The Book of Lost Tales 2
Chapter Nineteen
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Nonetheless one gains the impression that at that time my father pictured the power of Melko when at its height as operating more diffusedly and intangibly, and perhaps also more universally, in the Great Lands. Whereas in The Silmarillion the Noldor who are not free are prisoners in Angband (whence a few may escape, and others with enslaved wills may be sent out), here all save the Gondothlim are 'thralls', controlled by Melko from afar, and Melko asserts that the Noldoli are all, by their very existence in the Great Lands, his slaves by right. It is a difference difficult to define, but that there is a difference may be seen in the improbability, for the later story, of Tuor being guided on his way to Gondolin by Noldor who were in any sense slaves of Morgoth. The entrance to Gondolin has some general similarity to the far fuller and more precisely visualised account in the later Tuor: a deep river-gorge, tangled bushes, a cave-mouth -- but the river is certainly Sirion (see the passage at the end of the tale, p. 195, where the exiles come back to the entrance), and the entrance to the secret way is in one of the steep river banks, quite unlike the description of the Dry River whose ancient bed was itself the secret way (later Tuor pp. 43-4).
The long tunnel which Tuor and Voronwe traverse in the tale leads them at length not only to the Guard but also to sunlight, and they are 'at the foot of steep hills' and can see the city: in other words there is a simple conception of a plain, a ring-wall of mountains, and a tunnel through them leading to the outer world. In the later Tuor the approach to the city is much stranger: for the tunnel of the Guard leads to the ravine of Orfalch Echor, a great rift from top to bottom of the Encircling Mountains ('sheer as if axe- cloven', p. 46), up which the road climbed through the successive gates until it came to the Seventh Gate, barring the rift at the top. Only when this last gate was opened and Tuor passed through was he able to see Gondolin; and we must suppose (though the narrative does not reach this point) that the travellers had to descend again from the Seventh Gate in order to reach the plain. It is notable that Tuor and Voronwe are received by the Guard without any of the suspicion and menace that greeted them in the later story (p. 45). (iii) Tuor in Condolin (pp. 159 -- 64). With this section of the narrative compare The Silmarillion, p. 126: Behind the circle of the mountains the people of Turgon grew and throve, and they put forth their skill in labour unceasing, so that Gondolin upon Amon Gwareth became fair indeed and fit to compare even with Elven Tirion beyond the sea. High and white were its walls, and smooth its stairs, and tall and strong was the Tower of the King. There shining fountains played, and in the courts of Turgon stood images of the Trees of old, which Turgon himself wrought with elven-craft; and the Tree which he made of gold was named Glingal, and the Tree whose flowers he made of silver was named Belthil.
The image of Gondolin was enduring, and it reappears in the glimpses given in notes for the continuation of the later Tuor (Unfinished Tales p. 56): the stairs up to its high platform, and its great gate... the Place of the Fountain, the King's tower on a pillared arcade, the King's house...' Indeed the only real difference that emerges from the original account concerns the Trees of Gondolin, which in the former were unfading, 'shoots of old from the glorious Trees of Valinor', but in The Silmarillion were images made of the precious metals. On the Trees of Gondolin see the entries Bansil and Glingol from the Name-list, given below pp. 214 -- 16. The gift by the Gods of these 'shoots' (which 'blossomed eternally without abating') to Inwe and Noleme at the time of the building of Kor, each being given a shoot of either Tree, is mentioned in The Coming of the Elves (I. 123), and in The Hiding of Valinor there is a reference to the uprooting of those given to No1eme, which 'were gone no one knew whither, and more had there never been' (1.2I3). But a deep underlying shift in the history of Gondolin separates the earlier and later accounts: for whereas in the Last Tales (and later) Gondolin was only discovered after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears when the host of Turgon retreated southwards down Sirion, in The Silmarillion it had been found by Turgon of Nevrast more than four hundred years before (442years before Tuor came to Gondolin in the Fell Winter after the fall of Nargothrond in the year 495 of the Sun).
In the tale my father imagined a great age passing between the Battle of Unnumbered Tears and the destruction of the city ('unstaying labour through ages of years had not sufficed to its building and adornment whereat folk travailed yet', p. 163); afterwards, with radical changes in the chronology of the First Age after the rising of the Sun and Moon, this period was reduced to no more than (in the last extant version of 'The Tale of Years' of the First Age) thirty-eight years. But the old conception can still be felt in the passage on p. 240 of The Silmarillion describing the withdrawal of the people of Gondolin from all concern with the world outside after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, with its air of long years passing.> In The Silmarillion it is explicit that Turgon devised the city to be 'a memorial of Tirion upon Tuna' (p. 125), and it became 'as beautiful as a memory of Elven Tirion' (p. 240). This is not said in the old story, and indeed in the Last Tales Turgon himself had never known Kor (he was born in the Great Lands after the return of the Noldoli from Valinor, I. 167, 238, 24o); one may feel nonetheless that the tower of the King, the fountains and stairs, the white marbles of Gondolin embody a recollection of Kor as it is described in The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kor (I. 122 -- 3). I have said above that 'despite the frequent reminder that Ulmo was guiding Tuor as the instrument of his designs, the essential element in the later legend of the arms left for him by Turgon on Ulmo's instruction is lacking'.
Now however we seem to see the germ of this conception in Turgon's words to Tuor (p. 161): 'Thy coming was set in our books of wisdom, and it has been written that there would come to pass many great things in the homes of the Gondothlim whenso thou faredst hither.' Yet it is clear from Tuor's reply that as yet the establishment of Gondolin was no part of Ulmo's design, since 'there have come to the ears of Ulmo whispers of your dwelling and your hill of vigilance against the evil of Melko, and he is glad'.
(* Of the story of Gondolin from Tuor's coming to its destruction my father wrote nothing after the version of 'The Silmarillion' made (very probably) in 1930; and in this the old conception of its history was still present. This was the basis for much of Chapter 23 in the published work.)
In the tale, Ulmo foresaw that Turgon would be unwilling to take up arms against Melko, and he fell back, through the mouth of Tuor, on a second counsel: that Turgon send Elves from Gondolin down Sirion to the coasts, there to build ships to carry messages to Valinor. To this Turgon replied, decisively and unanswerably, that he had sent messengers down the great river with this very purpose 'for years untold', and since all had been unavailing he would now do so no more. Now this clearly relates to a passage in The Silmarillion (p. 159) where it is said that Turgon, after the Dagor Bragollach and the breaking of the Siege of Angband, sent companies of the Gondolindrim in secret to the mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar. There they built ships, and set sail into the uttermost West upon Turgon's errand, seeking for Valinor, to ask for pardon and aid of the Valar; and they besought the birds of the sea to guide them. But the seas were wild and wide, and shadow and enchantment lay upon them; and Valinor was hidden. Therefore none of the messengers of Turgon came into the West, and many were lost and few returned. Turgon did indeed do so once more, after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (The Silmarillion p. 196), and the only survivor of that last expedition into the West was Voronwe of Gondolin.
Thus, despite profound changes in chronology and a great development in the narrative of the last centuries of the First Age, the idea of the desperate attempts of Turgon to get a message through to Valinor goes back to the beginning. Another aboriginal feature is that Turgon had no son; but (curiously) no mention whatsoever is made in the tale of his wife, the mother of Idril. In The Silmarillion (p. go) his wife Elenwe was lost in the crossing of the Helcaraxe, but obviously this story belongs to a later period, when Turgon was born in Valinor. The tale of Tuor's sojourn in Gondolin survived into the brief words of ?he Silmarillion (p. 241): And Tuor remained in Gondolin, for its bliss and its beauty and the wisdom of its people held him enthralled; and he became mighty in stature and in mind, and learned deeply of the lore of the exiled Elves. In the present tale he 'heard tell of Iluvatar, the Lord for Always, who dwelleth beyond the world', and of the Music of the Ainur. Knowledge of the very existence of Iluvatar was, it seems, a prerogative of the Elves; long afterwards in the garden of Mar Vanwa Tyalieva (I. 49) Eriol asked Rumil: 'Who was Iluvatar? Was he of the Gods?' and Rumil answered: 'Nay, that he was not; for he made them. Iluvatar is the Lord for Always, who dwells beyond the world.'
