Your Take On Eöl & Maeglin

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Originally Posted by Morthoron

Tolkien may not have liked his creation morally (and nearly every character Tolkien dislikes morally finds a nasty end), but like Milton's Lucifer being far more real and living than the Archangel Michael in Paradise Lost (the great William Blake slyly noted that Milton was "of the Devil's party without knowing it."), Tolkien obviously found creating Eol more interesting than most of the generic elves he portrayed, even editing out the rape of Aredhel to more of a seductiion so that Eol would not appear utterly evil.

Good one, I like the Milton's Lucifer reference! And I think you are quite right. The other day I thought of Gollum, and how he is a fantastic character. Utterly corrupted, but still with a core of humanity left deep inside, and his fascinating persona comes out vividly in the books. The members of the fellowship (with the exception of Sam) are actually quite dull as characters I think. But Gollum, he's an amazing fictional character, Tolkien must have loved writing those parts.

And yeah I like Eöl too, as a character he also comes out vividly. Feels like I understand how he thinks, and it makes sense from his point of view, though he really isn't a pleasant fellow, is he? Maeglin is a cool character too. Morally he really is detestable. Ungrateful son, ungrateful foster-son, traitor to all. But still, you can feel for him, he had some rough times.