The Fall of Gondolin

{{Short description|Literary work by J. R. R. Tolkien}} {{Use British English|date=April 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}} {{Infobox book | italic title = | name = The Fall of Gondolin | image = FallOfGondolin.png | caption = Front cover of the 2018 hardback edition,<br/>with a painting by Alan Lee | author = [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] | illustrator = [[Alan Lee (illustrator)|Alan Lee]] | cover_artist = Alan Lee | editor = [[Christopher Tolkien]] | country = United Kingdom | language = English | subject = [[Tolkien's legendarium]] | genre = [[High fantasy]] | publisher = [[HarperCollins]]<br/>[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] | published = 2018 | media_type = Print (hardback) | pages = 304<ref name="TolkienSociety100418"/> | isbn = 978-0008302757 | oclc = | dewey = | congress = | preceded_by = [[Beren and Lúthien]] | followed_by =  }}

'''''The Fall of Gondolin''''' is a 2018 book of [[fantasy]] fiction by [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], edited by [[Christopher Tolkien|his son Christopher]].<ref name="TolkienSociety100418"/><ref name="TolkienSociety2">{{cite news |url=https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/08/the-fall-of-gondolin-published/ |title=The Fall of Gondolin published|date=30 August 2018 |first=Daniel |last=Helen |publisher=Tolkien Society |access-date=30 August 2018}}</ref> The story is one of what Tolkien called the three "[[Great Tales]]" from the [[First Age]] of [[Middle-earth]]; the other two are ''[[Beren and Lúthien]]'' and ''[[The Children of Húrin]]''. All three stories are briefly summarised in the 1977 book ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', and all three have now been published as stand-alone books. A version of the story also appears in ''[[The Book of Lost Tales]]''. In the narrative, [[Gondolin]] was founded by King [[Turgon of Gondolin|Turgon]] in the [[First Age]]. The city was carefully hidden, enduring for centuries before being betrayed and destroyed. Written in 1917, it is one of the first stories of [[Tolkien's legendarium]].

== Text ==

[[File:GOTHMOG-1.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Gothmog]], High Captain of [[Angband (Middle-earth)|Angband]], at the storming of Gondolin. Illustration by [[Tom Loback]]]]

=== Origins ===

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 one of the first stories of his Middle-earth [[Tolkien's legendarium|legendarium]] that he wrote down on paper,<ref name="BBC1">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-43726236 |title=J.R.R. Tolkien's First Middle-Earth Story, The Fall of Gondolin, to Be Published |date=11 April 2018 |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=13 April 2018}}</ref> after his 1914 tale, inspired by the [[Old English]] manuscript [[Crist 1]], "The Voyage of Earendel, the Evening Star".{{sfn|Carpenter|1977|p=72}} While the first half of the story "appears to echo Tolkien's creative development and slow acceptance of duty in the first year of the war," the second half echoes [[J. R. R. Tolkien#Battle of the Somme|his personal experience of battle]].<ref>{{cite book |title=[[Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth]] |first=John |last=Garth |author-link=John Garth (author) |page=217 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |location=Boston |year=2013 |isbn=978-0544263727}}</ref> The story was read aloud by Tolkien to the [[Exeter College, Oxford|Exeter College]] Essay Club in the spring of 1920.<ref name="BOLT2 Fall of Gondolin">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1984b}} "The Fall of Gondolin"</ref>

Tolkien was constantly revising his [[First Age]] 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.<ref name="BOLT2 Fall of Gondolin"/>

=== Publication of versions of the story ===

The narrative "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin" in the 1977 book ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' was the result of the editing by his son [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher]]{{sfn|Tolkien|1977|loc="Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin"}} using the 1917 narrative (minus some elements all too obviously evocative of [[World War I]] warfare) and compressed versions from the different versions of the ''Annals'' and ''Quentas'' as additional sources. The later ''[[Quenta Silmarillion]]'' and the ''[[Grey Annals]]'', 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 1980 book ''[[Unfinished Tales]]'' 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 and Idril|Tuor]]'s arrival in [[Gondolin]], and does not depict the actual Fall.{{sfn|Tolkien|1980|loc="Part One: The First Age": "Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin"}}

There is also an unfinished poem, ''The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin'', of which a few verses are quoted in the 1985 book ''[[The Lays of Beleriand]]''. In 130 verses Tolkien reaches the point where [[Dragon (Middle-earth)|dragons]] attack the city.

