Ok I was joking but I’m now unironically into the idea of Mirkwood just being some of the grungier parts of the rural US South

For some reason this is making me think of the movie “Big Fish”

Imagine what a chip on his shoulder Thranduil must have had toward Galadriel. Her subjects were Nandors too, yet because she was Noldor & not Sindar she elevated all of Lothlorien *way* above Mirkwood.