Elves and Elvishness
One of my original stories contains two races of semi-immortal people, and I really don't want them to be too similar to Tolkien's elves, so I thought a bit about exactly what 'elvish behaviour' means.
It's a common criticism of fic: 'Your elves aren't elvish enough', and I'm sure most of us have been told that at least once, but what do we really mean by it? The common perception (fanon, perhaps?) seems to be that elves live life very slowly and indecisively, which may well be true for some, but certainly not for all, even in LoTR. I would suggest that it is their life experiences and personalities that make elves like Elrond, Gildor and Galadriel that way, rather than being something inherent to all elves. Celeborn is positively hasty in his decision-making process, as shown by his reaction to the news of the Moria Balrog.
There was an interesting discussion a few weeks ago on Dawn's LJ about the intervals between children in a elven family, and there the canon examples range from three children in a maximum of ten years, (Eluréd, Elurín and Elwing) which would not be unusual in an average family today, to almost six centuries between Turgon and Aredhel. Once again, elves range from one end of the spectrum to the other, and their spectrum is far broader than ours.
'Youth' is also a relative term for elves, and may encompass the entire first millennium of life. LaCE tells us that elves tended to marry when young, but Finarfin is almost five hundred years old when he marries Eärwen. Fëanor created his Tengwar in his "early youth", even though he was seven hundred and seventy-six at the time.
For hastiness in decision making, I offer the example of the Noldor of Tirion, who took almost no time at all to decide to pack up and move to a different continent. Whatever their reasons (revenge, recovery of Silmarils, wanting a land of their own, etc.) it was not a change that required long deliberation.
So the next time someone tells you your elves aren't acting elvishly because they do things too quickly, remember that you're in the company of JRRT himself!
It's a common criticism of fic: 'Your elves aren't elvish enough', and I'm sure most of us have been told that at least once, but what do we really mean by it? The common perception (fanon, perhaps?) seems to be that elves live life very slowly and indecisively, which may well be true for some, but certainly not for all, even in LoTR. I would suggest that it is their life experiences and personalities that make elves like Elrond, Gildor and Galadriel that way, rather than being something inherent to all elves. Celeborn is positively hasty in his decision-making process, as shown by his reaction to the news of the Moria Balrog.
There was an interesting discussion a few weeks ago on Dawn's LJ about the intervals between children in a elven family, and there the canon examples range from three children in a maximum of ten years, (Eluréd, Elurín and Elwing) which would not be unusual in an average family today, to almost six centuries between Turgon and Aredhel. Once again, elves range from one end of the spectrum to the other, and their spectrum is far broader than ours.
'Youth' is also a relative term for elves, and may encompass the entire first millennium of life. LaCE tells us that elves tended to marry when young, but Finarfin is almost five hundred years old when he marries Eärwen. Fëanor created his Tengwar in his "early youth", even though he was seven hundred and seventy-six at the time.
For hastiness in decision making, I offer the example of the Noldor of Tirion, who took almost no time at all to decide to pack up and move to a different continent. Whatever their reasons (revenge, recovery of Silmarils, wanting a land of their own, etc.) it was not a change that required long deliberation.
So the next time someone tells you your elves aren't acting elvishly because they do things too quickly, remember that you're in the company of JRRT himself!