#literally dumb

i hate pidgey

Eol and Aredhel. By far one of the most dysfunctional relationships --if not *the*-- in Tolkiens universe. From him manipulating the forest to trap her, to forbidding her from seeing her family and speaking her own language, until he eventually killed her.

All in all, in past rants, I’ve made it kinda clear I see Eol as a big problem with the relationship... but I actually do not see him as the *only* problem.

Aredhel. Let’s look at her. Princess of the Noldor, daughter of Fingolfin, given a lot of freedom with a firey spirit to match. I adore her -- but I think considering, maybe she was a major part of the problem with the relationship. Don’t get me wrong, I see her as a victim in a way, but at the same time maybe -- just maybe -- she could have handled things differently.

We don’t know much about Eol apart from the fact that he was a smith, hung out with the dwarves and was generally a complete and utter introvert. But we do know that he had some love regarding Aredhel, to a point that he didn’t want to lose her in any way hence all the forbidden shit. But from what we know he lived alone before her, or relatively so, and was used to that kind of life. He stayed in one place and was in a way afraid of the world.. which was kinda cause the Noldo came in and we all know the shit that went down. SO basically, he world was not his ally. Kinda like Thranduil but much much much more dysfunctional (in no way do i relate those two other than in circumstance. Thrandy is hella better no offense to tol dark and moody)

Meanwhile, the White Lady seemed an extrovert. Independent woman who didnt need no man, and traipsed about Beleriand in a way, like competely undaunted. Hu-ah. I love her. But I think that the fact taht they were so different is partially why they had problems. She loved the outside world, and wasn’t content staying in one spot for extended periods -- e.g., she left GONDOLIN, THE FUCKING SAFEST CITY EVER UNTIL MAEGLIN after telling her brother off for trying to keep her there for 200 years -- she liked the outdoors, she liked riding, she liked seeing the world through her own eyes.

So basically, Eol, Mr. Fears the World married Aredhel queen of I Want To See The World Fuck Off Everyone. Well at least they had the ‘everyone can fuck off’ in common. So Mr. Fears tells Queen Adventure ‘no more adventures’... which I have no idea why he thought that’d work but yeah. LIke I said dysfuctional.

Now maybe she did try to work with him and get him to venture outside of his godforsaken forest, we don’t know much about their relationship except that it was kinda happy to begin with and then ended with him killing her on accident (which, btw, I totally believe that idiot had the fucking antidote *on* him, like for fucks sake you don’t carry poisoned weapons around without an antidote, what if you *prick* yourself. Yeah. Jackass) But Maybe she could have tried harder to try and get him to compromise. Granted, in this version which I play I have it that she did try a bit, but canonically I always got the impression that either he was just really fucking stubborn, or that she didn’t try hard enough to get him out of his shell. I also got the impression that whatever she felt for him she kinda fell out of - if it was love then she fell out of it -- which is why she finally got out. (which i wrote about in another post regarding my headcanon on it.)

Point is, I don’t think Eol was totally to blame. Was he a Biiiiiig problem? Definitely. But for a woman who seemed to have a soft spot for the problematic faves --e.g., Feanorians -- it just feels to me she may have given up on him. Like she probaby tried to a point and then was like ‘fuck it I’m going home’.