Book Review: The Fall of Gondolin by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Fall of Gondolin by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

The evil reign of Morgoth is almost universal. After the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, men and elves were defeated and enslaved. The elf Turgon survived the battle and fled to the hidden city of Gondolin. The city is surrounded by high mountains that are protected by magic, vigilance, and the great eagles of old. Tuor is a man of noble birth who spent much of his youth enslaved to one of Morgoth's minions. He escapes and is drawn on a quest to find Gondolin. He is inspired and guided by Ulmo, the Lord of Waters. As Tuor wanders over vast stretches of Middle Earth, he finds the elf Voronwe who accompanies him on the journey. They eventually discover Gondolin. There Tuor weds the princess and becomes part of the great battle that finally happens when Morgoth discovers the location of the city (through the treachery of a bitter rival of Tuor). As readers might guess from the book's title, the battle ends tragically.

This book is a compilation of various versions of the story written by Tolkien over some thirty-five years. The first text was written in the midst of World War I; the final text written in the early 1950s. Each version is presented with some introductory remarks. The story has a lot of the earmarks of an ancient epic--the wandering hero, the sweeping landscapes, the interventions of the gods, the great battles, etc. A final chapter provides a comparison of the various texts, showing how they fit together (the consistency is fairly amazing) and where they differ (often focusing on different details).

I enjoy heroic epics so this book has a lot of appeal to me. The style is very old-fashioned, like this description when they first see Gondolin:

Then they looked up and could see, and lo! they were at the foot of steep hills, and these hills made a great circle wherein lay a wide plain, and set therein, not rightly at the midmost but rather nearer to that place where the stood, was a great hill with a level top, and upon that summit rose a city in the new light of the morning. [p. 50]

I delight in that style of writing but can see how it would be off-putting for others. The characters are not the deepest. They do evoke respect and sympathy through their actions and live fascinating lives. The Fall of Gondolin is a great triumph for Morgoth but is not the end of the story for the First Age of Middle Earth. Christopher Tolkien writes that it will be his last work editing his father's stories together, so this is probably the last "new" material to be published.

Recommended, highly for Tolkien fans.