# Idril was troubled by the execution of Eöl. Why?



## Nameless Thing (Sep 23, 2018)

"to all in Gondolin it seemed just, but Idril was troubled and from that day she mistrusted her kinsman." 

It seems just to me too. So why is Idril so troubled?


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Sep 24, 2018)

Hi, NT -- nice to see you here again! 

The passage you refer to is somewhat elliptical and ambiguous, but I think her distrust is directed towards Maeglin. Remember that she had joined with Aredhel in pleading mercy for Eol, the night before his execution; apparently successfully, until Aredhel died. Why she should do this is a question; there's an interesting essay here arguing that it is fundamental to her character:

http://lawyernovelist.tumblr.com/post/108587872114/tolkiens-female-characters-idril

The paragraph just before the one you quoted describes Eol's execution; there it is said, in contrast with Idril's plea for mercy,

_Maeglin stood by and said nothing.
_
This is the third instance emphasizing his silence in the presence of his father, who clearly recognizes its meaning, as he immediately curses him:

_'So you forsake your father and his kin, ill-gotten son! Here you shall fail of all your hopes, and here may you yet die the same death as I.'
_
So I think that, despite the somewhat awkward construction of the sentence you quoted, the "kinsman" referred to is Maeglin, rather than Turgon -- though given the argument in that essay, the execution may well have troubled her too.

It's curious, BTW, that Eol's story is one of the last things Tolkien worked on; one of his manuscripts is dated to 1970; and Eol's development is particularly convoluted. Beyond BLT, Christopher Tolkien traced a great deal of it in HoME Volume XI, _The War of the Jewels.
_


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## Nameless Thing (Sep 24, 2018)

Thank you, it's always nice to come here for interesting discussions.  
I'm also troubled by Eöl, first, because his story is one of the creepiest ones in the book, and also because of his weird name. How did he become so messed up? And in what language is his name? Tolkien said it doesn't matter, but it sounds so out of character for Tolkien. Is it maybe in the ancient language of elves from before Quenya and Sindarin have separated?


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Sep 24, 2018)

Do you have volume XI? It's discussed there, but I hesitate to go into it; I'm not an expert on the subject, and I fear entering the maze -- I may never find my way out!

I will note that Tolkien, in one of those late writings, considered making the "Dark Elves" -- including Eol -- those who had been captured and enslaved by Morgoth, some of whom had later "escaped", but by Morgoth's will, in order to "spread evil".

Shades of Sauron and Gollum!


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## Nameless Thing (Sep 24, 2018)

No, unfortunately I only have LOTR, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion, and I have read Children of Húrin, but a long time ago and don't really remember.
It would certainly make sense that he was corrupted by Morgoth.


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## Alcuin (Sep 26, 2018)

It might well be argued that Maeglin saw his father’s execution for the murder of his mother as justice, and so remained silent. Eöl was no doubt smooth-tongued in wooing Aredhel: she was, after all, a High Elven princess, daughter of Fingolfin, granddaughter of Finwë: she had lived among the Valar and Maiar from her birth until the Flight of the Noldor. 

Eöl is one of those characters that continues to change as Tolkien’s story evolves. He is first a Teleri or Linda; but later in the telling, he becomes one of the Avari Tatyar, that part of the tribe of the Noldor who refused the invitation to Valinor and remained in Middle-earth. That would explain his acknowledgement of Thingol as overlord; his resentment in having to provide him a sword, Anglachel, later Turin’s Black Sword, the mate of his own sword Anguirel which Maeglin took when he and his mother fled Eöl; his resentment – jealousy, more likely – of the Noldor who returned to Middle-earth, since he likely remembered the sundering of the tribe over the Great Journey: half the Tatyar went, and half remained; and finally, it explains his superb skill with metallurgy, arms, and armor, surpassing even that of his friends, the Dwarves. 

