Reviews (270)

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I think Estel's instincts lead him to have a natural strategic skill. Although I wouldn't want to trust it - not with him at this tender age. But it's intriguing Elladan. Elrohir, I think, would like to maintain his little brother's childhood innocence rather longer. And all parents mourn the brevity of childhood. (Although many may well eagerly egg on the end of adolescence.) Especially for sons - when approaching adulthood means sending treasured children to face orcs and worse.

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Thank you, Sammi! I'm glad you're enjoying these. There is only one more of them written at the moment - about 200 years in the future - but I'm hoping more inspiration will strike soon!

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It wouldn't matter at first - he was only two when he arrived. He wouldn't even notice that he was different for some time. He was just small and everyone else was big. But there would have come a time - and Gilraen longs to protect him from the buffets of life, yet knows she can't. And it is important to them all that Estel should grow up to be a whole person with a good understanding of the world and his place in it. He needs other children round him, I think. But I doubt he's going to get them. Gilraen is so often forgotten - she's primarily a mother, and that's not very romantic or amusing. But it is critical in turning her son out as the man he became - and she made it her life's work. She was going to do it properly - and suffer for not being able to tell him about his father and his family. Thank you! I'm glad you like these. They were, at first, going to be more 3E-based - but Gilraen and, to a lesser degree, Elrond, seem to put their stamp on them and altered the viewpoint a bit.

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Gilraen tries so hard to be strong and parent her son as Arathorn would have wanted - but she has her moments. She has nothing but a few small treasures and one great one - and the loss of any link to her past would hurt. But, thanks to the twins, the mended bowl will mean even more to her - gifted by both the men in her life: her husband and his son. Thanks, elliska.

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It is, isn't it! In fact, celebrations without the wonder of young eyes pale rather in comparison. I'm sure the elves of Imladris are putting an extra effort into this - purely because Estel's delight is so refreshing.

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Poor kid. And yet, if there's something he does have to learn, it is how to deal with partings. But none are permanent. Not yet. Although it doesn't always seem that way when you are that age.

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Gilraen is even more alone than Estel - who doesn't really know, at this point, that he is a fish out of water. She needs to develop her own network of support in Imladris - where there must, after all, have been plenty of female elves. She has to be strong and let her son grow to follow a destiny that will take him away from her - and knows it. I think she's a real hidden heroine of the whole trilogy, actually.

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Well - if the twins are happily being his brothers, that does make their father his father, doesn't it? And I can see that in a society like that of the Dunedain, where fathers are often absent and children frequently orphaned, that a surrogate father would be more acceptable than it would be to elves. And I just loved the thought of a chatting, wriggly Estel snuggling up to a sleepy, warm Elrohir. Such a lovely family sort of moment!

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There would be moments, I think, when being with elves would just make you catch your breath. And then, to make it possible to live together, you would have to put it to one side and just look on them as people in the here and now.

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I loved the way Elrond softened to the child - I think Estel's extreme youth made it easier for Elrond to open up to him. And the relationship that is building between them here delights me. For both their sakes.

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Although the twins have been themselves, more or less, for a long time now, I think it might have been Estel who returned to them the feeling of child-like enjoyment. And everyone in Imladris would have loved the child for that, even if they hadn't fallen for his obvious charms!

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Little Estel is really rather appealing. Of course, I rather like the image of the much bigger twins, too! And the irony of a 25-ish woman scolding 3000-ish twins is rather fun.

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It's truly unfortunate that you've had to shelve the important stuff to immerse yourself in real-life issues! I'm glad you like them!

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I wonder if that's why he loved Arwen - as a peredhel, she, too, was slightly between worlds. And Aragorn was, in some ways that he ruthlessly suppressed in later years, quite elf-like in the way he saw the world and his duty and destiny and such - it's not surprising that his idea of the perfect woman should be three-quarters (+) elf. And then, in the days of the king, they had each other - neither quite at home in the world of men - to support each other and share a past (even if long years apart) of growing up among the elves of Imladris. I think Estel needed other children more, probably, than other adult Dunedain - at least at this stage. He has no equals, even if the twins are determinedly being his brothers. But Dunedain children - really they are the very ones who would be kept away. How could you be sure that children wouldn't speak of the boy who lived with the elves? And elflings? I don't think there are any. Not any more. I'm hoping that, between them, Gilraen and Elrond - perhaps with some help from the twins and Glorfindel - manage to come up with some solution. But I don't know what it could be!

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Thank you, harrowcat! This is one of those times when you start writing something you think will be simple and frivolous and then get involved in thinking all about more complex issues - like grief and age and cross-species adoption! But with the advantage of knowing that, among them all, they did it well - because they raised a man of whom they could be justly proud.

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I suspect that originally I was going to make this more about the twins and Estel - hence the title! - but it's turned more into looking at how Gilraen coped with raising the Dunadan among the elves of Imladris! She is a very strong woman - which is just as well, because her son needed all the pride in his people that his mother could teach him if he was to be able to live as a man rather than an elf-wannabe. I must admit to enjoying writing about very small Estel - at the age when it didn't matter where he was - but there's something very interesting in thinking about him when he was a bit older and trying to decide who he was. The only other chapter I have written at the moment takes place about 200 years after this - so I don't know when that'll get posted! Thank you, Elanor!