(iv) The encirclement of Condolin; the treachery of Meglin (pp. 164 -- 71). The king's daughter was from the first named 'Idril of the Silver Feet' (Irilde in the language of the 'Eldar', note 22); Meglin (later Maeglin) was his nephew, though the name of his mother (Turgon's sister) Isfin was later changed. In this section of the narrative the story in The Silmarillion (pp. 241 -- 2) preserved all the essentials of the original version, with one major exception. The wedding of Tuor and Idril took place with the consent and full favour of the king, and there was great joy in Gondolin among all save Maeglin (whose love of Idril is told earlier in The Silmarillion, p. 139, where the barrier of his being close kin to her, not mentioned in the tale, is emphasised). Idril's power of foreseeing and her foreboding of evil to come; the secret way of her devising (but in the tale this led south from the city, and the Eagles' Cleft was in the southern mountains); the loss of Meglin in the hills while seeking for ore; his capture by Orcs, his treacherous purchase of life, and his return to Gondolin to avert suspicion (with the detail of his changed mood thereafter and 'smiling face') -- all this remained.
Much is of course absent (whether rejected or merely passed over) in the succinct account devised for The Silmarillion -- where there is no mention, for example, of Idril's dream concerning Meglin, the watch set on him when he went to the hills, the formation on Idril's advice of a guard bearing Tuor's emblem, the refusal of Turgon to doubt the invulnerability of the city and his trust in Meglin, Meglin's discovery of the secret way,*or the remarkable story that it was Meglin himself who conceived the idea of the monsters of fire and iron and communicated it to Melko -- a valuable defector indeed! The great difference between the versions lies of course in the nature of Melko/Morgoth's knowledge of Gondolin. In the tale, he had by means of a vast army of spies t already discovered it before ever Meglin was captured, and creatures of Melko had found the 'Way of Escape' and looked down on Gondolin from the surrounding heights.
Meglin's treachery in the old story lay in his giving an exact account of the structure of the city and the preparations made for its defence -- and in his advice to Melko concerning the monsters of flame. In The Silmarillion, on the other hand, there is the element, devised much later, of the unconscious betrayal by Hurin to Morgoth's spies of the general region in which Gondolin must be sought, in 'the mountainous land between (* This is in fact specifically denied in The Silmarillion: 'she contrived it that the work was known but to few, and no whisper of it came to Maeglin's ears.' f It seems that the 'creatures of blood' (said to be disliked by the people of Gondolin, p. 166), snakes, wolves, weasels, owls, falcons, are here regarded as the natural servants and allies of Melko.)
Anach and the upper waters of Sirion, whither [Morgoth's] servants had never passed' (p. 241); but 'still no spy or creature out of Angband could come there because of the vigilance of the eagles' -- and of this role of the eagles of the Encircling Mountains (though hostile to Melko, p. 193) there is in the original story no suggestion. Thus in The Silmarillion Morgoth remained in ignorance until Maeglin's capture of the precise location of Gondolin, and Maeglin's information was of correspondingly greater value to him, as it was also of greater damage to the city. The history of the last years of Gondolin has thus a somewhat different atmosphere in the tale, for the Gondothlim are informed of the fact that Melko has 'encompassed the vale of Tumladin around' (p. 167), and Turgon makes preparations for war and strengthens the watch on the hills. The withdrawal of all Melko's spies shortly before the attack on Gondolin did indeed bring about a renewal of optimism among the Gondothlim, and in Turgon not least, so that when the attack came the people were unprepared; but in the later story the shock of the sudden assault is much greater, for there has never been any reason to suppose that the city is in immediate danger, and Idril's foreboding is peculiar to herself and more mysterious.
(v) The array of the Condothlim (pp. 171 -- 4). Though the central image of this part of the story -- the people of Gondolin looking out from their walls to hail the rising sun on the feast of the Gates of Summer, but seeing a red light rising in the north and not in the east -- survived, of all the heraldry in this passage scarcely anything is found in later writings. Doubtless, if my father had continued the later Tuor, much would have re-emerged, however changed, if we judge by the rich 'heraldic' descriptions of the great gates and their guards in the Orfalch Echor (pp. 46 -- 50). But in the concise account in The Silmarillion the only vestiges are the titles Ecthelion 'of the Fountain'* and Glorfindel 'chief of the House of the Golden Flower of Gondolin'. Ecthelion and Glorfindel are named also in The Silmarillion (p. 194) as Turgon's captains who guarded the Hanks of the host of Gondolin in their retreat down Sirion from the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, but of other captains named in the tale there is no mention afterwards + -- though it is significant that the eighteenth Ruling Steward of Gondor was named Egalmoth, as the (* In the later Tuor (p. 50) he is 'Lord o( the Fountains', plural (the reading in the manuscript is certain).
In the version o( 'The Silmarillion' made in 1930 (see footnote on p. 208), the last account of the Fall of Gondolin to bc written and the basis for that in chapter 23 of the published work, the text actually reads: '... much is told in The Fall of Gondolin: of the death of Rog without the walls, and of the battle of Ecthelion of the Fountain ', &c. I removed the reference to Rog (The Silmarillion p. 242) on the grounds that it was absolutely certain that my father would not have retained this name as that of a lord of Gondolin.) seventeenth and twenty-fifth were named Ecthelion (The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A (1,ii)).* Glorfindel 'of the golden hair' (p. 192) remains 'yellow-haired Glorfindel' in The Silmarillion, and this was from the beginning the meaning of his name. (vi) The battle of Condolin (pp. 174-88). Virtually the entire history of the fighting in Gondolin is unique in the tale of The Fall of Condolin; the whole story is summarised in The Silmarillion (p. 242) in a few lines: Of the deeds of desperate valour there done, by the chieftains of the noble houses and their warriors, and not least by Tuor, much is told in The Fall of Condolin: of the battle of Ecthelion of the Fountain with Gothmog Lord of Balrogs in the very square of the King, where each slew the other, and of the defence of the tower of Turgon by the people of his household, until the tower was overthrown: and mighty was its fall and the fall of Turgon in its ruin.
Tuor sought to rescue Idril from the sack of the city, but Maeglin had laid hands on her, and on Earendil; and Tuor fought with Maeglin on the walls, and cast him far out, and his body as it fell smote the rocky slopes of Amon Gwareth thrice ere it pitched into the flames below. Then Tuor and Idril led such remnants of the people of Gondolin as they could gather in the confusion of the burning down the secret way which Idril had prepared. (In this highly compressed account the detail that Maeglin's body struck the slopes of Amon Gwareth three times before it 'pitched' into the flames was retained.) It would seem from The Silmarillion account that Maeglin's attempt on Idril and Earendil took place much later in the fighting, and indeed shortly before the escape of the fugitives down the tunnel; but I think that this is far more likely to be the result of compression than of a change in the narrative of the battle. In the tale Gondolin is very clearly visualised as a city, with its markets and its great squares, of which there are only vestiges in later writing (see above, p. 207); and there is nothing vague in the description of the fighting. The early conception of the Balrogs makes them less terrible, and certainly more destructible, than they afterwards became: they (*In a very late note written on one of the texts that constitute chapter 16 of The Silmarillion ('Of Maeglin') my father was thinking of making the 'three lords of his household' whom Turgon appointed to ride with Aredhel from Gondolin (p. 131) Glorfindel, Ecthelion, and Egalmoth.
He notes that Ecthelion and Egalmoth 'are derived from the primitive F[all of] G[ondolin]', but that they 'are well soundinga and have been in print' (with reference to the names of the Stewards of Gondor). Subsequently he decided against naming Aredhel's escort.) existed in 'hundreds' (p. 170),* and were slain by Tuor and the Gondothlim in large numbers: thus five fell before Tuor's great axe Dramborleg, three before Ecthelion's sword, and two score were slain by the warriors of the king's house. The Balrogs are 'demons of power' (p. 181); they are capable of pain and fear (p. 194); they are attired in iron armour (pp. 181, 194), and they have whips of flame (a character they never lost) and claws of steel (pp. 169, 179). In The Silmarillion the dragons that came against Gondolin were 'of the brood of Glaurung', which 'were become now many and terrible'; whereas in the tale the language employed (p. 170) suggests that some at least of the 'Monsters' were inanimate 'devices', the construction of smiths in the forges of Angband. But even the 'things of iron' that 'opened about their middles' to disgorge bands of Orcs are called 'ruthless beasts', and Gothmog 'bade' them 'pile themselves' (p. 176); those made of bronze or copper 'were given hearts and spirits of blazing fire'; while the 'fire-drake' that Tuor hewed screamed and lashed with its tail (p. 181).
