 Front cover of the 2018 hardback edition, with a painting by Alan Lee | |
| Editor | Christopher Tolkien |
|---|---|
| Author | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Illustrator | Alan Lee |
| Cover artist | Alan Lee |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Tolkien's legendarium |
| Genre | High fantasy |
| Published | 2018 |
| Publisher | HarperCollins Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 304[1] |
| ISBN | 978-0008302757 |
| Preceded by | Beren and Lúthien |
The Fall of Gondolin is a 2018 book offantasy fiction byJ. R. R. Tolkien, edited byhis son Christopher.[1][2] The story is one of what Tolkien called the three "Great Tales" from theFirst Age ofMiddle-earth; the other two areBeren and Lúthien andThe Children of Húrin. All three stories are briefly summarised in the 1977 bookThe Silmarillion, and all three have now been published as stand-alone books. A version of the story also appears inThe Book of Lost Tales. In the narrative,Gondolin was founded by KingTurgon in theFirst Age. The city was carefully hidden, enduring for centuries before being betrayed and destroyed. Written in 1917, it is one of the first stories ofTolkien's legendarium.
Tolkien began writing the story that would becomeThe Fall of Gondolin in 1917 in an army barracks on the back of a sheet of militarymarching music. It is one of the first stories of his Middle-earthlegendarium that he wrote down on paper,[3] after his 1914 tale, inspired by theOld English manuscriptCrist 1, "The Voyage of Earendel, the Evening Star".[4] 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 echoeshis personal experience of battle.[5] The story was read aloud by Tolkien to theExeter College Essay Club in the spring of 1920.[6]
Tolkien was constantly revising hisFirst Age stories; however, the narrative he wrote in 1917, published posthumously inThe Book of Lost Tales, remains the only full account of the fall of the city.[6]
The narrative "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin" in the 1977 bookThe Silmarillion was the result of the editing by his sonChristopher[7] using the 1917 narrative (minus some elements all too obviously evocative ofWorld War I warfare) and compressed versions from the different versions of theAnnals andQuentas as additional sources. The laterQuenta Silmarillion and theGrey Annals, the main sources for much of the publishedSilmarillion, both stop before the beginning of theTuor story.
A partial later version ofThe Fall of Gondolin was published in the 1980 bookUnfinished 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 inUnfinished Tales, because it ends at the point ofTuor's arrival inGondolin, and does not depict the actual Fall.[8]
There is also an unfinished poem,The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin, of which a few verses are quoted in the 1985 bookThe Lays of Beleriand. In 130 verses Tolkien reaches the point wheredragons attack the city.
In 2018,[1] the first stand-alone version of the story was published byHarperCollins in the UK[1] andHoughton Mifflin in the US.[1] This version, illustrated byAlan Lee, was curated and edited by Christopher Tolkien,[1] J. R. R. Tolkien's son, who also editedThe Silmarillion,Unfinished Tales, and the twelve-volumeThe History of Middle-earth.[3]
The book ends with a list of names, additional notes, and a glossary.
Douglas Kane writes inJournal of Tolkien Research thatThe 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 inThe Children of Húrin, 2007, edited into a continuous story) andBeren 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."[9] 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 inThe 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, asproviding "a perfect complement" to the final book in the "unique and remarkable" collaboration between Christopher Tolkien and his father.[9]
Jennifer Rogers, reviewing the book forTolkien Studies, writes that it "highlights the power of the Gondolin story in its own right with minimal editorial intrusion."[10] 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 wherethe whole Legendarium began, the story aboutEärendel (later called Eärendil).[10]
According toEntertainment 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."[11] Writing forThe Washington Post, writerAndrew Ervin said that "The Fall of Gondolin provides everything Tolkien's readers expect."[12] According toThe 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."[13]
