Eöl

Eöl, always called the "Dark Elf", was an Elf of Beleriand and metallurgist of high skill. One of the Sindar, he lived alone in Nan Elmoth, nominally part of Doriath. As 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 personal armor. He forged two great swords from a meteorite's metal: Anglachel and Anguirel.
== Biography ==
=== Birth ===
In the Years of the Trees, Eöl was born to a lineage of Avari and Sindar Elves. He became an Elf of amazing skill in smithing, and forged a black, shining metal called galvorn. Of the many swords he had forged, Anguirel was one of the black swords he kept for himself, while the other great sword, Anglachel, was given to Thingol, King of Doriath, in the First Age, for allowing Eöl to dwell in Nan Elmoth.
Eöl forged a suit of armor out of galvorn to which he wore and kept. He lived in Nan Elmoth, a forest in Beleriand to which he appointed himself Lord and built a home there. He forged poisoned javelins and stayed isolated in his land for many years until the arrival of Aredhel.
=== Aredhel & marriage ===
Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, the sister of King Turgon, had left the gated and hidden city of Gondolin to seek freedom and find distant family and friends. Her travels led through Beleriand, and to the dark woods of Nan Elmoth, where she met Eöl, who noticed her beauty from afar. He then set enchantments with his Elven magic about her so that she could not escape the forest and found her way only to his halls. After marrying him, she stayed with him many years and bore him a son, Maeglin.
=== Later life & death ===
As the First Age progressed, Eöl developed a great hatred for the Ñoldor and therefore refused Aredhel and Maeglin permission to seek out their kin. While Eöl was away at a feast in Nogrod, Aredhel and Maeglin left for Gondolin, stealing Anguirel from him, and Eöl followed them. When denied permission to leave with Maeglin, he grew furious and tried to kill his son with one of his javelins. Aredhel got in the way and it instead hit her; she died from poisoning.
The king and his people were unwilling to forgive this deed and Eöl was sentenced to death and cast over the Caragdûr, cursing Maeglin on his way down the cliff to his doom. Though most of the Ñoldor saw this as just, Idril was disgusted with Maeglin's act of kinslaying. This drove a rift between Idril and her kin and planted a seed of evil in the heart of Gondolin.The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XVI: "Of Maeglin"
== Other versions of the legendarium ==
In the essay "Quendi and Eldar", published in The War of the Jewels, Eöl was an Avar who descended from the same clan of the Elves the Ñoldor had come from (the Tatyar), although Eöl hated his Valinorean cousins. Eöl's love for smithying and friendliness to the Dwarves is consistent with Tolkien's view of the Ñoldor, which are described as Dwarf-friends in the First and Second Ages. However, in a later writing, entitled Maeglin and published in the same volume, Tolkien said he was of the kin of Thingol. This story was inserted in the published Silmarillion as a separate chapter.
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Amharic 	ዐኦል
Arabic 	آيل
Armenian 	Եոլ
Belarusian Cyrillic 	Еол
Bengali 	এওল
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Еол
Chinese (Simplified)	伊奧
Georgian 	ეოლი
Greek 	Έολ
Gujarati 	ઍઓલ
Hebrew 	אאול
Hindi 	एओल
Japanese 	えおｌ
Kazakh Cyrillic 	Еөл
Korean 	에올
Lao 	ເໂຣ
Macedonian Cyrillic 	Еол
Marathi 	एओल
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Еөл
Nepalese 	एओल
Pashto 	ېول ?
Persian 	ائول
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Еол
Russian 	Эол
Sanskrit 	एओल्
Serbian 	Еол (Cyrillic) Eol (Latin)
Sinhalese 	ඒඔල්
Tajik Cyrillic 	Еол
Tamil 	ஏஒல்
Telugu 	ఏఒల
Uzbek 	Еол (Cyrillic) Eol (Latin)
Yiddish 	עאָל
== References ==
ca:Eöl
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ru:Эол
Category:Grey Elves
Category:Avari
Category:Villains
Category:The Silmarillion characters
Category:Elves
Category:Elves of Beleriand