Eöl
the Dark Elf; the smith of Nan Elmoth
Name and Nature
Eöl — “the Dark Elf”, one of the Sindar who dwelt in the great wood of Nan Elmoth in the heart of Doriath’s shadow. He was “a smith, a lord of the dark elves”; “the most skilled of the craftsmen of the Sindar, save only” — his mastery of metal made him famous: he helped the Dwarves — he “learned lore of the Dwarves of the Ered Luin” — from them he received the black metal with which he forged the two swords Anglachel and Ænguirel — Anglachel and Anguirel. He was of the Dark Elves who “distrusted the Noldor and loved not the light of the Sun nor the shining of the moon”; he dwelt in the everlasting twilight of the wood, his whole being was bound to the shadow of his grove.
The marriage and the curse
When Aredhel wandered into his wood, he cast his enchantment upon her and would not let her go; they married, and their son, born in the shadow, was named Maeglin. The Quenta tells how he loved his wife with a dark, possessive love, and how — when she defied him and fled with Maeglin to Gondolin — he pursued them through the passes, was captured at the gate, and brought before Turgon. Offered mercy and kindred, he refused, and in his rage slew Aredhel with a poisoned dart; the king’s justice then hurled him from the rock of Gondolin, and he died, “accursed, and of all the dark… the most rebelled”.
Anglachel and the doom
Eöl’s great making, the iron sword
Anglachel, was given in Eöl’s recompense — he had gifted it to the King of Doriath — the sword’s fate (Túrin’s Black Sword) carries Eöl’s shadow into the whole tale of the Children of Húrin: the blade that — his curse-laden craft endures beyond his death.
Significance
Eöl is one of the Quenta’s great villains who is not of Morgoth’s side: a free-spirited, angry, possessive Elvish lord whose very independence and craftsmanship turn to destruction. His misuse of his own son Maeglin (binding him with secrecy and a curse) is the thread by which Gondolin is unmade — his grief at the world is inherited, and passes to the city’s doom.