew, and plunged burning into the heart of a great wolf-chieftain. - Lord of the Rings, A Journey in the Dark

He sprang lightly up from the ground and caught a branch that grew from the trunk high above his head.

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Out of the shadows a ladder was let down: it was made of rope, silver-grey and glimmering in the dark, and though it looked slender it proved strong enough to bear many men. Legolas ran lightly up, and Frodo followed slowly; behind came Sam trying not to breathe loudly.

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Not Elves; for the woodland folk were altogether noiseless in their movements.

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He made his end of the rope fast about another tree, and then ran lightly along it, over the river and back again, as if he were on a road. - Lord of the Rings, Lothlórien

But now rising and sailing up from the South the great clouds advanced, sending out dark outriders into the starry fields. A sudden dread fell on the Company.

“Elbereth Gilthoniel!” sighed Legolas as he looked up. Even as he did so, a dark shape, like a cloud and yet not a cloud, for it moved far more swiftly, came out of the blackness in the South, and sped towards the Company, blotting out all light as it approached. Soon it appeared as a great winged creature, blacker than the pits in the night. Fierce voices rose up to greet it from across the water. Frodo felt a sudden chill running through him and clutching at his heart; there was a deadly cold, like the memory of an old wound, in his shoulder. He crouched down, as if to hide.

Suddenly the great bow of Lórien sang. Shrill went the arrow from the elven-string. Frodo looked up. Almost above him the winged shape swerved. There was a harsh croaking scream, as it fell out of the air, vanishing down into the gloom of the eastern shore. The sky was clean again. There was a tumult of many voices far away, cursing and wailing in the darkness, and then silence. Neither shaft nor cry came again from the east that night. - Lord of the Rings, The Great River

Only Legolas still stepped as lightly as ever, his feet hardly seeming to press the grass, leaving no footprints as he passed; but in the waybread of the Elves he found all the sustenance that he needed, and he could sleep, if sleep it could be called by Men, resting his mind in the strange paths of elvish dreams, even as he walked open-eyed in the light of this world.

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But Legolas asked them to take off saddle and rein. “I need them not,” he said, and leaped lightly up, and to their wonder Arod was tame and willing beneath him, moving here and there with but a spoken word: such was the elvish way with all good beasts. - Lord of the Rings, The Riders of Rohan

He 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. - Tolkien on Legolas, in The Book of Lost Tales: Part Two

They were thus capable of far greater and longer physical exertions (in pursuit of some dominant purpose of their minds) without weariness; they were not subject to diseases; they healed rapidly and completely after injuries that would have proved fatal to Men; and they could endure great physical pain for long periods. - Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, Author's Note 5