== Book ==

=== Publication history ===

In 2018,<ref name="TolkienSociety100418">{{cite web |url=https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/04/the-fall-of-gondolin-to-be-published/ |title=The Fall of Gondolin to be published |date=10 April 2018 |first=Daniel |last=Helen |publisher=Tolkien Society |access-date=18 April 2018}}</ref> the first stand-alone version of the story was published by [[HarperCollins]] in the UK<ref name="TolkienSociety100418" /> and [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin]] in the US.<ref name="TolkienSociety100418" /> This version, illustrated by [[Alan Lee (illustrator)|Alan Lee]], was curated and edited by Christopher Tolkien,<ref name="TolkienSociety100418" /> J. R. R. Tolkien's son, who also edited ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', ''[[Unfinished Tales]]'', and the twelve-volume ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]''.<ref name=BBC1/>

=== Contents ===

* Prologue * The Original Tale * The Earliest Text * "Turin and the Exiles of Gondolin" * The Story Told in the ''Sketch of the Mythology'' * The Story Told in the ''Quenta Noldorinwa'' * The Last Version * The Evolution of the Story * Conclusion

The book ends with a list of names, additional notes, and a glossary.

== Reception ==

=== By Tolkien scholars ===

Douglas Kane writes in ''[[Journal of Tolkien Research]]'' that ''The Fall of Gondolin'' was the first of Tolkien's three "Great Tales" to be written, and the last to be published, the other two being the Great Tale of Túrin Turambar (published in ''[[The Children of Húrin]]'', 2007, edited into a continuous story) and ''[[Beren and Lúthien]]'' (2017, presented as a set of versions of the story). That left the tale which was "arguably the one in which the world of Middle-earth is most vividly presented and in which Tolkien’s philosophical themes are most profoundly expressed."<ref name="Kane 2018">{{cite journal |last=Kane |first=Douglas Charles |year=2018 |title=[Review:] The Fall of Gondolin (2018) by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien |journal=[[Journal of Tolkien Research]] |volume=6 |issue=2 |at=Article 1 |url=https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol6/iss2/1 }}</ref> Kane adds that although the book collects material already published, "it still succeeds in rounding out that task", for instance by putting the "Sketch of the Mythology" in the prologue. He wonders, though, why the editor included part of the poem "The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor" (already in ''The Lays of Beleriand''), but omits the poem fragment "The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin" which is far more obviously relevant. Kane admires Alan Lee's illustrations, both in colour and in black and white, as [[Illustrating Tolkien|providing "a perfect complement" to the final book]] in the "unique and remarkable" collaboration between Christopher Tolkien and his father.<ref name="Kane 2018"/>

Jennifer Rogers, reviewing the book for ''[[Tolkien Studies]]'', writes that it "highlights the power of the Gondolin story in its own right with minimal editorial intrusion."<ref name="Rogers 2019">{{cite journal |last=Rogers |first=Jennifer |title=[Review] The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R Tolkien |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=16 |issue=1 |year=2019 |doi=10.1353/tks.2019.0013 |pages=170–174|s2cid=211969055 }}</ref> As Tolkien's first tale and the last one to be published by his son, the book is "laden with the sense of weight such a publication brings", taking the reader back to the place where [[Tolkien's legendarium|the whole Legendarium]] began, the story about [[Eärendel]] (later called Eärendil).<ref name="Rogers 2019"/>

=== In newspapers ===

According to ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'', "Patient and dedicated readers will find among the references to other books and their many footnotes and appendices a poignant sense of completion and finality to the life's pursuit of a father and son."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Lewis |first=Evan |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |title=''The Fall of Gondolin'' is an indispensable examination of Tolkien's first Middle-earth story: EW review |url=https://ew.com/books/2018/08/25/fall-of-gondolin-tolkien-review/ |date=25 August 2018 |access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref> Writing for ''[[The Washington Post]]'', writer [[Andrew Ervin]] said that "''The Fall of Gondolin'' provides everything Tolkien's readers expect."<ref>{{cite news |last=Ervin |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Ervin |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |title=J.R.R. Tolkien's latest posthumous book may actually be the last |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/jrr-tolkiens-latest-posthumous-book-may-actually-be-the-last/2018/08/26/f3d95e20-a556-11e8-8fac-12e98c13528d_story.html |date=28 August 2018 |access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref> According to ''[[The Independent]]'', "Even amid the complexities and difficulties of the book—and there are many—there is enough splendid imagery and characterful prose that readers will be carried along to the end even if they don't know where they are going."<ref>{{cite news |last=Griffin |first=Andrew |journal=[[The Independent]] |title=JRR Tolkien, The Fall of Gondolin review: A vast and fitting last look at Middle Earth |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/jrr-tolkien-fall-of-gondolin-review-latest-last-book-christopher-harper-collins-a8516571.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/jrr-tolkien-fall-of-gondolin-review-latest-last-book-christopher-harper-collins-a8516571.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |date=31 August 2018 |access-date=18 April 2020}}</ref>

==See also== * [[Middle-earth canon]]

==References== {{reflist|28em}}

=== Sources ===

* {{ME-ref|Carpenter}}  * {{ME-ref|Silm}}  * {{Me-ref|UT}}  * {{Me-ref|BoLT2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fall Of Gondolin}} [[Category:Books published posthumously]] [[Category:Middle-earth books]] [[Category:2018 fantasy novels]] [[Category:English fantasy novels]] [[Category:HarperCollins books]]