Detta svaras i Galadriel och Celeborn-materialet i oavslutade taler; Bilaga B, Silvan Elves Sindarinprinser :
Thranduil är därför en av, eller i värsta fall, från Sindarälven av Beleriand i den första åldern, som aldrig såg Valinor men som ändå gjorde den stora resan och kom till Beleriand före Solens uppgång.In Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings, in the headnote to the Tale of Years of the Second Age, it is said that "before the building of the Barad-dûr many of the Sindar passed eastward, and some established realms in the forests far away, where their people were mostly Silvan Elves. Thranduil, long in the north of Greenwood the Great, was one of these."
Hans folk är däremot främst Silvan Elves ( inte Sindar) som var av olika, mindre människor. Den specifika skillnaden definieras också i samma källa, den här gången Bilaga A, Silvanälven och deras tal :
The Silvan Elves (Tawarwaith) were in origin Teleri, and so remoter kin of the Sindar, though even longer separated from them than the Teleri of Valinor. They were descended from those of the Teleri who, on the Great Journey, were daunted by the Misty Mountains and lingered in the Vale of Anduin, and so never reached Beleriand or the Sea.
Slutligen sammanfattar texten i The Hobbit allt detta (men observera att det kommer till en tid från innan de fullständiga uppfattningarna om relationerna mellan de olika Elven-folken slogs ut):
They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West. There the Light-elves and the Deep-elves and the Sea-elves went and lived for ages, and grew fairer and wiser and more learned, and invented their magic and their cunning craft, in the making of beautiful and marvellous things, before some came back into the Wide World. In the Wide World the Wood-elves lingered in the twilight of our Sun and Moon but loved best the stars; and they wandered in the great forests that grew tall in lands that are now lost.
Så, Thranduil är mer ädel än hans folk, för han är härstammad från ett annorlunda, ädla, Elven-folk.