Breakdown: what matters and what's interesting

A short but dark family drama with huge consequences. Aredhel, Turgon's sister, is “the White Lady of the Noldor.” Weary of hidden Gondolin, she rides out and strays into the dark forest of Nan Elmoth. There lives Eöl, the Dark Elf, a grim smith and recluse who shuns the sun and the Noldor. He takes Aredhel as his wife (in effect, he keeps her), and they have a son, Maeglin. Eöl is a smith of wondrous skill. He makes the black metal galvorn and forges two swords of meteoric iron: Anguirel he keeps, while its twin, Anglachel, will later pass to others and, as Gurthang, play its part in Túrin's fate. Maeglin grows up drawn to his mother's tales of bright Gondolin and its king, Turgon. Behind Eöl's back, mother and son flee there. Eöl tracks them into the city. Turgon is ready to welcome his sister and nephew, but Eöl in his rage hurls a javelin at Maeglin and hits Aredhel, who dies of the poisoned point. By Turgon's judgment Eöl is cast from the cliff of Caragdur; dying, he curses his son to the same death. Maeglin stays in Gondolin and becomes a mighty, honored lord. But he has Eöl's blood, a secret pride, and a carefully hidden, forbidden love for his cousin Idril. Here the mine is quietly laid: one day Maeglin will betray Gondolin to Morgoth.

— Maeglin in Sindarin means “sharp glance” / “piercing gaze,” a hint at his perceptive, calculating, secretive nature. — Aredhel, “noble Elf-woman”; her other name is Ar-Feiniel, “the White Lady.” Her whiteness is a sign of the light of the Noldor, which fades in Eöl's dark forest. — Eöl, “the Dark Elf”: he shuns the sun and loves the night, the stars, and craft beneath the earth; he is one of the Sindar who never went to Aman and bears a grudge against the Noldor “newcomers.” — Galvorn, “shining black,” Eöl's wondrous black metal: hard and supple at once. — Caragdur, “black precipice,” the cliff from which Eöl is cast. MOTIFS. The chapter plays on the contrast of light and darkness within the Elven people itself: bright Aredhel perishes in darkness, while Maeglin, born in darkness, is drawn to the light of Gondolin yet carries into it the seed of ruin. Eöl's smithcraft is a dark double of Fëanor's art: both are brilliant makers whose mastery is entwined with possessiveness and pride, and both bring disaster. Also: the swords of meteoric iron (Anguirel and Anglachel) are an example of “Chekhov's gun.” Anglachel/Gurthang will ring out as tragedy in Túrin's story. Tolkien ties separate plots together through shared objects, and a sharp-eyed reader catches these threads early.