The Fall of Gondolin is probably of the last of Christopher Tolkien’s books derived from his father’s notes. It is also the last of the six books he edited after the
History of Middle Earth was finished. Three of these books are connected directly to Middle Earth and specifically the
Silmarillion and the First Age. All three of these are very much related to each other. Two of the other three are only loosely connected.
Beowulf and
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun are examples of the Norse mythology from which Tolkien drew in creating his own. I think the Arthurian fragment connects back to time spent in Brittany before WWI. He was on the northern edge of an area of Brittany that is saturated with the Breton stories related to Arthur, a major figure in western heroic literature. Along the way he picked up a few names, like Rohan and Bree, as well as tales of a magical area called Broceliande, which he later transformed into Beleriand. Aspects of the Arthurian period are very much related to
The Fall of Gondolin.
These are a few comments about each of these six books:
The Children of Húrin 2007
This is a First Age story of Middle Earth. This is the expansion and merging of two previously published tales. Part is from the Silmarillion and the rest is from
Narn I Chin Húrin in the
Unfinished Tales. Combining these required the creation of some bridging text and filling in some gaps. I don’t think the
Wanderings of Húrin from the
War of the Jewels was a significant source.
This is then an extension of the
Silmarillion. It is a bleak tale of Morgoth’s curse on the children of Húrin. I’m not sure what message we are to derive from this story. It seems to say the race of men is doomed to failure if they rely on their own efforts without appealing to a higher power. The grandson of Húrin is Tuor, who married Turgon’s daughter Idril. They are main characters in
The Fall of Gondolin. Their son Eärendil is half man and half elf. He married the half man half elf daughter of Beren and Lúthien. In what was to be Tolkien’s next detailed story from the
Silmarillion, Eärendil sought help from the Valar against Morgoth. Together they overthrew Morgoth. This separate story was never written.
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun 2009
This is not a story of Middle Earth. There are two different but related stories, both drawn from the
Poetic (Elder) Edda. This dates from the 13th century. The stories are related to Beowulf and more closely to the
Nibelungenlied, which became popular in late 19th century Germany. The
Prose and
Poetic Eddas became popular in England in the late 19th century in the pre-Raphaelite movement.
The Fall of Arthur 2013
This is not a story of Middle Earth. This is a fragment that deals with the British struggle against the invasion of the Saxons. This work was abandoned in its infancy. 50 pages were written. More of the book is devoted to notes on the unfinished part. I think Tolkien dropped his pursuit of Arthur when he realized it was Celtic and not English. I believe this led him to say England had no mythology, which he went on to correct. As discussed below, there are several parallels between Arthurian literature and
The Fall of Gondolin.
Beowulf 2014
This is not a story of Middle Earth. It is a translation of the earliest English story, which is set in Scandinavia. Scandinavians ruled most of what is now England when it was written around 1000. A part of the story includes the slaying of a dragon, as in Húrin and Sigurd. Beowulf contains the earliest use of “orc” in orcneas, generally translated into modern English as ogres. Tolkien used both orc and ogre.
Beren and Lúthien 2017
This is a First Age story of Middle Earth. It concerns the love between a man and an elf, like that of Aragorn and Arwen in LOTR who are their descendants. This is an expansion of the story that first appeared in the
Silmarillion. Beren recovered one of the Simarils from Morgoth. They are the great grandparents of Elrond.
The Fall of Gondolin 2018
This is a First Age story of Middle Earth. It is the third story, after
The Children of Húrin, and
Beren and Lúthien, extracted from the
Silmarillion. Probably what is the most important version is from the
Quenta Silmarillion. It is also the first Middle Earth story that Tolkien wrote. The writing of the three versions spanned the period from 1916 to 1955. Christopher has collected three versions of the story and three minor texts that he presents in the book.
