Put the draft away then read it
What you've done is put your draft away for a year and now you've read it.
Unless you have a super memory, it's very likely you've forgotten several details in your story. So much so, you might be able to come at it with the eyes of someone that has never seen your story before.
This is why, if you haven't finished reading the first draft, you should finish doing that before you do anything else.
Read it in as few sittings as possible. Take notes, but don't get bogged down with them.
What you find and what you note down is gold!
In most cases, you'll be able to capture that elusive first impression in this reading and these notes. Or at least partially.
Personally, I tend to question my notes when I read things again, so I have to remind myself that what I noted and read was with a mind that was not "in" the story and its world, that was not thinking about it, and working with it.
Those notes are what a new reader would see and I have to accept that I didn't say what I now feel is on the page... something has to be changed... (That being said, make sure your notes comes with a compelling argument against the opinions of your future self...)
Be cautious and lazy when editing
You edit the text to make it better.
This usually means you have to change a lot, but you can go overboard with this and edit the thing to pieces.
Always be cautious/lazy when editing. Try to figure out how you can alter as little as possible and still have a good text. Good text being the keywords...
Maybe you need to learn new things to make the piece sizzle, then good news; the internet is full of helpful information... sure hours of searching away, but not unreachable...
For instance, a slow text might be improved by adding elements of suspension rather than cutting everything away. What would happen to that philosophical discussion lasting fourteen pages if there was a bomb ticking in the basement? It could turn a blah scene into a key scene...
I'm not saying you should leave the first draft as it is, but also, do realize that sometimes gems might be hiding in the text, and rather than throwing them away, you need to polish them.
I also have to tell you that sometimes the only thing salvageable might be the core concept of the story. I've been there. I redid the whole thing from scratch.
Sometimes, not even that will be salvageable and the text really and truly isn't going to work.
What-ifs
In your case, it seems you have one character that is supposed to do a little bit too much; both be friendly to the elves and have a reason to hate them.
These seem to me to be two different "character tasks" belonging to two different archetypes; the protagonist and the antagonist.
What would happen if you split your character in two and used the background for an antagonist and the curious scenes for a protagonist?
One could be curious and the other could bring in all the juicy conflict and action you had planned.
Maybe the whole notion of "not being able to revenge your father" is something you feel would be good to still have? (It undoubtedly has worked before...)
Then, what if these two characters were siblings? The internal conflict you have now, and that may not be working, would then become external... but still, you wouldn't just kill a sibling (unless you're some kind of biblical person) so there would still be internal conflict anyway...
Always ask what-if questions to explore what you have and how it can be reshaped without being destroyed.
Summaries
You might be helped by writing short summaries of your story (after you've read it completely) bending it in different ways.
One would explore the version you have now, the other the changes you're pondering.
Write a handful more summaries to explore other possible stories.
Don't spend too long on each summary.
After you feel you have explored all possible variations of the story, after a few days to a week of writing summaries, look at what you have. Which version is the best? Can several versions be combined? Can you see a new and improved version arising from the variations you've explored?
Read a book
If you're new to editing, I suggest picking up a copy of James Scott Bell's, "Revision and Self-Editing for Publication."
It contains several chapters on how to write and in the end an editing checklist that refers back to those chapters. You could either start with the checklist and read chapters on stuff you're unsure about, or work through the book from the front to the end.