A small detail of the narrative is curious: what 'messengers' did Meglin send to Melko to warn him to guard the outer entrance of the Way of Escape (where he guessed that the secret tunnel must lead in the end)? Whom could Meglin trust sufficiently? And who would dare to go? (vii) The escape of the fugitives and the battle in Cristhorn (pp. 188 -- 95). The story as told in The Silmarillion (p. 243) is somewhat fuller in its account of the escape of the fugitives from the city and the ambush in the Eagles' Cleft (there called Cirith Thoronath) than in that of the assault and sack itself, but only in one point are the two narratives actually at variance -- as already noticed, the Eagles' Cleft was afterwards moved from the southern parts of the Encircling Mountains to the northern, and Idril's tunnel led north from the city (the comment is made that it was not thought 'that any fugitives would take a path towards the north and the highest parts of the mountains and the nighest to Angband'). The tale provides a richness of detail and an immediacy that is lacking in the short version, where such things as the tripping over dead bodies in the hot and reeking underground passage have disappeared; and there is no mention of the Gondothlim who against the counsel of Idril and Tuor went to the Way of Escape and were there destroyed by the dragon lying in wait, f' or of the fight to rescue Earendel.
(* The idea that Morgoth disposed of a 'host' of Balrogs endured long, but in a late note my father said that only very few ever existed -- 'at most seven'. + This element in the story was in fact still present in the 1930 'Silmarillion' (see footnote on p.208), but I excluded it from the published work on account of evidence in a much later text that the old entrance to Gondolin had by this time been blocked up -- a fact which was then written into the text in chapter 23 of The Silmarillion.
In the tale appears the keen-sighted Elf Legolas Greenleaf, first of the names of the Fellowship of the Ring to appear in my father's writings (see p. 217 on this earlier Legolas), followed by Gimli (an Elf) in the Tale of Tinuviel. In one point the story of the ambush in Cristhorn seems difficult to follow: this is the statement on p. 193 that the moon 'lit not the path for the height of the walls'. The fugitives were moving southwards through the Encircling Mountains, and the sheer rockwall above the path in the Eagles' Cleft was 'of the right or westerly hand', while on the left there was 'a fall... dreadly steep'. Surely then the moon rising in the east would illuminate the path? The name Cristhorn appears in my father's drawing of 'Gondolin and the Vale of Tumladin from Cristhorn', September 1928 (Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, 1979, no. 35). (viii) The wanderings of the Exiles of Condolin (pp. 195 -- 7). In The Silmarillion (p. 243) it is said that 'led by Tuor son of Huor the remnant of Gondolin passed over the mountains, and came down into the Vale of Sirion'. One would suppose that they came down into Dimbar, and so 'fleeing southward by weary and dangerous marches they came at length to Nan-tathren, the Land of Willows'.
It seems strange in the tale that the exiles were wandering in the wilderness for more than a year, and yet achieved only to the outer entrance of the Way of Escape; but the geography of this region may have been vaguer when The Fall of Condolin was written. In The Silmarillion when Tuor and Idril went down from Nan- tathren to the mouths of Sirion they 'joined their people to the company of Elwing, Dior's daughter, that had fled thither but a little while before'. Of this there is no mention here; but I postpone consideration of this part of the narrative. Entries in the Name-list to The Fall of Condolin On this list see p. 148, where the head-note to it is given. Specifically linguistic information from the list, including meanings, is incorporated in the Appendix on Names, but I collect here some statements of other kind (arranged in alphabetical order) that are contained in it.
Bablon 'was a city of Men, and more rightly Babylon, but such is the Gnomes' name as they now shape it, and they got it from Men aforetime.' Bansil 'Now this name had the Gondothlim for that tree before their king's door which bore silver blossom and faded not -- and its name had Elfriniel from his father Voronwe; and it meaneth "Fairgleam". Now that tree of which it was a shoot (brought in the deep ages out of Valinor by the Noldoli) had like properties, but greater, seeing that for half the twenty-four hours it lit all Valinor with silver light. This the Eldar still tell of as Silpion or "Cherry-moon", for its blossom was like that of a cherry in spring -- but of that tree in Gondolin they know no name, and the Noldoli tell of it alone.' Dor Lomin 'or the "Land of Shadows" was that region named of the Eldar Hisilome (and this means Shadowy Twilights) where Melko shut Men, and it is so called by reason of the scanty sun which peeps little over the Iron Mountains to the east and south of it-there dwell now the Shadow Folk. Thence came Tuor to Gondolin.' Earendel 'was the son of Tuor and Idril and 'tis said the only being that is half of the kindred of the Eldalie and half of Men. He was the greatest and first of all mariners among Men, and saw regions that Men have not yet found nor gazed upon for all the multitude of their boats.
He rideth now with Voronwe upon the winds of the firmament nor comes ever further back than Kor, else would he die like other Men, so much of the mortal is in him.' (For these last statements about Earendel see pp. 264-5. The statement that Earendel was 'the only being that is half of the kindred of the Eldalie and half of Men' is very notable. Presumably this was written when Beren was an Elf, not a Man (see p. 139); Dior son of Beren and Tinuviel appears in the Tale of the Nasglafring, but there Beren is an Elf, and Dior is not Half-elven. In the tale of The Fall of Gondolin itself it is said, but in a later replacement passage (p. 164 and note 22), that Tuor was the first but not the last to wed 'a daughter of Elfinesse'. On the extraordinary statement in the Tale of Turambar that Tamar Lamefoot was Half-elven see p. 130.) Ecthelion 'was that lord of the house of the Fountain, who had the fairest voice and was most skilled in musics of all the Gondothlim. He won renown for ever by his slaying of Gothmog son of Melko, whereby Tuor was saved from death but Ecthelion was drowned with his foe in the king's fountain.'
Egalmoth was 'lord of the house of the Heavenly Arch, and got even out of the burning of Gondolin, and dwelt after at the mouth of Sirion, but was slain in a dire battle there when Melko seized Elwing'. (See p. 258.) Galdor 'was that valiant Gnome who led the men of the Tree in many a charge and yet won out of Gondolin and even the onslaught of Melko upon the dwellers at Sirion's mouth and went back to the ruins with Earendel. He dwelleth yet in Tol Eressea (said Elfriniel), and still do some of his folk name themselves Nos Galdon, for Galdon is a tree, and thereto Galdor's name akin.' The last phrase was emended to read: 'Nos nan Alwen, for Alwen is a Tree.'
(For Galdor's return to the ruins of Gondolin with Earendel see P- 258.) Glingol 'meaneth "singing-gold" ('tis said), and this name was that which the Gondothlim had for that other of the two unfading trees in the king's square which bore golden bloom. It also was a shoot from the trees of Valinor (see rather where Elfrith has spoken of Bansil), but of Lindelokte (which is "singing-cluster") or Laurelin [emended from Lindelaure] (which is "singing-gold") which lit all Valinor with golden light for half the 24 hours.' (For the name Lindelokte see I. 22, 258 (entry Lindelos).) Clorfindel 'led the Golden Flower and was the best beloved of the Gondothlim, save it be Ecthelion, but who shall choose.
Yet he was hapless and fell slaying a Balrog in the great fight in Cristhorn. His name meaneth Goldtress for his hair was golden, and the name of his house in Noldorissa Los'loriol' (emended from Los Gloriol). Gondolin 'meaneth stone of song (whereby figuratively the Gnomes meant stone that was carven and wrought to great beauty), and this was the name most usual of the Seven Names they gave to their city of secret refuge from Melko in those days before the release.' Gothmog 'was a son of Melko and the ogress Fluithuin and his name is Strife-and-hatred, and he was Captain of the Balrogs and lord of Melko's hosts ere fair Ecthelion slew him at the taking of Gondolin. The Eldar named him Kosmoko or Kosomok(o), but 'tis a name that fitteth their tongue no way and has an ill sound even in our own rougher speech, said Elfrith [emended fmm Elfriniel].' (In a list of names of the Valar associated with the tale of The Coming of the Valar (I. 93) it is said that Melko had a son 'by Ulbandi' called Kosomot; the early 'Qenya' dictionary gives Kosomoko = Gnomish Gothmog, I.258.
In the tale Gothmog is called the 'marshal' of the hosts of Melko (p. 184).) In the later development of the legends Gothmog was the slayer of Feanor, and in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears it was he who slew Fingon and captured Hurin (The Silmarillion pp. IO7, I93, 195). He is not of course called later son of Melkor -, the Children of the Valar' was a feature of the earlier mythology that my father discarded. In the Third Age Gothmog was the name of the lieutenant of Minas Morgul (The Return of the King V.6).) Hendor 'was a house-carle of Idril's and was aged, but bore Earendel down the secret passage.' Idril 'was that most fair daughter of the king of Gondolin whom Tuor loved when she was but a little maid, and who bare him Earendel. Her the Elves name Irilde; and we speak of as Idril Tal-Celeb or Idril of the Silver Feet, but they Irilde Taltelepta.' See the Appendix on Names, entry Idril.
