The Fall of Gondolin was the battle between the forces of Gondolin under King Turgon and Morgoth, after Maeglin had betrayed the city's hidden location to the enemy. This battle took the lives of most of the Gondolindrim, and of Turgon and his captains. However, some few managed to escape the through a secret passage, notably Tuor, Idril, and their son Eärendil.
History
When the Ñoldor cities of Beleriand fell to the wrath of Morgoth one by one, Gondolin, hidden within the Crissaegrim, remained as the last bastion of hope for those who opposed him. But in FA 551, Turgon's nephew, Maeglin, secretly lusting after his cousin Idril and afterwards, failing to receive her love, divulged the secrets of Gondolin and its passes to Morgoth, who then orchestrated the assault for many years before finally unleashing his armies upon the unprepared Elves. Due to information passed by Maeglin, Morgoth's forces managed to surround the city without being detected, coming over the Encircling Mountains at the point where the watch was least vigilant and during a time of festival. By the time the Elves became aware of them, the city was under siege, and there was no hope of victory or escape on the part of the defenders.
For many days the Elves of Gondolin held their ranks and the city. The battles that raged beneath its walls were bloody and terrible - courageous leaders and warriors, most predominantly Ecthelion and Tuor, became legends, and later songs and epic poems would be written about them. Swords such as Orcrist and Glamdring earned their reputations here, and became feared among orcs.
However, Morgoth's armies were too numerous and powerful for the Elves to overcome, as they were comprised not only of Orcs and other mundane Dark creatures, but of Balrogs and an entire brood of Dragons fathered by Glaurung. The defenders of the city managed to leave their mark on the attackers, slaying at least two Balrogs, one of whom was Gothmog himself, but ultimately, the battle was a complete and decisive victory for Morgoth. With Gondolin's fall, the last of the great Elven kingdoms in Middle-earth was destroyed, and with it was destroyed any terrestrial hope of resisting Morgoth's power.
Canon
The Fall of Gondolin is the third of the Great Tales, but was the first written by Tolkien, and is the second most complete of the tales (after The Children of Húrin, and is less fractured than the materials used to make up Beren and Lúthien (2017) as stand alone and 'continuous' as possible).
The sources for this major First Age event are the chapters "The Fall of Gondolin" of The Book of Lost Tales Part Two [1] and "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin" in The Silmarillion, which both tell of the founding of the Elven city of Gondolin (built in secret by Turgon and his people), of the arrival Tuor, a prince of the Edain, of the betrayal of the city to Morgoth by Turgon's nephew Maeglin, and of its subsequent destruction by Morgoth's armies.[2] There is also an unpublished poem: The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin[3]
The Lost Tales chapter goes more in depth than the account in The Silmarillion, telling notably in detail of Tuor's and Ecthelion's feats in battle, and mentioning every captain of the Houses of the Gondolindrim.
Background
J.R.R. Tolkien actually 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 ever wrote down on paper about the Middle-earth legendarium.
Because Tolkien was constantly revising his First Age stories, the narrative he wrote in 1917 (published posthumously in The Book of Lost Tales Part Two) 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 of various different sources.
A partial new version of "The Fall of Gondolin" was published in the Unfinished Tales under the title "Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin". Actually titled "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin", this narrative shows a great expansion of the earlier tale. It can be surmised from this text that Tolkien would have rewritten the entire story, but for reasons that are not known he abandoned the text before Tuor actually arrives in the city. For this reason Christopher Tolkien retitled the story before including it in Unfinished Tales.
