I am not sure why people would think of them as slow, ponderous types, as pretty much all the Elves we read about--including the King in the Hobbit--seem rather quick-thinking.
I think a lot of people confuse patient with ponderous. Elves, as you say, are certainly quick-thinking, and they can certainly be impulsive (as several episodes in the Silm show all to well) - but I can also see them planning a course of action that will take several hundred years to come to fruition. The two traits are not necessarily incompatible; after all, we often plan our lives years, or even decades, into the future, but still manage to mix in impulsive acts. Suddenly deciding to go out for dinner or to drive off to visit an old friend does not preclude thinking ahead about what you need to accomplish in order to graduate from school in 3 years or get that promotion 6 months from now.
To my mind, the true weirdness of Elves comes in other areas: the fact that at least some of them have had face-to-face conversations with angelic beings and know with 100% certainty what will happen to them if they die - and that dying is unnatural for them to begin with. Humans have a generational cycle: we go from being children to young adults to elders; at each step we're displacing another generation and being displaced by a younger one in turn. What would it be like to ALWAYS have your parents and grandparents in your life, and to simultaneously see your kids' kid's kid's children?
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I think a lot of people confuse patient with ponderous. Elves, as you say, are certainly quick-thinking, and they can certainly be impulsive (as several episodes in the Silm show all to well) - but I can also see them planning a course of action that will take several hundred years to come to fruition. The two traits are not necessarily incompatible; after all, we often plan our lives years, or even decades, into the future, but still manage to mix in impulsive acts. Suddenly deciding to go out for dinner or to drive off to visit an old friend does not preclude thinking ahead about what you need to accomplish in order to graduate from school in 3 years or get that promotion 6 months from now.
To my mind, the true weirdness of Elves comes in other areas: the fact that at least some of them have had face-to-face conversations with angelic beings and know with 100% certainty what will happen to them if they die - and that dying is unnatural for them to begin with. Humans have a generational cycle: we go from being children to young adults to elders; at each step we're displacing another generation and being displaced by a younger one in turn. What would it be like to ALWAYS have your parents and grandparents in your life, and to simultaneously see your kids' kid's kid's children?