Indor 'was the name of the father of Tuor's father, wherefore did the Gnomes name Earendel Gon Indor and the Elves Indorildo or Indorion.' Legolas 'or Green-leaf was a man of the Tree, who led the exiles over Tumladin in the dark, being night-sighted, and he liveth still in Tol Eressea named by the Eldar there Laiqalasse; but the book of Rumil saith further hereon.' (See I. 267, entry Tari-Laisi.) $3 Miscellaneous Matters. (i) The geography of The Fall of Gondolin. I have noticed above (p. 205) that in Tuor's journey all along the coast of what was afterwards Beleriand to the mouths of Sirion there is an unquestionable resemblance to the later map, in the trend of the coast from north-south to east-west. It is also said that after he left Falasquil 'the distant hills marched ever nearer to the margin of the sea', and that the spurs of the Iron Mountains 'run even to the sea' (pp. 152-3). These statements can likewise be readily enough related to the map, where the long western extension of the Mountains of Shadow (Ered Wethrin), forming the southern border of Nevrast, reached the sea at Vinyamar (for the equation of the Mountains of Iron and the Mountains of Shadow see I. III -- 12). Arlisgion, 'the place of reeds' (p. 153) above the mouths of Sirion, survived in Lisgardh 'the land of reeds at the Mouths of Sirion' in the later Tuor (p. 34); and the feature that the great river passed underground for a part of its course goes back to the earliest period, as does that of the Meres of Twilight, Aelin-uial ('the Pools of Twilight', p. 195).
There is here however a substantial difference in the tale from?he Silmarillion (p. 122), where Aelin-uial was the region of great pools and marshes where 'the flood of Sirion was stayed', south of the Meres the river 'fell from the north in a mighty fall... and then he plunged suddenly underground into great tunnels that the weight of his falling waters delved'. Here on the other hand the Pools of Twilight are clearly below the 'cavern of the Tumultuous Winds' (never mentioned later) where Sirion dives underground. But the Land of Willows, below the region of Sirion's underground passage, is placed as it was to remain. Thus the view I expressed (p. 141) of the geographical indications in the Tale of Turambar can be asserted also of those of The Fall of Gondolin. (ii) Ulmo and the other Valar in The Fall of Condolin. In the speech of Tuor inspired by Ulmo that he uttered at his first meeting with Turgon (p. 161) he said: 'the hearts of the Valar are angered... seeing the sorrow of the thraldom of the Noldoli and the wanderings of Men.' This is greatly at variance with what is told in The Hiding of Valinor, especially the following (I. 208-- 9):* The most of the Valar moreover were fain of their ancient ease and desired only peace, wishing neither rumour of Melko and his violence nor murmur of the restless Gnomes to come ever again among them to disturb their happiness; and for such reasons they also clamoured for the concealment of the land.
Not the least among these were Vina and Nessa, albeit most even of the great Gods were of one mind. In vain did Ulmo of his foreknowing plead before them for pity and pardon on the Noldoli... Subsequently Tuor said (p. 161): 'the Gods sit in Valinor, though their mirth is minished for sorrow and fear of Melko, and they hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic that no evil come to its shores.' Turgon in his reply ironically echoed and altered the words: 'they that sit within [i.e. in Valinor] reck little of the dread of Melko or the sorrow of the world, but hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic, that no tidings of evil come ever to their ears.' How is this to be understood? Was this Ulmo's 'diplomacy'? Certainly Turgon's understanding of the motives of the Valar chimes better with what is said of them in The Hiding of Valinor. But the Gnomes of Gondolin reverenced the Valar. There were 'pomps of the Ainur' (p. 165); a great square of the city and its highest point was Gar Ainion, the Place of the Gods, where weddings were celebrated (pp. 164, 186); and the people of the Hammer of Wrath 'reverenced Aule the Smith more than all other Ainur' (p. 174). Of particular interest is the passage (p. 165) in which a reason is given for Ulmo's choice of a Man as the agent of his designs: 'Now Melko was not much afraid of the race of Men in those days of his great power, and for this reason did Ulmo work through one of this kindred for the better deceiving of Melko, seeing that no Valar and scarce any of the Eldar or Noldoli might stir unmarked of his vigilance.'
This is the only place where a reason is expressly offered, save for an isolated early note, where two reasons are given: (1) 'the wrath of the Gods' (i.e. against the Gnomes); (2) 'Melko did not fear Men -- had he thought that any messengers were getting to Valinor he would have redoubled his vigilance and evil and hidden the Gnomes away utterly.' (* It also seems to be at variance with the story that all Men were shut in Hithlum by Melko's decree after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears; but 'wanderings' isa strange word in the context, since the next words are 'for Melko ringeth them in the Land of Shadows'.)
But this is too oblique to be helpful. The conception of 'the luck of the Gods' occurs again in this tale (pp. 188, 200 note 32), as it does in the Tale of Turambar: see p. 141. The Ainur 'put it into Tuor's heart' to climb the cliff out of the ravine of Golden Cleft for the saving of his life (p. 151). Very strange is the passage concerning the birth of Earendel (p. 165): 'In these days came to pass the fulfilment of the time of the desire of the Valar and the hope of the Eldalie, for in great love Idril bore to Tuor a son and he was called Earendel.' Is it to be understood that the union of Elf and mortal Man, and the birth of their offspring, was 'the desire of the Valar' -- that the Valar foresaw it, or hoped for it, as the fulfilment of a design of Iluvatar from which great good should come? There is no hint or suggestion of such an idea elsewhere. (iii) Orcs. There is a noteworthy remark in the tale (p. 159) concerning the origin of the Orcs (or Orqui as they were called in Tuor A, and in Tuor B as first written): 'all that race were bred of the subterranean heats and slime.'
There is no trace yet of the later view that 'naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindale before the Beginning', or that the Orcs were derived from enslaved Quendi after the Awakening (The Silmarillion p. 50). Conceivably there is a first hint of this idea of their origin in the words of the tale in the same passage: 'unless it be that certain of,the Noldoli were twisted to the evil of Melko and mingled among these Orcs', although of course this is as it stands quite distinct from the idea that the Orcs were actually bred from Elves. Here also occurs the name Glamhoth of the Orcs, a name that reappears in the later Tuor (pp. 39 and 54 note 18). On Balrogs and Dragons in The Fall of Gondolin see pp. 212 -- 13. (iv) Noldorin in the Land of Willows. 'Did not even after the days of Tuor Noldorin and his E1dar come there seeking for Dor Lomin and the hidden river and the caverns of the Gnomes' imprisonment; yet thus nigh to their quest's end were like to abandon it? Indeed sleeping and dancing here... they were whelmed by the goblins sped by Melko from the Hills of Iron and Noldorin made bare escape thence' (p. 154).
This was the Battle of Tasarinan, mentioned in the Tale of Turambar (pp. 70, 140), at the time of the great expedition of the Elves from Kor. Cf. Lindo's remark in The Cottage of Lost Play (I. 16) that his father Valwe 'went with Noldorin to find the Gnomes'. Noldorin (Salmar, companion of Ulmo) is also said in the tale to have fought beside Tulkas at the Pools of Twilight against Melko himself, though his name was struck out (p. 195 and note 38); this was after the Battle of Tasarinan. On these battles see pp. 278 ff. (v) The stature of Elves and Men. The passage concerning Tuor's stature on p. 159, before it was rewritten (see note 18), can only mean that while Tuor was not himself unusually tall for a Man he was nonetheless taller than the Elves of Gondolin, and thus agrees with statements made in the Tale of Turambar (see p. 142). As emended, however, the meaning is rather that Men and Elves were not greatly distinct in stature. (vi) Isfin and Eol. The earliest version of this tale is found in the little Lost Tales notebook (see I. 171), as follows: Isfin and Eol. Isfin daughter of Fingolma loved from afar by Eol (Arval) of the Mole-kin of the Gnomes. He is strong and in favour with Fingolma and with the Sons of Feanor (to whom he is akin) because he is a leader of the Miners and searches after hidden jewels, but he is illfavoured and Isfin loathes him.
(Fingolma as a name for Finwe Noleme appears in outlines for Gilfanon's Tale, I.238-9.) We have here an illfavoured miner named Eol 'of the Mole' who loves Isfin but is rejected by her with loathing; and this is obviously closely parallel to the illfavoured miner Meglin with the sign of the sable mole seeking the hand of Idril, who rejects him, in The Fall of Gondolin. It is difficult to know how to interpret this. The simplest explanation is that the story adumbrated in the little notebook is actually earlier than that in The Fall of Condolin; that Meglin did not yet exist; and that subsequently the image of the 'ugly miner -- unsuccessful suitor' became that of the son, the object of desire becoming Idril (niece of Isfin), while a new story was developed for the father, Eol the dark Elf of the forest who ensnared Isfin. But it is by no means clear where Eol the miner was when he 'loved from afar' Isfin daughter of Fingolma.