Eöl is not a nice guy. Did Morgoth enslave him at one point? I’m not inclined to believe that, though perhaps I am overlooking some text that says otherwise: after all, if Morgoth got hold of a great smith like Eöl, would he be likely to set him free? I surely doubt it. I think he’s just a mean, resentful (especially after his Noldor kindred return), selfish person who is smitten by Aredhel, a light in his darkness. He tricks her into meeting him – that’s not evil – and she stays of her own free will: he does not force himself upon her. But his distrustful, controlling nature leads him to refuse her desire to visit her kinsmen or even send them a message to say she is alive and well. Eöl could have been counted among his kinsmen’s great nobles and – an even higher honor for a _*ñgolodō_ – one of their great craftsmen. Instead he withholds his talents and knowledge and denies his wife and son the company of anyone but himself and his servants. They are not his “family” in the normal sense: they are merely among his _possessions_. 

People who manipulate and control their spouses – and women do this as well as men – tend also to try to manipulate and control their children. Maeglin no doubt resented his father’s heavy-handedness. Eöl tried to spear his own son: that can not be a first-time cruelty. It is more likely the culmination of a pattern of cruel behavior, the worse in an Elf than in a Man because Elves live so much longer, giving them more time to distill their personalities. 

So when Maeglin remained silent when Eöl was executed, the people of Gondolin naturally interpreted this as his approval of justice. 

But both the Eldar and the Edain and their descendants the Dúnedain experienced _foresight_. Idril, I believe, experienced foresight about Maeglin at Eöl’s execution. It was then, in a moment of greatest import for Maeglin personally, she first somehow divined or subconsciously understood both Maeglin’s perverse obsession with her and his potential for treachery and murder: for Maeglin soon sought to murder her child. I think she sensed this evil in him clearly for the first time when his father was thrown from the Caragdûr. Like his father, Maeglin was cold, manipulative, selfish, calculating, and treacherous, and that hidden wickedness first then revealed itself to Idril.


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## Miguel (Sep 26, 2018)




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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Sep 26, 2018)

Eol's bitterness towards the Noldor certainly consumed him to the point that it poisoned all his relations with others, including his own family; little wonder that Maeglin came to hate him.

The note I referred to appears on page 320 of HoME XI, "The War of the Jewels". It is "in the margin of the typescript against the first occurence in the story of the name Eol". For those who may not have that volume, I reproduce it here:

_Another name from the primitive FG-- meaningless then and now. But it was not intended to have any meaning in Quenya or Sindarin. For Eol was said to be a 'Dark Elf', a term then applied to any Elves who had not been willing to leave Middle Earth -- and were then (before the history and geography had been organized) imagined as wandering about, and often ill-disposed towards the 'Light-Elves'. But it was also sometimes applied to Elves captured by Morgoth and enslaved and then released to do mischief among the Elves. I think this latter idea should be taken up. It would explain much about Eol and his smithcraft. (I think the name might stay. It isn't really absolutely necessary that names should be significant.)
_
I should have called the 1970 copy a _typescript;_ the manuscript was originally from 1951. But the typescript incorporated a number of later changes, and had notes added to it, such as the one above.


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## Miguel (Sep 26, 2018)

IIRC, Eöl and the Dwarves of the blue mountains were friends, whereas the Noldor from east Beleriand were haughty towards them and had more of a convenient alliance than friendship, regardless of their mutual love for Aulë; Eöl probably knew about this. The Noldor's prime reasons for returning to Beleriand were revenge and desire of having new and bigger realms, they had not come to assist them in the first place, helping them out was more circumstantial than anything else; That and the fact they killed his kin is a lot to be pissed about. Also, the Noldor that dwell closest to Eöl were not particularly the nicest ones. The whole thing about Eöl and the later fall of Gondolin was a a product of the doom of Mandos, not just Eöl being Eöl lol. Gurthang probably enhanced the curse on Túrin?, the sword was said to be imbued with Eöl's malice.


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