The Seven Gates is one of my favorite Silmarillion fics and the characterization is so good, also the counselor is like an official character to me now! Can I ask your thoughts about elves maturing, cause I think in Valinor, with immortality and all, elves wouldn't need to grow up out of their parent's shadows if they don't want to, sure you could be independent but you could also just be a mama's boy forever if it weren't for the darkening. Like Feanor's sons were so devoted to their dad cause they never imagined a world without him. I just have so many thoughts about this because I'm in that age where I kinda want to leave my parents house and be independent but I never feel ready despite having a job. I was just thinking elves never had that realization that your parents are getting older, especially how in the Seven Gates Tyelcano who raised them as elflings is still their counselor as lords. What do you think about elvish maturity?
First of all, sorry this reply took me so criminally long! I've been mulling it over, thinking I'd eventually set aside an entire afternoon to reread both NoMe and LaCE so I could make my case properly. But I've had to accept that's not gonna happen anytime soon with the kind of life I'm leading rn. I'll have to rely on my memory instead, because this is such a cool question, and I don't wanna let it wither away in my inbox for another year!
Secondly, thank you so much, and I’m happy you enjoyed ‘Gates’ as a whole as well as Tyelcano’s character ❤️
And now on to your actual question!
We know that after a quick developmental leap through infancy, Elves are much slower to mature than humans, but once they grow into adulthood, they appear unchanged to the eye for thousands of years (save some notable exceptions, like Gwindor who was broken in torment and grief). I don’t think that maturity, in the human sense, holds much importance to them, especially because any change in their character is slow, ongoing for centuries or even millennia. I believe that they are less emotionally dependent on their parents (again, save some notable exceptions—looking at you, Feanor), and they were mostly exempt from the social pressure of personal autonomy that we are under today. Spouses could spend decades apart, children could not see their parents for centuries, and they would not experience this as a loss of precious time. Until Míriel’s passing, even the concept of grief/loss is completely alien to Elves from Valinor.
The human perception is that most of what we consider maturity (strength, tenacity, emotional regulation, wisdom, resilience) typically comes with age: but only because our lifespans are limited to 60-80 years. To Elves, I think, maturity is rather obtained by living through a variety of experiences that render age difference redundant very quickly. In a Third Age setting, a 2000 year old and a 4000 year old Elf (east of the Sea) would have both seen great battles, the rise and fall of empires, the threat of Sauron becoming imminent, and then diminishing again; but the same 2000 year old Elf would, I think, appear ancient next to a 8000 year old Elf who spent all three Ages in Valinor!
I’m not saying, of course, that Elves in Valinor had zero life experience, but I do think that some of them envied those who left, and then came back to tell the tale, even though Elves were not “meant” to endure death, sorrow, darkness and hardships.
In the context of ‘Gates’, Tyelcano is a particularly ancient Elf, even by the standards of the royal house of Finwe, which is why he is held in such high honour as counsellor to Maedhros (and in unpublished stories, Regent Lord of Himring in his absence). His knowledge of history, language and forgotten lore is respected, but Maedhros, despite their age difference, is more than his equal in competence. In fact, the princes of the House of Finwe tend to surpass Tyelcano with their insight in critical moments, like in Chapter 40, when Turgon’s wisdom saves him from a grievous mistake. (And I won’t even start counting the times when his friends save him). Dubious as some Tolkienian implications of “kingly bloodline” might be, I sometimes like to play with the concept.
(Side note: ‘Gates’ does not quite convey this, because the concept has grown with the story itself, but I actually imagine that Tyel’s faithful vassal-relationship with Maedhros only blossomed into (expressed) close friendship as late as during the Dagor Bragollach. I’ve had so many ideas about them over the years, it’s been terrible having to keep them apart for the last two thirds of the story… :D)
