White Lady of Gondolin

	Fingolfin
Fingon	Turgon	Aredhel White Lady of Gondolin		Eöl
			Maeglin

Aredhel the daughter of Fingolfin had been known as the White Lady (or, in Elvish, Ar-Feiniel) even in the days when she dwelt in Valinor. The name came from her pale complexion, and also from her habit of dressing in silver and white. When the Noldor followed Aredhel's half-uncle Fëanor into exile, she accompanied her brother Turgon, the builder of the Hidden City of Gondolin. After its completion, Aredhel removed there with him, and was afterwards known as the White Lady of Gondolin.

Aredhel the White Lady dwelt for two centuries in her brother's Hidden City, but she eventually wearied of her new home, and wished to travel in the wide lands beyond Gondolin's Encircling Mountains. Turgon sought to prevent her departure, but Aredhel was determined, and she rode out through the secret way though the mountains. She had not reckoned with the dangers of the wild lands, and was lost in the shadows of Nan Dungortheb, eventually finding her way into the shadowy woods of Nan Elmoth, home of Eöl the Dark Elf.

Eöl wed Aredhel, and they had a son, Maeglin. After years under the shadowy trees of Nan Elmoth, Aredhel began to miss the city of Gondolin, and at a time when Eöl had left his home to visit the Dwarves, she led Maeglin out of the wood and began the long journey back to the Hidden City. The Dark Elf, however, returned early from his travels sooner than expected, and followed his wife and son on the dangerous path through the vale beneath Ered Gorgoroth to the Hidden Way into the Encircling Mountains.

Turgon was overjoyed that his sister the White Lady had returned to Gondolin, but dismayed by the appearance of Eöl. Now that the Dark Elf had found his way into the Hidden City, Turgon barred him from leaving again. Eöl violently rejected this command, seeking to take his own life and that of his son. This he did by casting a javelin that he had concealed, but that poisoned dart struck Aredhel instead, and she soon died. Thus the White Lady of Gondolin lost her life, and Eöl was cast from the cliffs of the Caragdûr in punishment. Aredhel's son Maeglin remained in Gondolin and became counsellor to the King, but it was through his later treachery that Gondolin would eventually fall, betrayed by the son of its White Lady.