#but to the elves of the third age hes an unhinged creature who speaks to trees and knows where to find the best pipeweed

[the-writing-warg]

Obsessed with the idea of Thranduil turning up to an important event in Valinor for the first time looking like this

With most of the first age elves having a breakdown.

And the looks of complete adoration from elfings as he let's them add flowers and leaves, and let's them braid them into his hair

(He also struts up to whoever is ruling valinor at the time, wine glass held loosely in his hands and declares that he is thranduil and he speaks for the trees)

[growingingreenwood]

Hi!!!! I love you!!! Do you have any headcanons about Greenwood folklore or cryptids?? Or just ME cryptids in general???

Hi!!!!! I love you too!!!!

First and foremost I think that Greenwood has trouble with ‘used to be’ creatures. Creatures that used to be a deer, or an elk, or a bird but…..aren't. For either obvious or hauntingly noticeable reasons. Deer that don't move right, some of their joints moving too far forward or backward than they should, their heads hanging weird and antlers dripping with... something. An Elk that is minding its business until it sees you, then it attacks with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, jaw almost unhinging itself like a snake and occasionally they can wrap their limbs around a tree to try and shimmy up after you. Wolves that obviously used to be wolves….. But there is something terrifying about the way they are looking at you and holding themselves. Like they have something to say but won't say it, like they're only a few sunsets away from learning how to walk upright like a human. Like they know your name and do not like the taste of it. Creatures with eyes that are milky white but seem to almost see better than the elves. Creatures that are skin and  bones to the point they should have died months ago, but somehow didn’t. Creatures who walk like their limbs are broken, or with heads and necks held and weird and alarming angles. Sometimes, at night, the Elves swear they can hear some of these creatures whispering broken Westorn to each other in the forest. Their eerily human but distinctly not voices grating across every nerve the elves have.

On that note  -- ‘Used to be Elves’ AKA elves that were lost, caputed, or presumed dead that ended up back in the forest for whatever reason. Elves that are now too strange to the light to be elves, but unable to hold the darkness required for them to be Orcs. Wild, feral creatures. It seems entirely impossible to reason with them, and somehow they’ve gotten stronger and faster than normal elves. Can no longer verbally speak, the closest they get is some grunting and groaning sounds or inhuman screams when they attack. They eat their meat raw and will eat creatures alive, including other elves. 

I just think there would be other forms of various malcontent lingering throughout the forest. It’s pretty much the beacon of evil during the 3rd age, so I feel like all those dark weird creatures (Like the Barrowrites and Gollum and the Spides) would be drawn to Mirkwood over time. So whatever terrifying madness that shit entails in the Third Age.

Thranduil / Radagast / Yavanna - Pretty much lumped into the same pile of “Holey fucking shit I just saw the real and actual spirit of the forest walking around. What do you mean how do I know?? I could feel it!!” 

I have this headcanon that Saruon tried really hard to make a cat version of ‘Wargs’ like Cougars or Leopards but bigger and scarier since he already made Wargs and Werewolves. So there are little clans of all his failed attempts running around the forest, just a random assortment of Science Danger Cats. 

There is also theoretically ‘Monster like creatures’ that live in the river and streams of the forest. These look like nothing any fisherman has ever seen, including tentacle like appendages but the upper proportions similar to a shark. The legend says that these  creatures can learn to mimick the calls of their prey to lure them into the water where they can be snatched up. Particularly the sounds of drowning young. The elves have never confirmed nor denied this, but several human villages that live around nearby claim to have seen them. Laketown has remained removed from the debate. 

Death Munchers -- The elves have NO IDEA what they’re actually called, but they seem to come from the fortress so they don't’t really care. They’re sort of a weird combination of a rat and a lizard, but with longer legs. Like if you took a Lizard's normal legs and made them go up instead of out. These creatures come in varying sizes, and some have apparently mastered the ability to climb tree’s to drop on you from above. These little pesky creatures largely seem to be interested in finishing up somebody else's kills or just eating general dead things. 

There is also mmmaaannnnyyyyy theories suggesting that Greenwood is haunted by legit ghosts of either humans who died in the forest, Elves who refused to go to the halls, or Elves that somehow left part of their souls in the forest while the rest was taken to the halls. 

That's all I got for now, might add to it later.