[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

Really? If the facts reported in the Silmarillion are to be trusted, Eol kept Aredhel in Nan Elmoth against her will and forcibly married her.

I've posted on this on a dedicated thread before, which I ought find, but in order to get to the point:

Very fair she seemed to him, and he desired her; and he set his enchantments about her so that she could not find the ways out, but drew ever nearer to his dwelling in the depths of the wood. ... when Aredhel, weary with wandering, came at last to his doors, he revealed himself; and he welcomed her, and led her into his house. And there she remained; for Eol took her to wife, and it was long ere any of her kin heard of her again.

It is not said that Aredhel was wholly unwilling, nor that her life in Nan Elmoth was hateful to her for many years.

It is indeed not clear exactly what happened, but one thing is clear, that she was not 'wholly unwilling' - this much the 'writer' of the text will allow. It does not state that he forced her to marry him; he makes it impossible for her to leave the woods until she has met him, but force is not mentioned.

Now, back to Faerie, looking at this tale again with this topic in mind has made me think twice about some of the images therein. The story of Eol is directly drawn from Faerie!

there Eol would meet the Naugrim and hold converse with them. And as their friendship grew he would at times go and dwell as guest in the deep mansions of Nogrod or Belegost. He devised a metal as hard as the steel of the Dwarves, but so malleable that he could make it thin and supple; and yet it remained resistant to all blades and darts. He named it galvorn, for it was black and shining like jet, and he was clad in it whenever he went abroad.

Wayland and Eol both possess remarkable skills as Smiths, and both make armour, their skills having been learned from Dwarves. In addition, Wayland and Eol both 'seduce' important or high-ranking female figures.

The Saxon figure of Wayland is associated with Wayland's Smithy, which was built by a much older culture and had a pre-existing story about a Smith associated with it (leave a horse with a silver coin by the tomb and it will be shod in the morning). The tomb is traditionally seen as an entrance to the Underworld or Otherworld; Eol makes these very same journeys when he chooses to go to the Dwarf cities of Nogrod and Belegost. Furthermore, he has learned much more than smithing:

his eyes could see deep into shadows and dark places.

This is clearly a very different kind of Elf. The story hints that he has been 'elsewhere'. He lives away from other Elves, possibly as he yearns for the time before the Noldor came back to Middle-earth:

He shunned the Noldor, holding them to blame for the return of Morgoth, to trouble the quiet of Beleriand; but for the Dwarves he had more liking than any other of the Elvenfolk of old.

What does this signify? The Noldor have been to Valinor and lived in the Light of the Trees, yet here is an Elf who chooses to shun them and mix with the Dwarves under the earth. It is almost as though Eol is pagan man, shunning the new Christians, and preferring to mingle with and learn from the Faerie folk. When he refuses to stay in Gondolin, or to 'convert', he is provoked to madness.

There are also echoes of the ballad of Tam Lin in the 'escape' of Maeglin with Aredhel, and in the enchantment which Aredhel falls under when she first enters Nan Elmoth. And another link springs to mind with the folk tale of the last two Picts to possess the secret of Heather Ale, a father and son; the father asks for the son to be thrown from the cliffs after which he will tell the secret but then throws himself off. The Pictish men are thrown off by near kin, the Scots from Ulster.

Hmm, these are slightly mad thoughts, but now I'm writing about it, I can see something in it... Maybe Faerie does exist in Middle-earth, just not in the Eldar?