Fall of Gondolin - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

In the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, the "Fall of Gondolin" is the name of one of the original Lost Tales

The Book of Lost Tales

The Book of Lost Tales is the title of a collection of early stories by J. R. R. Tolkien, and of the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth, in which he presents and analyses the manuscripts of those stories, which were the earliest form of the...

which formed the basis for a section in his later work, The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...

.

"The Fall of Gondolin" tells of the founding of the Elven

Elf (Middle-earth)

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...

city of Gondolin (built in secret by Turgon

Turgon

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Turgon "the Wise" is an Elven king of the Noldor, second son of Fingolfin, brother to Fingon, Aredhel and Argon, and ruler of the hidden city of Gondolin....

and his people), of the arrival of Tuor

Tuor

Tuor is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is the grandfather of Elrond Half-elven and one of the most renowned ancestors of the Men of Númenor and of the King of the Reunited Kingdom Aragorn Elessar...

, a prince of the Edain

Edain

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Edain were men who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age, and were friendly to the Elves....

, of the betrayal of the city to Morgoth

Morgoth

Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...

by Turgon's nephew Maeglin

Maeglin

Maeglin or Meglin is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured in The Silmarillion.He was an Elf, the son of Eöl the Dark Elf and Aredhel daughter of Fingolfin. He lived in the First Age of Middle-earth, and was a lord of Gondolin...

, and of its subsequent destruction by Morgoth's armies. It also relates the flight of the fugitives to the Havens of Sirion, the wedding of Tuor and Idril

Idril

Idril Celebrindal is a fictional character in the fantasy-world Middle-earth of English author J. R. R. Tolkien. She appears in one of his chief works of literature, The Silmarillion, published posthumously by Christopher Tolkien.-Character Overview:...

, as well as the childhood of Eärendil

Eärendil

Eärendil the Mariner is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is depicted in The Silmarillion as a great seafarer who, on his brow, carried the morning star across the sky.-Etymology:...

.

Tolkien began writing the story that would become "The Fall of Gondolin" in 1917 in an army barracks on the back of a sheet of military marching music. It is more or less the first traceable story he wrote down on paper about the Middle-earth

Middle-earth

Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....

legendarium
Legendarium
Legendary may refer to:*A hagiography, or study of the lives of saints and other religious figures**The South English Legendary, a Middle English legendary*A legend-Entertainment:*Legendary, an album by Kaysha*Legendary...

.

Tolkien was constantly revising his First Age

First Age

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the First Age, or First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar is the heroic period in which most of Tolkien's early legends are set...

stories; however, the narrative he wrote in 1917, published posthumously in the Book of Lost Tales, remains the only full account of the fall of the city. The narrative in The Silmarillion was the result of the editing by his son Christopher

Christopher Tolkien

Christopher Reuel Tolkien is the third and youngest son of the author J. R. R. Tolkien , and is best known as the editor of much of his father's posthumously published work. He drew the original maps for his father's The Lord of the Rings, which he signed C. J. R. T. The J...

using that story (minus some elements all too obviously evocative of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

warfare) and compressed versions from the different versions of the Annals and Quentas as various sources. The later Quenta Silmarillion
Quenta Silmarillion
Quenta Silmarillion is a collection of fictional legends written by the high fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published after the author's death in The Silmarillion together with four shorter stories...

and the Grey Annals of Beleriand, the main sources for much of the published Silmarillion, both stop before the beginning of the Tuor story.

A partial later version of "The Fall of Gondolin" was published in the Unfinished Tales
Unfinished Tales
Unfinished Tales is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980.Unlike The Silmarillion, for which the narrative fragments were modified to connect into a consistent and...

under the title "Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin". Originally titled "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin", this narrative shows a great expansion of the earlier tale. Christopher Tolkien retitled the story before including it in Unfinished Tales, because it ends at the point of Tuor's arrival in Gondolin, never getting to the actual Fall.

There is also an unfinished and (as of 2008) unpublished poem titled The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin of which a few verses are quoted in The Lays of Beleriand
The Lays of Beleriand
The Lays of Beleriand, published in 1985, is the third volume of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume book series, The History of Middle-earth, in which he analyzes the unpublished manuscripts of his father J. R. R...

. In a mere 130 verses Tolkien reaches the point where Dragons attack the city; from this one can assume that, even if it had been finished, it would have been far shorter than the long poetic versions of The Lay of Leithian

The Lay of Leithian

The Lay of Leithian is an unfinished poem written by J. R. R. Tolkien. It tells the Tale of Beren and Lúthien, the story of the love of the mortal Man Beren and the immortal Elf maiden Lúthien. The poem consists of over 4200 verses. It was published after Tolkien's death in The Lays of Beleriand...

and Narn i Chîn Húrin

Narn i Chîn Húrin

A portion of the Narn i Chîn Húrin or The Tale of the Children of Húrin is a part of the book Unfinished Tales by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is a prose version of an earlier narrative poem called The Lay of the Children of Húrin...

See also