There seems to be no reason to think that he was associated with Gondolin; more probably the idea of the miner bearing the sign of the Mole entered Gondolin with Meglin.
The long tunnel which Tuor and Voronwe traverse in the tale leads them at length not only to the Guard but also to sunlight, and they are 'at the foot of steep hills' and can see the city: in other words there is a simple conception of a plain, a ring-wall of mountains, and a tunnel through them leading to the outer world. In the later Tuor the approach to the city is much stranger: for the tunnel of the Guard leads to the ravine of Orfalch Echor, a great rift from top to bottom of the Encircling Mountains ('sheer as if axe- cloven', p. 46), up which the road climbed through the successive gates until it came to the Seventh Gate, barring the rift at the top. Only when this last gate was opened and Tuor passed through was he able to see Gondolin; and we must suppose (though the narrative does not reach this point) that the travellers had to descend again from the Seventh Gate in order to reach the plain. It is notable that Tuor and Voronwe are received by the Guard without any of the suspicion and menace that greeted them in the later story (p. 45). (iii) Tuor in Condolin (pp. 159 -- 64). With this section of the narrative compare The Silmarillion, p. 126: Behind the circle of the mountains the people of Turgon grew and throve, and they put forth their skill in labour unceasing, so that Gondolin upon Amon Gwareth became fair indeed and fit to compare even with Elven Tirion beyond the sea. High and white were its walls, and smooth its stairs, and tall and strong was the Tower of the King. There shining fountains played, and in the courts of Turgon stood images of the Trees of old, which Turgon himself wrought with elven-craft; and the Tree which he made of gold was named Glingal, and the Tree whose flowers he made of silver was named Belthil.
The image of Gondolin was enduring, and it reappears in the glimpses given in notes for the continuation of the later Tuor (Unfinished Tales p. 56): the stairs up to its high platform, and its great gate... the Place of the Fountain, the King's tower on a pillared arcade, the King's house...' Indeed the only real difference that emerges from the original account concerns the Trees of Gondolin, which in the former were unfading, 'shoots of old from the glorious Trees of Valinor', but in The Silmarillion were images made of the precious metals. On the Trees of Gondolin see the entries Bansil and Glingol from the Name-list, given below pp. 214 -- 16. The gift by the Gods of these 'shoots' (which 'blossomed eternally without abating') to Inwe and Noleme at the time of the building of Kor, each being given a shoot of either Tree, is mentioned in The Coming of the Elves (I. 123), and in The Hiding of Valinor there is a reference to the uprooting of those given to No1eme, which 'were gone no one knew whither, and more had there never been' (1.2I3). But a deep underlying shift in the history of Gondolin separates the earlier and later accounts: for whereas in the Last Tales (and later) Gondolin was only discovered after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears when the host of Turgon retreated southwards down Sirion, in The Silmarillion it had been found by Turgon of Nevrast more than four hundred years before (442years before Tuor came to Gondolin in the Fell Winter after the fall of Nargothrond in the year 495 of the Sun).
In the tale my father imagined a great age passing between the Battle of Unnumbered Tears and the destruction of the city ('unstaying labour through ages of years had not sufficed to its building and adornment whereat folk travailed yet', p. 163); afterwards, with radical changes in the chronology of the First Age after the rising of the Sun and Moon, this period was reduced to no more than (in the last extant version of 'The Tale of Years' of the First Age) thirty-eight years. But the old conception can still be felt in the passage on p. 240 of The Silmarillion describing the withdrawal of the people of Gondolin from all concern with the world outside after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, with its air of long years passing.> In The Silmarillion it is explicit that Turgon devised the city to be 'a memorial of Tirion upon Tuna' (p. 125), and it became 'as beautiful as a memory of Elven Tirion' (p. 240). This is not said in the old story, and indeed in the Last Tales Turgon himself had never known Kor (he was born in the Great Lands after the return of the Noldoli from Valinor, I. 167, 238, 24o); one may feel nonetheless that the tower of the King, the fountains and stairs, the white marbles of Gondolin embody a recollection of Kor as it is described in The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kor (I. 122 -- 3). I have said above that 'despite the frequent reminder that Ulmo was guiding Tuor as the instrument of his designs, the essential element in the later legend of the arms left for him by Turgon on Ulmo's instruction is lacking'.
Now however we seem to see the germ of this conception in Turgon's words to Tuor (p. 161): 'Thy coming was set in our books of wisdom, and it has been written that there would come to pass many great things in the homes of the Gondothlim whenso thou faredst hither.' Yet it is clear from Tuor's reply that as yet the establishment of Gondolin was no part of Ulmo's design, since 'there have come to the ears of Ulmo whispers of your dwelling and your hill of vigilance against the evil of Melko, and he is glad'.
(* Of the story of Gondolin from Tuor's coming to its destruction my father wrote nothing after the version of 'The Silmarillion' made (very probably) in 1930; and in this the old conception of its history was still present. This was the basis for much of Chapter 23 in the published work.)
In the tale, Ulmo foresaw that Turgon would be unwilling to take up arms against Melko, and he fell back, through the mouth of Tuor, on a second counsel: that Turgon send Elves from Gondolin down Sirion to the coasts, there to build ships to carry messages to Valinor. To this Turgon replied, decisively and unanswerably, that he had sent messengers down the great river with this very purpose 'for years untold', and since all had been unavailing he would now do so no more. Now this clearly relates to a passage in The Silmarillion (p. 159) where it is said that Turgon, after the Dagor Bragollach and the breaking of the Siege of Angband, sent companies of the Gondolindrim in secret to the mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar. There they built ships, and set sail into the uttermost West upon Turgon's errand, seeking for Valinor, to ask for pardon and aid of the Valar; and they besought the birds of the sea to guide them. But the seas were wild and wide, and shadow and enchantment lay upon them; and Valinor was hidden. Therefore none of the messengers of Turgon came into the West, and many were lost and few returned. Turgon did indeed do so once more, after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (The Silmarillion p. 196), and the only survivor of that last expedition into the West was Voronwe of Gondolin.
Thus, despite profound changes in chronology and a great development in the narrative of the last centuries of the First Age, the idea of the desperate attempts of Turgon to get a message through to Valinor goes back to the beginning. Another aboriginal feature is that Turgon had no son; but (curiously) no mention whatsoever is made in the tale of his wife, the mother of Idril. In The Silmarillion (p. go) his wife Elenwe was lost in the crossing of the Helcaraxe, but obviously this story belongs to a later period, when Turgon was born in Valinor. The tale of Tuor's sojourn in Gondolin survived into the brief words of ?he Silmarillion (p. 241): And Tuor remained in Gondolin, for its bliss and its beauty and the wisdom of its people held him enthralled; and he became mighty in stature and in mind, and learned deeply of the lore of the exiled Elves. In the present tale he 'heard tell of Iluvatar, the Lord for Always, who dwelleth beyond the world', and of the Music of the Ainur. Knowledge of the very existence of Iluvatar was, it seems, a prerogative of the Elves; long afterwards in the garden of Mar Vanwa Tyalieva (I. 49) Eriol asked Rumil: 'Who was Iluvatar? Was he of the Gods?' and Rumil answered: 'Nay, that he was not; for he made them. Iluvatar is the Lord for Always, who dwells beyond the world.'
(iv) The encirclement of Condolin; the treachery of Meglin (pp. 164 -- 71). The king's daughter was from the first named 'Idril of the Silver Feet' (Irilde in the language of the 'Eldar', note 22); Meglin (later Maeglin) was his nephew, though the name of his mother (Turgon's sister) Isfin was later changed. In this section of the narrative the story in The Silmarillion (pp. 241 -- 2) preserved all the essentials of the original version, with one major exception. The wedding of Tuor and Idril took place with the consent and full favour of the king, and there was great joy in Gondolin among all save Maeglin (whose love of Idril is told earlier in The Silmarillion, p. 139, where the barrier of his being close kin to her, not mentioned in the tale, is emphasised). Idril's power of foreseeing and her foreboding of evil to come; the secret way of her devising (but in the tale this led south from the city, and the Eagles' Cleft was in the southern mountains); the loss of Meglin in the hills while seeking for ore; his capture by Orcs, his treacherous purchase of life, and his return to Gondolin to avert suspicion (with the detail of his changed mood thereafter and 'smiling face') -- all this remained.
