It is strange to talk about when I was young for the reason that it has
been a very long time since I have been young.
I was born to Thranduil and Ilmae, most likely a common village elf or a palace servant. I am no prince, ... despite popular belief. Ilmae, ... I know little of Ilmae, but for the fact that my father was fond enough of her not to have her killed when I was conceived. Evidently he didn't have the heart to have me killed either.
I have always believed that whatever was between my father and Ilmae was simply an affair that is held quite commonly in the elf world. So commonly in fact that they are only of note when something like me happens. We elves have no inhibitions or modesty's when it comes to such things as lovemaking. I should let you know that she-elves can only conceive when they wish to. My mother must have wanted a child very much to beget me without Thranduil's consent because I know for certain that my father would have never wished to conceive a child with someone he wasn't bound to in marriage and even then, in marriage, he would have only wished for a child so he would have a heir.
I think he must have sent Ilmae away to the undying lands to hush the gossip that must have brewed at my birth. As punishment for her insolence he kept me with him. The only other thing I know of my mother is that people must have loved her. For whenever I asked one of the servants about her when I was still very young they would only smile sadly as if remembering a beautiful, but long lost memory. Later I learned my father had forbidden anyone to speak of her to me.
As I was growing up it was very evident that my father would lend me no parental favors despite the fact that I was his son. He did not even really raise me but rather ordered a wet nurse for me and left my care up to the maids and tutors. My childhood memories of him are of a very tall, cold man sometimes dropping into the nursery to gaze upon me as I played. But these visits were few and far in between and he remained a distant figure who would sometimes order me to him, look at me in the most critical way and then inquire me about my studies. After that, if my studies were going well, he would bark at the maid standing off to the side to find a seamstress to tailor me some new robes. And that was the way it went.
It is difficult to compare the elvish lifespan with the human one. How do you compare an eternity to eighty-some years? But while the elves do age to a certain point then stop, while they are still growing it is possible to compare them with mortals. An Elvish childhood and adolescence lasts around fifty years and they are only truly adult when they are around the age of sixty. That makes it so we age roughly three times slower then humans. The human age of five would be around the Elvish age of fifteen. It is actually a good thing that elves age so slowly, since elves are rather slow learners. All our proficiency on the battlefield stems from countless hours of practice and repetition rather then any extraordinary talent. We practice till knowledge of something becomes habit and then until habit becomes reflex. So I think that my father was rather pleased that by the extremely young age of forty-five I could already shoot fifteen discs, thrown simultaneously in the air, in quick succession, my last arrow flying even before the first disc fell to the ground.
I have always loved archery, my first crude bow gifted to me by a servant that was particularly fond of me, Nimarie. She was, I think, the most mother-like figure in my youth. She would always make sure the cook kept food warm for me if I was late to dinner and she would always sew up the ripped leggings I presented her after a too-wild rondavue in the forest. Whenever I left Mirkwood on scouting trips or other such things, I would always visit her first when I returned. Even before letting Thranduil know I had arrived. She would guide me with the bow when I held it wrong and my arm quivered and then she would always smile indulgently at my progress. Her warm brown eyes turning up at the sides. She was thrilled when I won the archery tournament at the age of fifty-five, that my father set up to see if I was worthy of being a lieutenant of the forest guard. What always irked me about that competition was that it wasn't really needed considering that at the time it was common knowledge that I was the most talented archer in the palace. The most experienced? No. But he also knew that would have come in time as any other elf there did. I think he did it to show the others he wasn't showing me any sort of favoritism. I think his lack of favoritism was clear to me and anyone else present at the tournament. However he did smile rather smugly when I won. It was a victory of his bloodline and therefore a victory of his as well. I cannot tell you how enraged I was at the fact that in that smile he was taking credit for something I had worked so hard to achieve on my own. But then, I was young then and still susceptible to petty rage.
My joining the forest guard symbolized the final end of my childhood and I think Nimarie was very sad to see it go. Elf children are few and far between and while there were around two dozen other elf children in the palace at the time, (That is a practical baby boom where elves are concerned) I was like her surrogate child and I was no longer a child in any terms of the word.
I am no ignorant fool when it comes to my looks. I know my hair shines and that I have well placed features and that my eyes are a nice shade of blue. And though my father was blatantly impartial to me I was still his only child and that earned me a certain respect and prestige, ... especially among the she-elves. I knew that if I asked I could probably gain the company of any she-elf in Mirkwood. Really, ... I didn't even have to ask.
