Elves and Elvishness

[fanged-geranium.livejournal.com]

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!

Comments

Elves and Elvishness

[digdigil.livejournal.com]

You said it beautifully, Lois! The examples are all there from Tolkien himself. I think that he changed his mind so many times while putting together his mythology that he left behind a truly rich variety of material from which we fanfic writers can choose when deciding what to write about ourselves. I think that this also tends to spark our imaginations more so than if he had left a legacy of strict codes and behaviour, but he did not!

[dawn_felagund]

I've been told my Elves aren't Elvish enough before for a variety of reasons. (The time between Feanor's children in Felak!verse being just one very minor example of it!) When you consider the wealth of Elven characters and their varying personalities and responses to conflict, though--as you point out--"Elvishness" becomes harder to define.

I would have a hard to criticizing anyone's characters for not being Elvish enough. I can imagine that, shortly after Tolkien's death before The Sil was published, it slipping to a Tolkien community in the form of a fanfic and people immediately leaping on it and saying, "Feanor isn't Elvish enough! No Elf would make such hasty, stupid decisions and then turn around and do such a heinous thing as the Kinslaying! I mean, we thought Thranduil was evol! I think you need to label this AU."

Jenni's right in that there's just so much information to choose from. And I like the fact that even Tolkien's Elves seem to break the mold of "Elvishness" (like the Celeborn example you gave); it makes them more real and much more complex. and gives more liberties to fanfic writers

[jilba.livejournal.com]

Well, I have noticed many of the elves acted quickly, and in many ways they respond to things much as we would.

Look at Feanorians! From their behaviour, they are very very human. I guess we can write elves much as we wish, depending on their personalities.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Can I just mention that, when I started talking about the birthspacing thing, I didn't say that Dawn's Elves weren't elvish enough, only that I personally see the average Elven family differently--although of course Feanor's family can be an exception.

Likewise, everything in this comment should be read as My Impression Only.

It seems to me that Tolkien doesn't really describe Elvishness explicitly, outside of LaCE, so we are left with observing the Elves in his stories. And these are about the only conclusions that I can draw with complete certainty:

1) Elves fetishize hair.
2) Elves go crazy for shiny jewellery.

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. And definitely passionate. They quarrel as much as humans do, but... and this might be a genuine difference... they seem to think of murder as not just horrible, but rare and unexpected. And of course they are less prone to rape, too. So in a sense they seem morally superior to humans, or at least have different drives. And this brings me to one of the things that really break my suspension of disbelief: when an Elf rapes and/or murders outside of war, and everyone around seems, at best, angry, rather than completely horrified.

And then there is this (http://oddlots.digitalspace.net/rawaths/immortals.html). A bit pretentious, no doubt, but the idea of Elvishness concealed behind the 'commandments' is close to my own. To my mind, Elves all share a love of lore, and art, and nature, to lesser or greater degree, and a special sensitivity to such things. And the second thing that really throws me out of a story is a motif rather common in badslash, where an Elf is ridiculed for being 'merely a scholar' or 'merely an artist' instead of a warrior. That seems completely the wrong way round to me.