The Fall of Gondolin is connected to Húrin as he brings his nephew, Tuor to Gondolin. Tuor marries Idril, King Turgon’s daughter, becoming the second of three men to marry an elf. Meglin, nephew of King Turgon later betrays Gondolin, the invisible city of the elves, to Morgoth, which assures its destruction. The elves flee and Tuor becomes the only man to be transformed into an elf as a reward for his assistance, his heritage, and his marriage..
The book also mentions connects to
Beren and Lúthien as Huor and Húrin are also members of the House of Bear.
What is called
The Earliest Text in the TOC seems to have actually been a few notes written before the version called the
Original Tale in the TOC which is actually
The Tale of the Fall of Gondolin. It seems to have only been a few remarks about names of secondary figures in the full story.
Only three versions reach the conclusion. The first complete version, which is called the
Original Tale in the TOC, is
The Tale of the Fall of Gondolin written during WWI. The second very brief version, called
The Sketch of the Mythology in the TOC, was written in 1926. The third version is the
Quenta Silmarillion's Noldorinwa, completed in 1930.
Between the first and second completed versions, an abandoned text was begun. This was called
Turlin and the Exiles of Gondolin in the TOC. This consisted of one page.
The text called
The Last Version in the TOC was written in 1951 but not completed. It ends with Tuor’s arrival in Gondolin.
There are several interesting parallels between Arthurian literature and Tolkien’s writings.
The Fall of Gondolin contains a few. These include a magical city (Gondolin/Camelot), a magical sword (Glamdring/Excalibur), betrayal from within the ruling family (Meglin/Mordred), and a migration across the sea. The first two are self-evident. The latter two need a little explanation.
Mordred was first identified as the nephew of Arthur in Monmouth’s
Historia Regum Britanniae circa 1136. In the
Vulgate Cycle circa 1225, Mordred became Arthur’ son and nephew from his incest with Morgana. Until the appearance of Lancelot in Chretien’s
The Knight and the Cart circa 1180, Mordred was Guinevere’s lover and while Arthur was on the continent, Mordred and Guinevere both betrayed Arthur. Mordred took the throne and married Guinevere. In later works, Mordred lusted after Guinevere and betrayed Arthur just as Meglin lusted after his cousin Idril and betrayed Turgon. In addition, the character Melwas first appeared as someone who kidnapped Guinevere in
The Life of Gildas circa 1150, usually to be rescued by Lancelot, starting their affair. As with most Arthurian names, there are multiple forms of Melwas’ name. The most common is Maleagant and over a dozen variations, incuding Melgin.
The Arthurian era migration occurred after the collapse of the Roman Empire circa 476. There was some earlier settlement in Brittany starting circa 400, but the mass migration began after Rome collapsed and the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain began. The Britons were descended from early Celts. The Anglo-Saxons (Germanic) became the English. The wars in Arthurian literature are mostly the wars of the Britons against the invading Saxons. The Britons were forced west into Wales and Cornwall. The 5th and 6th centuries had two waves of Briton refugees across the water to what is now Brittany in northwestern France. The Britons first settled in Armorica on the north coast. Later, they took over the Morbihan peninsula, and its capital of Vannes, which they called Gwynedd. Brittany remained autonomous until 1532. This migration, first to the extremities and then across the water, is mimicked in
The Fall of Gondolin.
While the book’s content is interesting, the organization is odd and the multiple identities for some texts are confusing. The organization leads to some repetition. The inclusion of the two minor mentions of the story seems tedious and could have just been mentioned in passing. It reminds me of the Arthurian mention of the fragment “and he was no Arthur” from the
Y Goddodin sometimes used as evidence of the Scottish origin of Arthur. It is something worth mentioning in passing, but not worth the books written about it. However, this is somewhat defensible because everything written about Arthur before 1100 would fit on a page. Tolkien of the other hand was a little more voluminous, minimizing the importance of casual mentions.
For those of you not inclined to work through the book, this is a link to a running commentary on the
Silmarillion version:
https://www.tor.com/2018/08/22/when-tuor-met-ulmo-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-let-gondolin-fall/comment-page-2/It has some mentions of details that exist in other versions.
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