Eöl

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The main part of this article relates to a version of Middle-earth's history that is considered canon by many Tolkien fans (see: Middle-earth canon); it may contradict parts of The Silmarillion or other texts. This subject's portrayal in other versions is discussed in the concept and creation section.

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Eöl, always called the Dark Elf was an Elf of Beleriand.

He was a Tatyarin Avar who lived in Nan Elmoth, nominally part of Doriath. A great smith and friend of the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost, Eöl devised galvorn, a black metal of great strength and malleability, which he fashioned into armour that he wore when he went abroad. He forged two great black swords from a meteorite's metal, but had to give the sword Anglachel to Thingol as tribute for living in Nan Elmoth. The other sword, Anguirel, he kept for himself.

Eöl seduces Aredhel to stay with him in Nan Elmoth in the forests of Doriath. by Ted Nasmith

He ensnared Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, sister of Turgon, when she ventured into his forest, and wed her, without informing her family or going through usual customs. Their son was Maeglin. Eöl hated the Noldor, and therefore refused Aredhel and Maeglin to seek out their kin. Aredhel and Maeglin later left for Gondolin, stealing Anguirel from him, and Eöl followed them. When denied permission to leave with Maeglin, he tried to kill his son. His dart actually hit and killed Aredhel; she initially called for her brother to have mercy on Eöl, but she died when it turned out the dart was poisonous, and Eöl was put to death by being thrown from a cliff. As he died he called out a curse on his son for betraying him, and cried out that Maeglin would suffer the same fate of his father, which turned out to happen at the end of his life.

Turgon has Eöl thrown to his death from the Walls of Gondolin for the death of Aredhel. by Ted Nasmith

Besides Fëanor and Nerdanel, Eöl and Aredhel are the only known case of an Elven couple "divorcing," or indeed, having any real marital strife; in his "Laws and Customs among the Eldar," Tolkien described most Elven marriages as being harmonious, and things like divorce being basically nonexistent.

[edit] Other versions of the legendarium

In the published The Silmarillion Eöl is portrayed as a Sindarin Elf with an unspecified kinship to Elwë Thingol, but from very late writings by Tolkien (specifically Quendi and Eldar, published in The War of the Jewels) it turns out that his final view of Eöl was that Eöl was an Avar who descended from the same clan of the Elves the Noldor had come from (the Tatyar), but that Eöl hated his Valinorean cousins. Eöl's love for smithying and friendliness to the Dwarves is consistent with Tolkien's view of the Noldor, which are described as Dwarf-friends in the First and Second Ages.