Much is of course absent (whether rejected or merely passed over) in the succinct account devised for The Silmarillion -- where there is no mention, for example, of Idril's dream concerning Meglin, the watch set on him when he went to the hills, the formation on Idril's advice of a guard bearing Tuor's emblem, the refusal of Turgon to doubt the invulnerability of the city and his trust in Meglin, Meglin's discovery of the secret way,*or the remarkable story that it was Meglin himself who conceived the idea of the monsters of fire and iron and communicated it to Melko -- a valuable defector indeed! The great difference between the versions lies of course in the nature of Melko/Morgoth's knowledge of Gondolin. In the tale, he had by means of a vast army of spies t already discovered it before ever Meglin was captured, and creatures of Melko had found the 'Way of Escape' and looked down on Gondolin from the surrounding heights.
Meglin's treachery in the old story lay in his giving an exact account of the structure of the city and the preparations made for its defence -- and in his advice to Melko concerning the monsters of flame. In The Silmarillion, on the other hand, there is the element, devised much later, of the unconscious betrayal by Hurin to Morgoth's spies of the general region in which Gondolin must be sought, in 'the mountainous land between (* This is in fact specifically denied in The Silmarillion: 'she contrived it that the work was known but to few, and no whisper of it came to Maeglin's ears.' f It seems that the 'creatures of blood' (said to be disliked by the people of Gondolin, p. 166), snakes, wolves, weasels, owls, falcons, are here regarded as the natural servants and allies of Melko.)
Anach and the upper waters of Sirion, whither [Morgoth's] servants had never passed' (p. 241); but 'still no spy or creature out of Angband could come there because of the vigilance of the eagles' -- and of this role of the eagles of the Encircling Mountains (though hostile to Melko, p. 193) there is in the original story no suggestion. Thus in The Silmarillion Morgoth remained in ignorance until Maeglin's capture of the precise location of Gondolin, and Maeglin's information was of correspondingly greater value to him, as it was also of greater damage to the city. The history of the last years of Gondolin has thus a somewhat different atmosphere in the tale, for the Gondothlim are informed of the fact that Melko has 'encompassed the vale of Tumladin around' (p. 167), and Turgon makes preparations for war and strengthens the watch on the hills. The withdrawal of all Melko's spies shortly before the attack on Gondolin did indeed bring about a renewal of optimism among the Gondothlim, and in Turgon not least, so that when the attack came the people were unprepared; but in the later story the shock of the sudden assault is much greater, for there has never been any reason to suppose that the city is in immediate danger, and Idril's foreboding is peculiar to herself and more mysterious.
(v) The array of the Condothlim (pp. 171 -- 4). Though the central image of this part of the story -- the people of Gondolin looking out from their walls to hail the rising sun on the feast of the Gates of Summer, but seeing a red light rising in the north and not in the east -- survived, of all the heraldry in this passage scarcely anything is found in later writings. Doubtless, if my father had continued the later Tuor, much would have re-emerged, however changed, if we judge by the rich 'heraldic' descriptions of the great gates and their guards in the Orfalch Echor (pp. 46 -- 50). But in the concise account in The Silmarillion the only vestiges are the titles Ecthelion 'of the Fountain'* and Glorfindel 'chief of the House of the Golden Flower of Gondolin'. Ecthelion and Glorfindel are named also in The Silmarillion (p. 194) as Turgon's captains who guarded the Hanks of the host of Gondolin in their retreat down Sirion from the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, but of other captains named in the tale there is no mention afterwards + -- though it is significant that the eighteenth Ruling Steward of Gondor was named Egalmoth, as the (* In the later Tuor (p. 50) he is 'Lord o( the Fountains', plural (the reading in the manuscript is certain).
In the version o( 'The Silmarillion' made in 1930 (see footnote on p. 208), the last account of the Fall of Gondolin to bc written and the basis for that in chapter 23 of the published work, the text actually reads: '... much is told in The Fall of Gondolin: of the death of Rog without the walls, and of the battle of Ecthelion of the Fountain ', &c. I removed the reference to Rog (The Silmarillion p. 242) on the grounds that it was absolutely certain that my father would not have retained this name as that of a lord of Gondolin.) seventeenth and twenty-fifth were named Ecthelion (The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A (1,ii)).* Glorfindel 'of the golden hair' (p. 192) remains 'yellow-haired Glorfindel' in The Silmarillion, and this was from the beginning the meaning of his name. (vi) The battle of Condolin (pp. 174-88). Virtually the entire history of the fighting in Gondolin is unique in the tale of The Fall of Condolin; the whole story is summarised in The Silmarillion (p. 242) in a few lines: Of the deeds of desperate valour there done, by the chieftains of the noble houses and their warriors, and not least by Tuor, much is told in The Fall of Condolin: of the battle of Ecthelion of the Fountain with Gothmog Lord of Balrogs in the very square of the King, where each slew the other, and of the defence of the tower of Turgon by the people of his household, until the tower was overthrown: and mighty was its fall and the fall of Turgon in its ruin.
Tuor sought to rescue Idril from the sack of the city, but Maeglin had laid hands on her, and on Earendil; and Tuor fought with Maeglin on the walls, and cast him far out, and his body as it fell smote the rocky slopes of Amon Gwareth thrice ere it pitched into the flames below. Then Tuor and Idril led such remnants of the people of Gondolin as they could gather in the confusion of the burning down the secret way which Idril had prepared. (In this highly compressed account the detail that Maeglin's body struck the slopes of Amon Gwareth three times before it 'pitched' into the flames was retained.) It would seem from The Silmarillion account that Maeglin's attempt on Idril and Earendil took place much later in the fighting, and indeed shortly before the escape of the fugitives down the tunnel; but I think that this is far more likely to be the result of compression than of a change in the narrative of the battle. In the tale Gondolin is very clearly visualised as a city, with its markets and its great squares, of which there are only vestiges in later writing (see above, p. 207); and there is nothing vague in the description of the fighting. The early conception of the Balrogs makes them less terrible, and certainly more destructible, than they afterwards became: they (*In a very late note written on one of the texts that constitute chapter 16 of The Silmarillion ('Of Maeglin') my father was thinking of making the 'three lords of his household' whom Turgon appointed to ride with Aredhel from Gondolin (p. 131) Glorfindel, Ecthelion, and Egalmoth.
He notes that Ecthelion and Egalmoth 'are derived from the primitive F[all of] G[ondolin]', but that they 'are well soundinga and have been in print' (with reference to the names of the Stewards of Gondor). Subsequently he decided against naming Aredhel's escort.) existed in 'hundreds' (p. 170),* and were slain by Tuor and the Gondothlim in large numbers: thus five fell before Tuor's great axe Dramborleg, three before Ecthelion's sword, and two score were slain by the warriors of the king's house. The Balrogs are 'demons of power' (p. 181); they are capable of pain and fear (p. 194); they are attired in iron armour (pp. 181, 194), and they have whips of flame (a character they never lost) and claws of steel (pp. 169, 179). In The Silmarillion the dragons that came against Gondolin were 'of the brood of Glaurung', which 'were become now many and terrible'; whereas in the tale the language employed (p. 170) suggests that some at least of the 'Monsters' were inanimate 'devices', the construction of smiths in the forges of Angband. But even the 'things of iron' that 'opened about their middles' to disgorge bands of Orcs are called 'ruthless beasts', and Gothmog 'bade' them 'pile themselves' (p. 176); those made of bronze or copper 'were given hearts and spirits of blazing fire'; while the 'fire-drake' that Tuor hewed screamed and lashed with its tail (p. 181).
A small detail of the narrative is curious: what 'messengers' did Meglin send to Melko to warn him to guard the outer entrance of the Way of Escape (where he guessed that the secret tunnel must lead in the end)? Whom could Meglin trust sufficiently? And who would dare to go? (vii) The escape of the fugitives and the battle in Cristhorn (pp. 188 -- 95). The story as told in The Silmarillion (p. 243) is somewhat fuller in its account of the escape of the fugitives from the city and the ambush in the Eagles' Cleft (there called Cirith Thoronath) than in that of the assault and sack itself, but only in one point are the two narratives actually at variance -- as already noticed, the Eagles' Cleft was afterwards moved from the southern parts of the Encircling Mountains to the northern, and Idril's tunnel led north from the city (the comment is made that it was not thought 'that any fugitives would take a path towards the north and the highest parts of the mountains and the nighest to Angband'). The tale provides a richness of detail and an immediacy that is lacking in the short version, where such things as the tripping over dead bodies in the hot and reeking underground passage have disappeared; and there is no mention of the Gondothlim who against the counsel of Idril and Tuor went to the Way of Escape and were there destroyed by the dragon lying in wait, f' or of the fight to rescue Earendel.