I was born to Thranduil and Ilmae, most likely a common village elf or a palace servant. I am no prince, ... despite popular belief. Ilmae, ... I know little of Ilmae, but for the fact that my father was fond enough of her not to have her killed when I was conceived. Evidently he didn't have the heart to have me killed either.
I have always believed that whatever was between my father and Ilmae was simply an affair that is held quite commonly in the elf world. So commonly in fact that they are only of note when something like me happens. We elves have no inhibitions or modesty's when it comes to such things as lovemaking. I should let you know that she-elves can only conceive when they wish to. My mother must have wanted a child very much to beget me without Thranduil's consent because I know for certain that my father would have never wished to conceive a child with someone he wasn't bound to in marriage and even then, in marriage, he would have only wished for a child so he would have a heir.
I think he must have sent Ilmae away to the undying lands to hush the gossip that must have brewed at my birth. As punishment for her insolence he kept me with him. The only other thing I know of my mother is that people must have loved her. For whenever I asked one of the servants about her when I was still very young they would only smile sadly as if remembering a beautiful, but long lost memory. Later I learned my father had forbidden anyone to speak of her to me.
As I was growing up it was very evident that my father would lend me no parental favors despite the fact that I was his son. He did not even really raise me but rather ordered a wet nurse for me and left my care up to the maids and tutors. My childhood memories of him are of a very tall, cold man sometimes dropping into the nursery to gaze upon me as I played. But these visits were few and far in between and he remained a distant figure who would sometimes order me to him, look at me in the most critical way and then inquire me about my studies. After that, if my studies were going well, he would bark at the maid standing off to the side to find a seamstress to tailor me some new robes. And that was the way it went.
It is difficult to compare the elvish lifespan with the human one. How do you compare an eternity to eighty-some years? But while the elves do age to a certain point then stop, while they are still growing it is possible to compare them with mortals. An Elvish childhood and adolescence lasts around fifty years and they are only truly adult when they are around the age of sixty. That makes it so we age roughly three times slower then humans. The human age of five would be around the Elvish age of fifteen. It is actually a good thing that elves age so slowly, since elves are rather slow learners. All our proficiency on the battlefield stems from countless hours of practice and repetition rather then any extraordinary talent. We practice till knowledge of something becomes habit and then until habit becomes reflex. So I think that my father was rather pleased that by the extremely young age of forty-five I could already shoot fifteen discs, thrown simultaneously in the air, in quick succession, my last arrow flying even before the first disc fell to the ground.
I have always loved archery, my first crude bow gifted to me by a servant that was particularly fond of me, Nimarie. She was, I think, the most mother-like figure in my youth. She would always make sure the cook kept food warm for me if I was late to dinner and she would always sew up the ripped leggings I presented her after a too-wild rondavue in the forest. Whenever I left Mirkwood on scouting trips or other such things, I would always visit her first when I returned. Even before letting Thranduil know I had arrived. She would guide me with the bow when I held it wrong and my arm quivered and then she would always smile indulgently at my progress. Her warm brown eyes turning up at the sides. She was thrilled when I won the archery tournament at the age of fifty-five, that my father set up to see if I was worthy of being a lieutenant of the forest guard. What always irked me about that competition was that it wasn't really needed considering that at the time it was common knowledge that I was the most talented archer in the palace. The most experienced? No. But he also knew that would have come in time as any other elf there did. I think he did it to show the others he wasn't showing me any sort of favoritism. I think his lack of favoritism was clear to me and anyone else present at the tournament. However he did smile rather smugly when I won. It was a victory of his bloodline and therefore a victory of his as well. I cannot tell you how enraged I was at the fact that in that smile he was taking credit for something I had worked so hard to achieve on my own. But then, I was young then and still susceptible to petty rage.
My joining the forest guard symbolized the final end of my childhood and I think Nimarie was very sad to see it go. Elf children are few and far between and while there were around two dozen other elf children in the palace at the time, (That is a practical baby boom where elves are concerned) I was like her surrogate child and I was no longer a child in any terms of the word.
I am no ignorant fool when it comes to my looks. I know my hair shines and that I have well placed features and that my eyes are a nice shade of blue. And though my father was blatantly impartial to me I was still his only child and that earned me a certain respect and prestige, ... especially among the she-elves. I knew that if I asked I could probably gain the company of any she-elf in Mirkwood. Really, ... I didn't even have to ask.