Since I apparently can't resist a homicidal canon character, I thought I'd give Eöl a try.  Well, there was a little more to it than that, but....  On rereading the chapter "Of Maeglin", the amount of ambiguity in many of the incidents and comments surprised me.  Often, there were comments that supported a much less evil Eöl than is generally accepted. Even more often, characters did or thought peculiar things for reasons that were never explained in the slightest, and could be interpreted pro- or anti-Eöl.

I’m aware there are other comments out there that are more clear about Eöl’s wickedness (Melian’s comment about his malice living on in the sword Anglachel, for example), but “Of Maeglin” was so utterly ambiguous that I decided to use that chapter alone as my “canon” and use the other material in the Silmarillion and elsewhere only as a supplement.

In addition, I ignored all the speculation about Eöl’s thoughts and motivations unless I could find some separate proof of it, and treat the story as the tale of a mixed marriage that failed. Under the circumstances, it seemed reasonable to assume that Aredhel‘s kinfolk would not be the most impartial reporters.

I expanded the dialog in a couple of places and left a line or two out in others, and changed a punctuation mark in Eöl’s last speech. Idril’s talk with Eöl is my invention, as is the vision (hey, everybody else in ME has one, so why not Eöl?) and Idril’s presence at Eöl’s judgment.

This is my first attempt at writing anything involving Elves or the Silmarillion, so if I've made any howlers (other than making Eöl a good guy), please let me know so I can correct it.