Beyond the Rings: Once Upon a Time in Bree
~ edit in progress ~ uploading whenever possible (usually: every Sunday) ~
Edited: Prologue & Epilogue, Chapters I - X
Currently Editing: Chapter XI (two-part chapter coming up!)
New Chapters Arriving: 5th July 2026
"He is known in the Wild as Strider," his father had once told him - but this is not that tale.
Long before the Fellowship, before the Ringbearer, and before Aragorn became King, Legolas Greenleaf was sent north to seek the heir of Isildur among the Dúnedain.
His journey led him not to Rivendell, but to Bree - a rain-soaked village where shadows passed unnoticed between the doors of the Prancing Pony and secrets survived longer than memory itself.
Yet it was not Aragorn that Legolas found there.
Instead, he encountered a stranger tied to an older darkness buried beneath the ruins of Dol Guldur... and to truths forgotten by kings, wizards, and even the Elves.
Set in the years following the Battle of the Five Armies, Beyond the Rings: Once Upon a Time in Bree follows a younger Legolas through a path of warnings, missteps, hidden loyalties, and dangerous encounters that would shape the warrior he would one day become.
Who warned Thorin Oakenshield of his father's end?
Why did Thorin once travel to Bree?
What secrets did Gandalf uncover there?
And who did Legolas truly meet in the Wild?
A companion volume to Beyond the Rings: The Legacy of the Last Age, this story explores the untold youth of Legolas and the beginning of a bond that defied duty, fate, and perhaps something even older than both.
~ Book I out of II ~