The Fall of Gondolin (middle-Earth Universe)

Edited by Christopher Tolkien, this volume is the third of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Great Tales" of the Elder Days, following The Children of Húrin and Beren and Lúthien. Rather than presenting a single continuous narrative, the book gathers every surviving version of the story of Gondolin, a hidden Elvish city in Middle-earth, from the earliest full text to the final, abandoned version composed in 1951. Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien's son and literary executor, arranges these texts in chronological order with minimal commentary, followed by an analysis of how the story evolved over three decades.

In his preface, Christopher Tolkien explains that this is his final editorial work, written in his ninety-fourth year. He describes his father's legendarium as a constantly shifting structure and contrasts the early depiction of the god Ulmo sitting among reeds making music with the later version in which Ulmo rises from the ocean during a storm, calling this transformation the most striking example of the story's evolution. He states his broader purpose: to demonstrate that The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings were conceived by his father as parts of a single great work.

The Prologue provides background drawn from J.R.R. Tolkien's 1926 Sketch of the Mythology. It recounts how the Valar, the ruling powers of the world, retreated to the western land of Valinor after the evil Vala Morgoth destroyed the great lamps that lit the world. In Valinor, the Vala Yavanna grew the Two Trees whose gold and silver light illuminated the Blessed Realm. The Elves awoke in the East and were invited to Valinor, where the Elf Fëanor created the Silmarils, three jewels containing the Trees' living light. Morgoth destroyed the Trees with the aid of the spider-creature Ungoliant, murdered Fëanor's father Finwë, and stole the Silmarils. Fëanor led the Noldor, one of the three Elvish kindreds, in rebellion against the Valar to pursue Morgoth, seizing the ships of the Teleri in the Kinslaying at the Haven of the Swans, which brought a curse upon the Noldor.

The Original Tale, the earliest full version and the only one preserving a detailed account of the battle for the city, tells how Tuor, a Man living alone by Lake Mithrim in the northern land of Dor-lómin, enters a hidden river-cavern at the prompting of Ulmo, Lord of Waters, and is guided through dark passages to the sea. He follows three swans southward to the great river Sirion and the enchanted Land of Willows, where Ulmo appears in mail like fish-scales, playing an instrument of twisted shells. The god commands Tuor to seek the Gondothlim, or "dwellers in stone," and prophesies that Tuor's unborn child will know the uttermost deeps of sea and sky.

Guided by Noldoli, also called Deep-elves, Tuor journeys inland. When his guides desert him out of fear, a single Elf named Voronwë remains faithful. Together they pass through a dark tunnel and emerge into a vast circular valley where Gondolin stands on a great hill, a city of gleaming towers, marble stairs, and fountains. King Turgon welcomes Tuor and hears Ulmo's message: Turgon must prepare for battle against Morgoth or send his people to the sea to build ships and seek Valinor. Turgon refuses, trusting in his city's defenses. Tuor remains in Gondolin, learns Elvish arts and lore, and marries Idril, the king's daughter, in the first union of a Man with an Elf. Their son Eärendel is born.

Meglin, Turgon's nephew, has long desired Idril and resents Tuor. Captured by Orcs in the mountains, Meglin reveals Gondolin's defenses to Morgoth in exchange for his life and the promise of Idril. Morgoth forges unprecedented weapons: serpents of iron filled with Orcs, bronze creatures breathing fire, and beings of pure flame ridden by Balrogs, demons of fire and shadow. The attack comes on the eve of a midsummer festival. Rog, lord of the Hammer of Wrath, charges out with his warriors to slay many Balrogs but is surrounded and destroyed. Tuor finds Meglin seizing Idril and trying to kill Eärendel; he breaks Meglin's arm and hurls him from the walls. Ecthelion, Lord of the Fountain, kills Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, by driving the spike of his helm into the demon's breast, and both fall into the king's fountain. Turgon refuses to flee, climbs his white tower, and perishes when dragons crush its base.

Tuor leads the survivors through a secret tunnel Idril had ordered dug beneath their house. They cross the plain under a miraculous mist and enter the mountain pass of Cristhorn (Eagles' Cleft), where they are ambushed. Thorondor, King of Eagles, sends his eagles to tear the Orcs from the cliffs. A Balrog leaps among the refugees; Glorfindel, Lord of the Golden Flower, fights it in single combat on a high rock but is grappled, and both fall into the abyss. A cairn is raised where yellow flowers bloom ever after. After more than a year of wandering, the survivors reach the Land of Willows, where they heal. Tuor's sea-longing eventually returns, and the remnant goes down the Sirion to the sea.

Christopher Tolkien then presents intermediate versions. The Sketch of the Mythology (1926) places Tuor within the House of Hador, a noble family of Men allied with the Elves, as the son of Huor and cousin of the hero Túrin Turambar. The Quenta Noldorinwa (1930) expands the geography and history of Gondolin's founding. Both compress the battle to a few lines.

The Last Version (1951), the most literary text, follows Tuor from his birth among Grey-elves through enslavement by Easterlings in Hithlum, escape, and years as an outlaw. He finds the Gate of the Noldor, a secret passage through the mountains, and follows a river to the sea. At the desolate halls of Vinyamar, where Turgon once lived, Tuor finds arms left at Ulmo's command: a shield bearing a white swan's wing, a hauberk, a helm, and a sword. Ulmo rises from a storm-wave, a towering figure in fish-scale mail and a silver crown, and commands Tuor to find Turgon. Voronwë, sole survivor of a shipwreck, is cast ashore by Ulmo's will to serve as guide. They journey eastward through bitter winter, nearly starving and evading Orc patrols. They briefly glimpse Túrin Turambar passing in silence through devastated lands. They cross the Sirion, ascend the Dry River to the Encircling Mountains, and pass through seven gates, each more elaborate than the last. At the Great Gate of Steel, Ecthelion challenges Tuor, who speaks with a voice not his own, declaring the authority of Ulmo. The gate opens, and Tuor beholds "a vision of Gondolin amid the white snow" (201). The text breaks off here.

Christopher Tolkien attributes the abandonment to his father's despair over publishing The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion together. In a 1950 letter, J.R.R. Tolkien described his completed work as an "immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and very terrifying romance" (204) that was not a sequel to The Hobbit but to The Silmarillion. He held out for years against separate publication but eventually yielded. Christopher Tolkien identifies this period of frustration as the reason for the abandonment.

The book concludes with the aftermath of Gondolin's fall. The survivors settle at the mouths of the Sirion. Tuor, growing old, builds a ship and sails west with Idril, never to return. Eärendel weds Elwing, daughter of Dior, who possesses a Silmaril. When the sons of Fëanor attack the havens to reclaim the jewel, Elwing casts herself into the sea with it and is transformed by Ulmo into a white bird. She flies to Eärendel, who binds the Silmaril to his brow and sails to Valinor, where he pleads before the Valar on behalf of Elves and Men. In the Great Battle, Morgoth is overthrown and thrust through the Door of Night, the boundary at the world's edge, into the Void. Eärendel's ship is launched into the sky, where he sails with the Silmaril as the brightest star. The Prophecy of Mandos, the doomsman of the Valar, foretells that when the world grows old, Morgoth will return, and Túrin Turambar's black sword will deal him his final death; the Silmarils will be recovered, the Two Trees rekindled, and their light will go out over all the world.