(* The idea that Morgoth disposed of a 'host' of Balrogs endured long, but in a late note my father said that only very few ever existed -- 'at most seven'. + This element in the story was in fact still present in the 1930 'Silmarillion' (see footnote on p.208), but I excluded it from the published work on account of evidence in a much later text that the old entrance to Gondolin had by this time been blocked up -- a fact which was then written into the text in chapter 23 of The Silmarillion.
In the tale appears the keen-sighted Elf Legolas Greenleaf, first of the names of the Fellowship of the Ring to appear in my father's writings (see p. 217 on this earlier Legolas), followed by Gimli (an Elf) in the Tale of Tinuviel. In one point the story of the ambush in Cristhorn seems difficult to follow: this is the statement on p. 193 that the moon 'lit not the path for the height of the walls'. The fugitives were moving southwards through the Encircling Mountains, and the sheer rockwall above the path in the Eagles' Cleft was 'of the right or westerly hand', while on the left there was 'a fall... dreadly steep'. Surely then the moon rising in the east would illuminate the path? The name Cristhorn appears in my father's drawing of 'Gondolin and the Vale of Tumladin from Cristhorn', September 1928 (Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, 1979, no. 35). (viii) The wanderings of the Exiles of Condolin (pp. 195 -- 7). In The Silmarillion (p. 243) it is said that 'led by Tuor son of Huor the remnant of Gondolin passed over the mountains, and came down into the Vale of Sirion'. One would suppose that they came down into Dimbar, and so 'fleeing southward by weary and dangerous marches they came at length to Nan-tathren, the Land of Willows'.
It seems strange in the tale that the exiles were wandering in the wilderness for more than a year, and yet achieved only to the outer entrance of the Way of Escape; but the geography of this region may have been vaguer when The Fall of Condolin was written. In The Silmarillion when Tuor and Idril went down from Nan- tathren to the mouths of Sirion they 'joined their people to the company of Elwing, Dior's daughter, that had fled thither but a little while before'. Of this there is no mention here; but I postpone consideration of this part of the narrative. Entries in the Name-list to The Fall of Condolin On this list see p. 148, where the head-note to it is given. Specifically linguistic information from the list, including meanings, is incorporated in the Appendix on Names, but I collect here some statements of other kind (arranged in alphabetical order) that are contained in it.
Bablon 'was a city of Men, and more rightly Babylon, but such is the Gnomes' name as they now shape it, and they got it from Men aforetime.' Bansil 'Now this name had the Gondothlim for that tree before their king's door which bore silver blossom and faded not -- and its name had Elfriniel from his father Voronwe; and it meaneth "Fairgleam". Now that tree of which it was a shoot (brought in the deep ages out of Valinor by the Noldoli) had like properties, but greater, seeing that for half the twenty-four hours it lit all Valinor with silver light. This the Eldar still tell of as Silpion or "Cherry-moon", for its blossom was like that of a cherry in spring -- but of that tree in Gondolin they know no name, and the Noldoli tell of it alone.' Dor Lomin 'or the "Land of Shadows" was that region named of the Eldar Hisilome (and this means Shadowy Twilights) where Melko shut Men, and it is so called by reason of the scanty sun which peeps little over the Iron Mountains to the east and south of it-there dwell now the Shadow Folk. Thence came Tuor to Gondolin.' Earendel 'was the son of Tuor and Idril and 'tis said the only being that is half of the kindred of the Eldalie and half of Men. He was the greatest and first of all mariners among Men, and saw regions that Men have not yet found nor gazed upon for all the multitude of their boats.
He rideth now with Voronwe upon the winds of the firmament nor comes ever further back than Kor, else would he die like other Men, so much of the mortal is in him.' (For these last statements about Earendel see pp. 264-5. The statement that Earendel was 'the only being that is half of the kindred of the Eldalie and half of Men' is very notable. Presumably this was written when Beren was an Elf, not a Man (see p. 139); Dior son of Beren and Tinuviel appears in the Tale of the Nasglafring, but there Beren is an Elf, and Dior is not Half-elven. In the tale of The Fall of Gondolin itself it is said, but in a later replacement passage (p. 164 and note 22), that Tuor was the first but not the last to wed 'a daughter of Elfinesse'. On the extraordinary statement in the Tale of Turambar that Tamar Lamefoot was Half-elven see p. 130.) Ecthelion 'was that lord of the house of the Fountain, who had the fairest voice and was most skilled in musics of all the Gondothlim. He won renown for ever by his slaying of Gothmog son of Melko, whereby Tuor was saved from death but Ecthelion was drowned with his foe in the king's fountain.'
Egalmoth was 'lord of the house of the Heavenly Arch, and got even out of the burning of Gondolin, and dwelt after at the mouth of Sirion, but was slain in a dire battle there when Melko seized Elwing'. (See p. 258.) Galdor 'was that valiant Gnome who led the men of the Tree in many a charge and yet won out of Gondolin and even the onslaught of Melko upon the dwellers at Sirion's mouth and went back to the ruins with Earendel. He dwelleth yet in Tol Eressea (said Elfriniel), and still do some of his folk name themselves Nos Galdon, for Galdon is a tree, and thereto Galdor's name akin.' The last phrase was emended to read: 'Nos nan Alwen, for Alwen is a Tree.'
(For Galdor's return to the ruins of Gondolin with Earendel see P- 258.) Glingol 'meaneth "singing-gold" ('tis said), and this name was that which the Gondothlim had for that other of the two unfading trees in the king's square which bore golden bloom. It also was a shoot from the trees of Valinor (see rather where Elfrith has spoken of Bansil), but of Lindelokte (which is "singing-cluster") or Laurelin [emended from Lindelaure] (which is "singing-gold") which lit all Valinor with golden light for half the 24 hours.' (For the name Lindelokte see I. 22, 258 (entry Lindelos).) Clorfindel 'led the Golden Flower and was the best beloved of the Gondothlim, save it be Ecthelion, but who shall choose.
Yet he was hapless and fell slaying a Balrog in the great fight in Cristhorn. His name meaneth Goldtress for his hair was golden, and the name of his house in Noldorissa Los'loriol' (emended from Los Gloriol). Gondolin 'meaneth stone of song (whereby figuratively the Gnomes meant stone that was carven and wrought to great beauty), and this was the name most usual of the Seven Names they gave to their city of secret refuge from Melko in those days before the release.' Gothmog 'was a son of Melko and the ogress Fluithuin and his name is Strife-and-hatred, and he was Captain of the Balrogs and lord of Melko's hosts ere fair Ecthelion slew him at the taking of Gondolin. The Eldar named him Kosmoko or Kosomok(o), but 'tis a name that fitteth their tongue no way and has an ill sound even in our own rougher speech, said Elfrith [emended fmm Elfriniel].' (In a list of names of the Valar associated with the tale of The Coming of the Valar (I. 93) it is said that Melko had a son 'by Ulbandi' called Kosomot; the early 'Qenya' dictionary gives Kosomoko = Gnomish Gothmog, I.258.
In the tale Gothmog is called the 'marshal' of the hosts of Melko (p. 184).) In the later development of the legends Gothmog was the slayer of Feanor, and in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears it was he who slew Fingon and captured Hurin (The Silmarillion pp. IO7, I93, 195). He is not of course called later son of Melkor -, the Children of the Valar' was a feature of the earlier mythology that my father discarded. In the Third Age Gothmog was the name of the lieutenant of Minas Morgul (The Return of the King V.6).) Hendor 'was a house-carle of Idril's and was aged, but bore Earendel down the secret passage.' Idril 'was that most fair daughter of the king of Gondolin whom Tuor loved when she was but a little maid, and who bare him Earendel. Her the Elves name Irilde; and we speak of as Idril Tal-Celeb or Idril of the Silver Feet, but they Irilde Taltelepta.' See the Appendix on Names, entry Idril.
