Maeglin

Nan Elmoth

Maeglin was born in F.A. 320 in Nan Elmoth, the black wood east of Doriath, the only child of Eöl the Dark Elf and of Aredhel, sister of Turgon, who had strayed into that wood and been kept there. His mother named him Lómion, child of the twilight, in the Quenya she was forbidden to use aloud; his father gave him no name until he was twelve, and then called him Maeglin, sharp glance. He grew tall, dark-haired and dark-eyed like Eöl and quick like the Noldor of his mother's line, and he learned metalwork from his father and from the Dwarves of Nogrod and Belegost, whom Eöl took him to visit. But what he listened to most was Aredhel's account of her kin: of Fingolfin his grandfather, of the princes of the Noldor, and above all of Turgon, who had no son and a hidden kingdom.

Flight to Gondolin

In F.A. 400, while Eöl was away among the Dwarves, Maeglin persuaded his mother to ride for Gondolin, and they took horses and went. Eöl returned early and followed them, was caught and released with contempt by Curufin in Himlad, and tracked them to the Dry River and the guarded way. Turgon welcomed his sister home and received her son gladly; but when Eöl was brought before him and given the law of the city, to stay or die, he threw a poisoned javelin at Maeglin instead, and Aredhel took it in the shoulder and died that night. Turgon had Eöl cast from the Caragdûr. Before he fell Eöl cursed his son, foretelling that Maeglin's hopes would fail him and that he would die by the same death. Maeglin watched his father die and said nothing.

The greatest of the king's counsellors

He prospered in Gondolin as no newcomer ever had. He was of the royal house on his mother's side, and Turgon, who had no son, honoured him high; he took the emblem of the Mole for his own house and had a place at the king's council. He was skilled beyond any other in the city at finding and working metal, and he opened the mine of Anghabar in the northern arm of the Echoriath, from which came the ore for the arms of Gondolin. In F.A. 472 he went with Turgon to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, fought at the king's side, and won honour there. He was praised, obeyed and feared, and he was liked by very few.

Idril

What undid him was that he loved Idril Celebrindal, Turgon's daughter and his own first cousin. Marriage between such near kin was not done among the Eldar, and beyond that Idril did not want him: she found something crooked in him from the first and kept her distance, and no one else in Gondolin guessed his mind for years. He said nothing and let it work in him. When Tuor came up out of Nevrast in F.A. 495 bearing Ulmo's warning, was taken into the king's friendship, and in F.A. 502 married Idril, Maeglin's silence turned to hatred of them both, and his hatred began to look for a use.

Capture and betrayal

Turgon had forbidden his people to pass beyond the mountains after the Nirnaeth, but Maeglin still went out at times to seek ore, and on one such search a band of Orcs took him alive and brought him to Angband. Morgoth had hunted Gondolin for four centuries and knew at once what he had. Under the threat of torment Maeglin told him the vale, the mountains, the gates and the strength of the guard, and Morgoth, who valued a willing traitor above a broken one, bought him with a promise: the lordship of Gondolin under his rule, and Idril. He sent him home. No one had missed him long, and he said nothing, and the fear on him afterwards was taken for the strain of his work.

The fall of the city

In F.A. 510, at the festival of midsummer, Morgoth's host came over the northern mountains where the assault was least expected: Balrogs, dragons, and Orcs beyond counting. Gondolin burned. In the sack Maeglin came to the king's house and laid hands on Idril and on the child Eärendil, meaning to take his price out of the ruin and hold them for Morgoth. Tuor found them. He fought Maeglin on the walls of the city and threw him down, and Maeglin struck the slopes of Amon Gwareth as he fell and went burning into the fires below. Eöl's curse held to the letter: his son died by his father's death, a fall from a high place, and his hopes failed him within the hour.

Legacy

Maeglin's name became the byword among the Eldar for treason, and his betrayal ended the last and greatest of the hidden realms of the Noldor in Beleriand. It is worth noting how little of him was villainy from the start: he was a gifted smith, a brave captain and a loyal servant of his uncle for a hundred and ten years, and what ruined him was a desire he could not have and would not confess. The city he sold was the one his mother had run to for shelter.

Thrown from the walls of Gondolin by Tuor in F.A. 510 and dashed on the rocks of Amon Gwareth, dying exactly the death his father had foretold for him.