Blind Read Through: J.R.R. Tolkien; The Silmarillion, Of Maeglin

“‘This is the land of the Teleri, to which you bring war and all unquiet, dealing ever proudly and unjustly. I care nothing for your secrets, and I came not to spy upon you, but to claim my own wife and son. Yet if in Aredhel your sister you have some claim, then let her remain; let the bird go back to the cage, where soon she will sicken again, as she sickened before. But not so Maeglin. My son you shall not withhold from me. Come, Maeglin son of Eöl! You father commands you. Leave the house of his enemies and the slayers of his kin, or be accursed!’ But Maeglin answered nothing.‘”

Welcome back to another Blind Read! This week we finally get to see the dark turning point of Beleriand and begin to understand the total damage that will be coming to Aman.

We begin the chapter in Gondolin, the city we saw Turgon build last week in the previous chapter. Here we meet Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, Turgon’s sister and daughter of Fingolfin.

The chapter begins with a sibling spat because Aredhel wants to see the world, and Turgon doesn’t want her to leave. He’s torn between his tight bond and the fear of having the “Hidden Kingdom” of Gondolin exposed.

Eventually, “Turgon appointed three lords of his household to ride with Aredhel, and he bade them lead her to Fingon in Hithlim” and wary of Morgoth and his minions. This escort was the only way he would let her out of Gondolin to go and see kin.

However, when the group left Gondolin, Aredhel convinced the riders to take her off to see other parts of the world. They first tried to go south, “But the march-wardens denied them; for Thingol would suffer none of the Noldor to pass the Girdle.”

Undeterred, they decided to go to the Hill of Himring because, “There dwell, as we believe, Celegorm and Curufin,” Sons of Fëanor.

So the group turned “and sought the dangerous road between the haunted valleys of Ered Gorgoroth and the north fences of Doriath.” We know to be the home of the horrible spider creature Ungoliant and her offspring. In “Nan Dungortheb, the riders became enmeshed in shadows, and Aredhed strayed from her companions and was lost.”

Aredhel continued bravely on her own and eventually made it through the dark and shady land and made her way across the ford of the River Aros known as Arossiach to Himlad, the region just underneath Himring and between the River Aros and the River Celon.

She eventually became restless and rode south to explore, when came across a dark wooded forest called Nan Elmoth, where the trees were “the tallest and darkest in all Beleriand.” In these woods dwelled Eöl, “who was named the Dark Elf.“

“There he lived in deep shadow, loving the night and the twilight under the stars.” and was a friend, more of the Dwarves than the Elves of the land, and it was from these Dwarves that he learned to Smith.

Aredhel was taken with Eöl and became his wife in those dark woods of the east, and they eventually had a child, whom Aredhel named “Lómin, that signifies Child of the Twilight,” but whom they called Maeglin.

As Maeglin grew, Eöl taught him everything he knew, and Aredhel told great stories of Turgon and their kin in Gondolin. Over time, those stories made Aredhel homesick and Maeglin anxious to see the world. So when Maeglin went to Eöl to ask him to see Gondolin, Eöl told his son, “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.“

Well, of course, the teenager responded how most teenagers would respond. He waited until Eöl went out to do business with the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, and he talked his mother into leaving to seek Gondolin.

They left on horseback and hugged the forests of Doriath, making their way to Gondolin, but Eöl came back sooner than they expected and when they weren’t home he gave chase to them.

He stopped in Himlad and spoke to Celegorm and Curufin, who had no love for Eöl but still told him they saw his wife and son making their way West. So he rode hard and finally saw them in the distance at the Outer Gate of Gondolin.

The Noldor and Turgon rejoiced upon the returning of Aredhel and brought Maeglin in as a son: “And Maeglin shall have the highest honour in my realm.“

Maeglin begins a courtship with Idril, the Kings daughter, and all seems peaceful and kind. Then Eöl was brought forth by the guards and presented to Turgon, who accepted him graciously, but let him know that, now that Eöl knew where Gondolin was, he would not be able to leave by the laws of his land.

“I acknowledge not your law,” Turgon responds, and we get the quote that opens this essay. The two Elves verbally spar and eventually impasse with Turgon telling Eöl he must stay or die. Suddenly Eöl, “swift as a serpent, (he) seized a javelin that he held hid beneath his cloak and cast it at Maeglin, crying: ‘The second choice I take and for my son also! You shall not hold what is mine!'”

Aredhel, anticipating his movement, dove in front and took the spear, eventually dying that evening from the wound it caused.

Turgon took up Eöl in grief and “cast him over the Caragdûr,” killing him.

Remember at the beginning of this essay; I mentioned that we began to see the rift forming? Idril, Turgon’s daughter, gained a considerable mistrust of her kinsmen for this act. She grew and eventually married, despite Maeglin’s ever-deepening love of her. This love “turned to darkness in his heart” that the “dark seed of evil was sown.”

Maeglin became a great warrior and prince of the land and brought the technology of the Dwarves to Gondolin, which made the weapons and armor so advanced as they ended up being, which was essential during Nirnaeth Arnoediad, or the Fifth battle in the Wars of Beleriand. Otherwise known as “Tears Unnumbered.”

These rifts in the kin who are growing to take power are the corrupted seeds of doubt that will cause the destruction coming. Essentially we have a number of Noldor (Turgon, Celegorm, and Curufin) who have come in contact with this Teleri. Eöl may have been looking for his wife and son, but the disrespect he showed created even deeper bad feelings between the Noldor and the remaining Elvish clans.

Then beyond that the progress the Noldor are making in technology. Remember that industry is a four-letter word to Tolkien, and whereas the development of weapons and armor aren’t necessarily industry per se, the Noldor are the only elves seeking to be industrious in the ways of war, whereas the rest are looking to enjoy their solitude.

There have been hints of the Noldor assaulting Thingol in Doriath, and there are hints of the absolute destruction of Beleriand. Where will we see the traces of this destruction?

I have a suspicion we’ll find new information next week in “Of the coming of the Men into the West.”