Eöl
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| Eöl | |
|---|---|
| Sinda | |
 | |
| "Destiny" by Elena Kukanova | |
| Biographical Information | |
| Other names | Dark Elf |
| Location | Nan Elmoth |
| Birth | During the Years of the Trees |
| Death | F.A. 400 Gondolin |
| Notable for | forging of Anglachel (Gurthang) and Anguirel; inventing galvorn |
| Family | |
| Spouse | Aredhel |
| Children | Maeglin |
| Physical Description | |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | Tall |
| Clothing | Galvorn |
| Weaponry | Javelin and Anguirel |
| Gallery | Images of Eöl |
- "You are of the house of Eöl, Maeglin, my son, and not of the Golodhrim. All this land is the land of the Teleri, and I will not deal nor have my son deal with the slayers of our kin, the invaders and usurpers of our homes. In this you shall obey me, or I will set you in bonds."
- ― The Silmarillion, Of Maeglin
In The Silmarillion, Eöl, known as the Dark Elf, was a Sinda of the First Age. It is said that he belonged to the kin of Thingol.[1][note 1] Tolkien does have other renditions of this character that include references to him as an Avar and even as a "darkened Elf".[note 2]
Usually the reference of a Dark Elf simply refers to an Elf who has not seen the light of Aman, but the concept of a darkened Elf would be one that may have been corrupted by Morgoth. Tolkien liked this concept as an explanation for his superb and insidious smith-craft, which was written in a margin note of Eöl's story[2], but he chose instead to consider him more likely acquainted with the Dwarves.[note 3]
History
Eöl was originally part of the royal house of King Elu Thingol. Eöl was unhappy in his homeland of Doriath, and when the Girdle of Melian was raised around the kingdom, he left to dwell in the dark forest of Nan Elmoth, east of Doriath.
Eöl was a skilled craftsman and a master sword-smith. Among his greatest works were the two swords made from the iron of a meteorite, Anglachel and Anguirel. Anglachel he gave to Thingol as a payment for dwelling in Nan Elmoth, and it would later become the sword borne by Beleg, and after him, Túrin Turambar. Eöl's craft was especially admired by the Dwarves, and he shared a rare friendship with the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost in the Blue Mountains. Eöl also devised the metal known as galvorn, from which he forged the armor that he used when traveling far from Nan Elmoth.
In the early fourth century of the First Age, Eöl came upon Aredhel, the sister of Turgon, King of Gondolin. She had become lost in Nan Elmoth, and Eöl used his enchantments to draw her deeper into the wood and ensnare her. She became his wife, and in F.A. 320 bore him a son, Maeglin.
In the summer of F.A. 400, Eöl traveled into the Blue Mountains to feast with the Dwarves of Nogrod, and returned home to find that his wife and son had left two days earlier. Mounting a horse, he gave chase. Along the way he was waylaid and taken before Curufin who counseled him to stop his chase predicting his death, should he continue. He eventually discovered them at the Ford of Brithiach. Realizing that Aredhel was returning to Gondolin with his son, Eöl followed them. He found his way to the Dry River, and that secret way led him to the gates of Gondolin itself. There he was captured and taken to the King.
Turgon at first welcomed Eöl as a kinsman, but under the King's law one who had found the way to the Hidden City was not permitted to leave, under pain of death. Enraged at the loss of his freedom, Eöl chose death, for himself and his son, and cast a poisoned javelin at Maeglin. Aredhel stepped in front of her son, and the poison in the dart soon killed her. Eöl was executed for this heinous crime, thrown off the high cliff of Caragdûr.[3]
Other Versions
In note 9 of Tolkien's essay "Quendi and the Eldar", another draft of Eöl's story appears, dated to have been written in 1959-1960, Eöl found "the sister of King Turgon, astray in the wild near his dwelling, and he took her to wife by force: a very wicked deed in the eyes of the Eldar."[4] In this case, the deeds of the father lends some background support to Maeglin's unnatural desire for his first cousin, Idril.
