Eöl

Eöl
Tolkien's legendarium character
Eöl and Aredhel illustration by Tom Loback
Aliases	The Dark Elf
Race	Elves
Book(s)	The Silmarillion, The History of Middle-earth

Eöl, called the Dark Elf, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Silmarillion as an Elf of Beleriand and is a character existing in some form from the earliest to the latest writings.

"I acknowledge not your law... No right have you or any of your kin in this land to seize realms or to set bounds, either here or there. This is the land of the Teleri..."

Eöl, the Dark Elf, was a Sinda and lord of the forest of Nan Elmoth, a fief, north-east of Doriath. Even before he encountered the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains in Eriador, he had close relationships with other Dwarves, whom he met (and learned much forging skills from) along his travel through Middle-earth. When he entered the lands of Beleriand, the Sindar from Doriath recognised Eöl's kinship, and accepted him fairly quickly among the high court of Menegroth, due to his skills.

He was vassal of the High-king of Beleriand, Thingol. Before the wars began he lived in Doriath. When Melian enclosed it with her magic Girdle of Melian to aid its defence he became uneasy and moved to Nan Elmoth outside the Girdle. One of the greatest Elven-smiths of Middle-earth, he forged Anglachel and Anguirel two great, black, magic swords. Made from a meteorite's metal, they can cut all earth-delved iron and have an entrapped sentience. His smithwork rivalled that of the greatest of the Elven-smiths, Fëanor and Celebrimbor, in both fame and fate. One sword, Anglachel, he gave to Thingol as tribute for living in Nan Elmoth and it was eventually used by Túrin to slay Glaurung the dragon. The other sword, Anguirel, he kept for himself. Eöl devised galvorn, a black metal of great strength and malleability, which he fashioned into armour that he wore when he went abroad. He was friend of the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost and, until the founding of the realms of the Noldor, all the traffic of goods between the Sindar and Dwarves passed through Nan Elmoth.