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In many ways, I think Estel did grow up to be really quite elf-like - for all Gilraen's struggles to familiarise him with his heritage! After all, even if occasional Dunedain visitors arrived, there were very few who would have been permitted to know of Estel's presence. And then, when the young adult went out into the world, he was probably disconcertingly elf-like to his people - and it was left to Halbarad and the like to wear off the more finicky edges and reveal the strengths of men. He did grow up alone - and he lived alone, even in crowds. Set apart by rearing, heritage, destiny - it's no wonder, in a way, that he set his heart on Arwen. I doubt he would have been able to deal well with a less perfect bride. And he needed courtly devotion - a lady fair, whom he could hold above all others, to fortify him against the long years apart. (Possibly only Finduilas could have come close - had he not already been devoted to Arwen ... That could have been interesting!) A male role model is important - but I think that what Estel needs more than anything is other children. He has no experience of interacting with anyone as an equal - and that is very important in growing up well-balanced. But no child of the Dunedain can be brought in as a playmate - and I doubt there are any elflings. Gilraen and Elrond would search out solutions - Estel's rearing is of vital importance to both of them - but what those solutions will be, I don't know! Thank you, Redheredh.

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Estel became all they hoped for - but he was alone. Not only in childhood, but for so long. I'm not surprised that Gilraen found it impossible to stay round long enough to see the end - the prospects were not good. As a little child, I doubt Estel even noticed the differences - but there would have come a time when he began to question his abilities and his place in the world. And, without a great deal of care, his conclusions about himself would be unlikely to be very positive. Fortunately, between them, Gilraen and Elrond provided him with very good parents - and he seems to have come out the other side quite well!

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It is sad - Estel is set apart. And even when his destiny is fulfilled - there are few people more set apart from others than kings. But at least then he had Arwen and they shared a background that probably brought them even closer together. There is little that either Elrond or Gilraen can do - the child needs to be hidden, which, by definition, means that he cannot know his own past, cannot spend time with his kin, cannot be introduced to gaggles of children. And he is different. He cannot be an elf - or a half-elf - either physically or behaviourally. His destiny pushes him down a completely different path. But they all do the best they can - and have to hope that it's good enough. (I think it was, in the end!)

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Thank you Peredhil lover. I do like Gilraen - she must have been such a strong character (and I do find it exasperating that she is often written out of Estel's life). She focused her attention on raising Arathorn's son to fill the role that was his, but to do that, she had to carve a position for them both in Imladris. And she is the hands-on, here-and-now part of the parenting team - I can picture Elrond being kind, but rather remote - at least until Estel managed to win his affection - and, perhaps, rather more concerned with the long-term. Which is easy enough when you're 6000+. I think Aragorn might have always hidden, deep inside himself, the feeling that he was half-elven - in a nearly-all human body, perhaps, but feeling more Elrond's son than Arathorn's. And it would account for his love for Arwen - and hers for him. They recognised something in each other - and held out for it. When Estel was really small, I reckon, the differences didn't matter - but he was bound to reach a time when he began to resent being a human child among elves and ask about where he came from. And, of course, he wouldn't have received much in the way of answers to satisfy him.

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Estel must have grown up pretty much without any contact with other children, I think. A child among adults - with most of those adults being - well - extremely adult. It probably helped him deal with spending so much time alone once he went out into the world - but I doubt it did much to help him learn to relate to others of his own age. The ... uproariousness ... of life in Rohan must have come as a real culture shock to him. He and Arwen must have clung to each other, I think, in later years - the only two who shared an upbringing in Imladris, separate from everyone around them. The Fellowship will have been very important to Estel - a brief time when he was part of a brotherhood with a common goal.

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In the earlier episodes, Estel was too young for difference to matter - he was small and everyone else was big, so of course they could do what he couldn't. But, as he ages, it must become a problem. For all their (distant) kinship, he and his mother are of a different race - different species - and teaching him to value being a man rather than thinking of himself as a second-rate elf must have occupied Gilraen - and Elrond - rather a lot over these years. As it is, there is a lot of elf in Estel - otherwise I doubt he would have married Arwen (or she him) - but his mother managed to give him enough to help him learn to be true to himself. And no - Tolkien doesn't make it easy - and the more you think about it, the harder it all gets!

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Her view is so much more immediate - and she knows Estel won't have 6000 years to try to come to terms with his background. But it would be so much easier for Estel to be proud of his heritage if he knew his place in it - and he can't. It's all theory - which gets a bit like telling a lion in a zoo in Helsinki that it should be proud of what its ancestors did in Africa. And he is still young enough that it's the here and now that matters. Gilraen understands that - but, between age and foresight, Elrond is rather too detached from the concerns of a boy who is here (I think) about 7-10. And I would love to work out how they dealt with it - because Aragorn did grow up to value who he was and where he came from. (Thanks in huge part, I reckon, to the strength of his mother!)

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Thank you. I like Gilraen. In fact, the more I think about her, the more I appreciate her! She is a very strong woman, who raised her son to be a remarkable man under conditions that were not, for all the safety of the Last Homely House, ideal. Did you see the tiger cubs being raised with orang-utan babies? It must have been a bit like that, in a way. At the moment they are completely happy together - but one day, they will turn round and realise that they are very different.

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So much of the story becomes so much more complicated when you take a slight sidestep and look at it differently. There is more to Estel in Imladris than camping trips and fun and games with the twins - and the thought of a small boy growing up among ancient elves, with no exposure to his own culture except his mother ... Well. It was bound to be difficult. I'm sure that, amongst them all, they strove to find solutions. I just don't know what they were! And, of course, Estel did grow up to devote himself to Arwen - and Galadriel dressed him up to look like an Elf-lord - and I suspect that, somewhere inside himself, he always hid the fact that he felt half-elven. Under a layer of dirt, quite often!