However, that incident contradicts his late 1950s writing on the Eldar included in his essay "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar" which states that another's spouse cannot be forced[note 4] and implies that acts of lust are very rare because an Elf can reject bodily life.[note 4] This conflict of what it meant when Eöl took Aredhel to wife is ameliorated in The Silmarillion with the simple explaination that Aredhel was not "wholly unwilling" nor that her life in Nan Elmoth was "hateful to her for many years."[3]
This essay on the Eldar also clarifies the idea that once Idril married Tuor, for example, Maeglin should have relinquished his desire for her because he could not physically have her regardless of Morgoth's promise. It also is exemplified in another brief tale circa 1958 of Melkor attempting to marry and then ravish the maia Arien.[note 5] Among the Eldar, and apparently among the Ainur, marriage could not be forced as it was among some Men (see Aerin).
Etymology
The meaning of the name Eöl is unknown, and also to which language it pertains. The word is neither Quenya nor Sindarin.[2] It has been suggested that the name could be an Avarin word.[5] In a futher note about Eöl's name, Tolkien wrote, "it isn't really absolutely necessary that names should be significant."[2]
Genealogy
See Also
Notes
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Four. Quendi and Eldar: Editorial Notes [to Quendi and Eldar]", Note 33: "It is curious that - as in the original text of Maeglin, where he was 'of the kin of Thingol' - in my father's very late work on the story Eöl becomes again 'one of the Eldar' (p. 328), though consumed with hatred of the Noldor; whereas here (p. 409) he is a Mornedhel (one of the Avari), and moreover of the aboriginal Second Clan."
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "Of Dwarves and Men", 62. [In Quendi and Eldar (XI.377) there is a reference to Avari 'who had crept in small and secret groups into Beleriand from the South', and to rare cases of an Avar 'who joined with or was admitted among the Sindar'; while in that essay Eöl of Nan Elmoth was an Avar (XI.409 and note 33).]
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Four. Quendi and Eldar", Note 9: "Eöl was a Mornedhel, and is said to have belonged to the Second Clan (whose representatives among the Eldar were the Ñoldor).^33 He dwelt in East Beleriand not far from the borders of Doriath. He had great smith-craft, especially in the making of swords, in which work he surpassed even the Ñoldor of Aman; and many therefore believed that he used morgul, the black arts taught by Morgoth. The Ñoldor themselves had indeed learned much from Morgoth in the days of his captivity in Valinor; but it is more likely that Eöl was acquainted with the Dwarves, for in many places the Avari became closer in friendship with that people than the Amanyar or the Sindar."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Morgoth's Ring, "Part Three. The Later Quenta Silmarillion: (II) The Second Phase: Laws and Customs among the Eldar", Note 5: "But among all these evils there is no record of any among the Elves that took another's spouse by force; for this was wholly against their nature, and one so forced would have rejected bodily life and passed to Mandos." And, on p. 210: "Even when in after days, as the histories reveal, many of the Eldar in Middle-earth became corrupted, and their hearts darkened by the shadow that lies upon Arda, seldom is any tale told of deeds of lust among them.(5)"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Morgoth's Ring, "Part Five. Myths Transformed", "Aren [Arien], a maiden whom Melkor endeavoured to make his spouse (or ravished); she went up in a flame of wrath and anguish and her spirit was released from Eä, but Melkor was blackened and burned, and his form was thereafter dark, and he took to darkness.”
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Three. The Wanderings of Húrin and Other Writings not forming part of the Quenta Silmarillion: III. Maeglin"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Three. The Wanderings of Húrin and Other Writings not forming part of the Quenta Silmarillion: III. Maeglin", p. 320
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of Maeglin"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Four. Quendi and Eldar", p. 409
- ↑ Helge Fauskanger, "Avarin: All Six Words" at Ardalambion (accessed 19 December 2010)