Indor 'was the name of the father of Tuor's father, wherefore did the Gnomes name Earendel Gon Indor and the Elves Indorildo or Indorion.' Legolas 'or Green-leaf was a man of the Tree, who led the exiles over Tumladin in the dark, being night-sighted, and he liveth still in Tol Eressea named by the Eldar there Laiqalasse; but the book of Rumil saith further hereon.' (See I. 267, entry Tari-Laisi.) $3 Miscellaneous Matters. (i) The geography of The Fall of Gondolin. I have noticed above (p. 205) that in Tuor's journey all along the coast of what was afterwards Beleriand to the mouths of Sirion there is an unquestionable resemblance to the later map, in the trend of the coast from north-south to east-west. It is also said that after he left Falasquil 'the distant hills marched ever nearer to the margin of the sea', and that the spurs of the Iron Mountains 'run even to the sea' (pp. 152-3). These statements can likewise be readily enough related to the map, where the long western extension of the Mountains of Shadow (Ered Wethrin), forming the southern border of Nevrast, reached the sea at Vinyamar (for the equation of the Mountains of Iron and the Mountains of Shadow see I. III -- 12). Arlisgion, 'the place of reeds' (p. 153) above the mouths of Sirion, survived in Lisgardh 'the land of reeds at the Mouths of Sirion' in the later Tuor (p. 34); and the feature that the great river passed underground for a part of its course goes back to the earliest period, as does that of the Meres of Twilight, Aelin-uial ('the Pools of Twilight', p. 195).
There is here however a substantial difference in the tale from?he Silmarillion (p. 122), where Aelin-uial was the region of great pools and marshes where 'the flood of Sirion was stayed', south of the Meres the river 'fell from the north in a mighty fall... and then he plunged suddenly underground into great tunnels that the weight of his falling waters delved'. Here on the other hand the Pools of Twilight are clearly below the 'cavern of the Tumultuous Winds' (never mentioned later) where Sirion dives underground. But the Land of Willows, below the region of Sirion's underground passage, is placed as it was to remain. Thus the view I expressed (p. 141) of the geographical indications in the Tale of Turambar can be asserted also of those of The Fall of Gondolin. (ii) Ulmo and the other Valar in The Fall of Condolin. In the speech of Tuor inspired by Ulmo that he uttered at his first meeting with Turgon (p. 161) he said: 'the hearts of the Valar are angered... seeing the sorrow of the thraldom of the Noldoli and the wanderings of Men.' This is greatly at variance with what is told in The Hiding of Valinor, especially the following (I. 208-- 9):* The most of the Valar moreover were fain of their ancient ease and desired only peace, wishing neither rumour of Melko and his violence nor murmur of the restless Gnomes to come ever again among them to disturb their happiness; and for such reasons they also clamoured for the concealment of the land.
Not the least among these were Vina and Nessa, albeit most even of the great Gods were of one mind. In vain did Ulmo of his foreknowing plead before them for pity and pardon on the Noldoli... Subsequently Tuor said (p. 161): 'the Gods sit in Valinor, though their mirth is minished for sorrow and fear of Melko, and they hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic that no evil come to its shores.' Turgon in his reply ironically echoed and altered the words: 'they that sit within [i.e. in Valinor] reck little of the dread of Melko or the sorrow of the world, but hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic, that no tidings of evil come ever to their ears.' How is this to be understood? Was this Ulmo's 'diplomacy'? Certainly Turgon's understanding of the motives of the Valar chimes better with what is said of them in The Hiding of Valinor. But the Gnomes of Gondolin reverenced the Valar. There were 'pomps of the Ainur' (p. 165); a great square of the city and its highest point was Gar Ainion, the Place of the Gods, where weddings were celebrated (pp. 164, 186); and the people of the Hammer of Wrath 'reverenced Aule the Smith more than all other Ainur' (p. 174). Of particular interest is the passage (p. 165) in which a reason is given for Ulmo's choice of a Man as the agent of his designs: 'Now Melko was not much afraid of the race of Men in those days of his great power, and for this reason did Ulmo work through one of this kindred for the better deceiving of Melko, seeing that no Valar and scarce any of the Eldar or Noldoli might stir unmarked of his vigilance.'
This is the only place where a reason is expressly offered, save for an isolated early note, where two reasons are given: (1) 'the wrath of the Gods' (i.e. against the Gnomes); (2) 'Melko did not fear Men -- had he thought that any messengers were getting to Valinor he would have redoubled his vigilance and evil and hidden the Gnomes away utterly.' (* It also seems to be at variance with the story that all Men were shut in Hithlum by Melko's decree after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears; but 'wanderings' isa strange word in the context, since the next words are 'for Melko ringeth them in the Land of Shadows'.)
But this is too oblique to be helpful. The conception of 'the luck of the Gods' occurs again in this tale (pp. 188, 200 note 32), as it does in the Tale of Turambar: see p. 141. The Ainur 'put it into Tuor's heart' to climb the cliff out of the ravine of Golden Cleft for the saving of his life (p. 151). Very strange is the passage concerning the birth of Earendel (p. 165): 'In these days came to pass the fulfilment of the time of the desire of the Valar and the hope of the Eldalie, for in great love Idril bore to Tuor a son and he was called Earendel.' Is it to be understood that the union of Elf and mortal Man, and the birth of their offspring, was 'the desire of the Valar' -- that the Valar foresaw it, or hoped for it, as the fulfilment of a design of Iluvatar from which great good should come? There is no hint or suggestion of such an idea elsewhere. (iii) Orcs. There is a noteworthy remark in the tale (p. 159) concerning the origin of the Orcs (or Orqui as they were called in Tuor A, and in Tuor B as first written): 'all that race were bred of the subterranean heats and slime.'
There is no trace yet of the later view that 'naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindale before the Beginning', or that the Orcs were derived from enslaved Quendi after the Awakening (The Silmarillion p. 50). Conceivably there is a first hint of this idea of their origin in the words of the tale in the same passage: 'unless it be that certain of,the Noldoli were twisted to the evil of Melko and mingled among these Orcs', although of course this is as it stands quite distinct from the idea that the Orcs were actually bred from Elves. Here also occurs the name Glamhoth of the Orcs, a name that reappears in the later Tuor (pp. 39 and 54 note 18). On Balrogs and Dragons in The Fall of Gondolin see pp. 212 -- 13. (iv) Noldorin in the Land of Willows. 'Did not even after the days of Tuor Noldorin and his E1dar come there seeking for Dor Lomin and the hidden river and the caverns of the Gnomes' imprisonment; yet thus nigh to their quest's end were like to abandon it? Indeed sleeping and dancing here... they were whelmed by the goblins sped by Melko from the Hills of Iron and Noldorin made bare escape thence' (p. 154).
This was the Battle of Tasarinan, mentioned in the Tale of Turambar (pp. 70, 140), at the time of the great expedition of the Elves from Kor. Cf. Lindo's remark in The Cottage of Lost Play (I. 16) that his father Valwe 'went with Noldorin to find the Gnomes'. Noldorin (Salmar, companion of Ulmo) is also said in the tale to have fought beside Tulkas at the Pools of Twilight against Melko himself, though his name was struck out (p. 195 and note 38); this was after the Battle of Tasarinan. On these battles see pp. 278 ff. (v) The stature of Elves and Men. The passage concerning Tuor's stature on p. 159, before it was rewritten (see note 18), can only mean that while Tuor was not himself unusually tall for a Man he was nonetheless taller than the Elves of Gondolin, and thus agrees with statements made in the Tale of Turambar (see p. 142). As emended, however, the meaning is rather that Men and Elves were not greatly distinct in stature. (vi) Isfin and Eol. The earliest version of this tale is found in the little Lost Tales notebook (see I. 171), as follows: Isfin and Eol. Isfin daughter of Fingolma loved from afar by Eol (Arval) of the Mole-kin of the Gnomes. He is strong and in favour with Fingolma and with the Sons of Feanor (to whom he is akin) because he is a leader of the Miners and searches after hidden jewels, but he is illfavoured and Isfin loathes him.
(Fingolma as a name for Finwe Noleme appears in outlines for Gilfanon's Tale, I.238-9.) We have here an illfavoured miner named Eol 'of the Mole' who loves Isfin but is rejected by her with loathing; and this is obviously closely parallel to the illfavoured miner Meglin with the sign of the sable mole seeking the hand of Idril, who rejects him, in The Fall of Gondolin. It is difficult to know how to interpret this. The simplest explanation is that the story adumbrated in the little notebook is actually earlier than that in The Fall of Condolin; that Meglin did not yet exist; and that subsequently the image of the 'ugly miner -- unsuccessful suitor' became that of the son, the object of desire becoming Idril (niece of Isfin), while a new story was developed for the father, Eol the dark Elf of the forest who ensnared Isfin. But it is by no means clear where Eol the miner was when he 'loved from afar' Isfin daughter of Fingolma.
There seems to be no reason to think that he was associated with Gondolin; more probably the idea of the miner bearing the sign of the Mole entered Gondolin with Meglin.
