Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The elves of the Woodland Realm of Mirkwood appear fleetingly in the prologue of the first film and here Howard Shore had a chance to introduce an embryonic form of their music. Thranduil, the king of the Wood Elves and his people are underscored by a slightly exotic Eastern tinged female choir phrase but it disappears almost as soon as it entered, offering a tantalizing hint of things to come. This music seems to reflect the general aesthetics of the Elven music with its clear lined, flowing and lyrical approach and the Eastern musical inflections that inform the ancient cultures of Middle-earth such as Lothlórien and Mordor also appear in the theme for the Woodland Realm.
The Mirkwood elves become the sole representative of elvish culture in The Desolation of Smaug and most of The Battle of the Five Armies. The central Woodland Realm theme introduced in An Unexpected Journey thus receives extensive development and is one of the central thematic ideas of the second and third scores. Shore’s music is at times as ethereally choral as it was for the Lothlórien and Rivendell elves but this time utilizes more earthy palette with exotic drums and specialty instruments and low orchestral colours that give this new elven culture its unique feel. It is a militaristic culture of isolation and these elves are as dangerous and deadly as they are beguiling, their otherworldly demeanour laced with steely exoticism. In addition to this theme Shore draws several other motifs from the same basic colours and begins to show a slow cultural overlap between the dwarves and the elves as Thorin’s company ends up in Thranduil’s kingdom and Tauriel and Kili’s relationship is introduced.
The elves of the Woodland Realm of Mirkwood appear fleetingly in the prologue of the first film and here Howard Shore had a chance to introduce an embryonic form of their music. Thranduil, the king of the Wood Elves and his people are underscored by a slightly exotic Eastern tinged female choir phrase but it disappears almost as soon as it entered, offering a tantalizing hint of things to come. This music seems to reflect the general aesthetics of the Elven music with its clear lined, flowing and lyrical approach and the Eastern musical inflections that inform the ancient cultures of Middle-earth such as Lothlórien and Mordor also appear in the theme for the Woodland Realm.
The Mirkwood elves become the sole representative of elvish culture in The Desolation of Smaug and most of The Battle of the Five Armies. The central Woodland Realm theme introduced in An Unexpected Journey thus receives extensive development and is one of the central thematic ideas of the second and third scores. Shore’s music is at times as ethereally choral as it was for the Lothlórien and Rivendell elves but this time utilizes more earthy palette with exotic drums and specialty instruments and low orchestral colours that give this new elven culture its unique feel. It is a militaristic culture of isolation and these elves are as dangerous and deadly as they are beguiling, their otherworldly demeanour laced with steely exoticism. In addition to this theme Shore draws several other motifs from the same basic colours and begins to show a slow cultural overlap between the dwarves and the elves as Thorin’s company ends up in Thranduil’s kingdom and Tauriel and Kili’s relationship is introduced.
