Before war descended on the northern lands, Gorlim and Eilinel were husband and wife in Dorthonion. Gorlim went to fight for his lord Barahir, but when he returned to his house, he found it ransacked and empty, and his wife Eilenel was lost. At this time Dorthonion was overrun by Morgoth's forces, and so Gorlim fled into the hills with Barahir and his men, now reduced to desperate outlaws in their own land. He could not forget Eilinel, though, and would often return to his deserted house in hope of finding her there.
One day, he discovered her gaunt and forlorn figure in the ruins of their house, but when he went to her, he was captured and taken to Sauron. The figure he had seen was a phantom devised for that very purpose. After a long resistance, Gorlim at last agreed to betray Barahir if he could be reunited with Eilinel. Sauron agreed, and after discovering where the outlaws were hidden, kept his part of the bargain by torturing Gorlim to death.
Notes
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The year I 460 is the date that Eilinel's husband Gorlim was slain. He had been tricked by Sauron into hoping that his wife might still be alive, but in fact she had already lost her life. So, the latest possible date of her death would be I 460, but at that time the land of Dorthonion had been occupied for five years, and she might conceivably have met her end at any point during that five-year period.
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2 |
The name Eilinel dates back to early phases of Tolkien's writing, but its meaning is never explained. It perhaps relates to an old Elvish root *ay-lin- meaning 'pool' or 'lake', though this connection is speculative, and Tolkien himself offers no interpretation of the name.
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