Translations around the World
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Val van Gondolin |
| Albanian | Bie e Gondolin |
| Amharic | ውድቀት ጞንዶሊን ? |
| Arabic | سقوط جوندولين |
| Basque | Gondolin Jaitsiera |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | падзенне Гондолина |
| Bengali | পতনের গন্ডোলিন |
| Bosnian | Pad Gondolin |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Падането на Гондолин |
| Catalan | Caiguda de Gondolin |
| Cantonese | 贡多林的陷落 |
| Cebuano | Pagkapukan sa Gondolin |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 冈多林的陷落 |
| Corsican | Caduta di Gondolin |
| Croatian | Pad Gondolina |
| Czech | Pád Gondolinu |
| Danish | Gondolins fald |
| Dutch | Val van Gondolin |
| Esperanto | Falita de Gondolin |
| Estonian | Gondolini langemine |
| Filipino | Pagbagsak ng Gondolin |
| Finnish | Gondolinin tuho |
| French | Chute de Gondolin |
| Frisian | Fal fan Gondolin |
| Georgian | შემოდგომაზე ღონდოლინ |
| German | Der Fall von Gondolin |
| Greek | πτώση της Γκόντολιν |
| Gujarati | ફોલ ઓફ ગોન્ડોલીન |
| Haiti Creole | Tonbe nan Gondolin |
| Hawaii | Hina o Gondolin |
| Hebrew | נפילתה של גונדולין |
| Hungarian | Gondolin Bukása |
| Hmong | Zeeg ntawm Gondolin |
| Icelandic | Detta af Gondolin |
| Igbo | ọdịda nke Gondolin |
| Indonesian | Jatuhnya Gondolin |
| Italian | Caduta di Gondolin |
| Irish Gaelic | Titim de Gondolin |
| Japanese | ゴンドリンの陥落 |
| Javanese | Tiba saka Gondolin |
| Kannada | ಫಾಲ್ ಆ ಗೊಂಡೋಲಿನ್ |
| Kazakh | құлдырауы Гондолін (Cyrillic) Quldırawı Gondolin (Latin) |
| Korean | 곤돌린의 몰락 |
| Kurdish | Ketina ji Gondolin (Kurmanji Kurdish) |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | кулашы оф Гондолин |
| Latin | Ruina Gondolin |
| Latvian | Krišana Gondolin |
| Lithuanian | Rudenį Gondolin |
| Luxembourgish | Stuerz vun Gondolin |
| Malagasy | Nianjeran'i Gondolin |
| Malay | Kejatuhan Gondolin |
| Maltese | Waqgħa tal Gondolin |
| Maori | Hinga o Gondolin |
| Navajo | Jootłish Gondolin |
| Nepalese | पतन ङोन्दोलिन |
| Norwegian | Gondolins fall |
| Persian | سقوطگوندولین |
| Polish | Upadek Gondolinu |
| Portuguese | Queda de Gondolin |
| Querétaro Otomi | Caída ar Gondolin |
| Romanian | Căderea Gondolin |
| Russian | Падение Гондолина |
| Scottish Gaelic | Tuiteam de Gondolin |
| Serbian | Пада Гондолина (Cyrillic) Pada Gondolina (Latin) |
| Sinhalese | ෆල්ල් ඔෆ් ගොඳොලින් |
| Slovak | Pád Gondolinu |
| Slovenian | Padec Gondolin |
| Somali | Dhici ee Gondolin |
| Spanish | Caída de Gondolin |
| Sudanese | Ragrag tina Gondolin |
| Swahili | Kuanguka kwa Gondolin |
| Swedish | Gondolins fall |
| Tajik Cyrillic | тирамоҳи оф Гондолин |
| Tamil | வீழ்ச்சி கொந்தொலிந் |
| Telugu | ఫాల్ అఫ్ గొండోలిన్ |
| Thai | การล่มสลายของกอนโดลิน |
| Turkish | Gondolin'in yıkımı |
| Turkmen | Gondolin Ýykylmak ? |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | падіння Гондоліна |
| Uzbek | Фалл оф Гондолин (Cyrillic) Gondolin'de qulashi (Latin) |
| Vietnamese | Sụp đổ của Gondolin |
| Volapük | Falön Gondolin |
| Welsh | Cwymp Gondolin |
| Xhosa | Ukuwa Gondolin |
| Yiddish | פאַלן פון גאָנדאָלין |
| Yoruba | Isubu ti Gondolin |
| Yucatec Maya | Caída u Gondolin |
References
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. II: The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, chapter III: "The Fall of Gondolin"
- ↑ The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XXIII: "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lays of Beleriand, "II. Poems Early Abandoned"