The Fall of Gondolin, by J.R.R Tolkien is on its way to be published now according to new reports from Entertainment Weekly. Following the publication of Beren and Lúthien in May 2017, it will be the second work by Tolkien to be released two years in a row. This story is one of the first that he wrote and it will shape the world which later became the basis of most of his works. He wrote the story in the hospital, after the Battle of the Somme. It had first been published as part of the Book of Lost Tales also by Tolkien, where the elven city in this book was founded and the arrival of Tuor was mentioned.
The Book
Among the tales of the middle earth, as told by Tolkien including the Lord of the Ring, this is the first of them all as it is basically described. As one of the three great tales of the first age of middle earth, it will follow the same sequence and act as a missing link connecting all the other Middle-earth story. This story captures the fall of a great Elven kingdom, an event that supposedly occurred before the whole The Lord of the Rings saga. The Tolkien Society has stated that the 304 pages book will be illustrated by Alan Lee and will contain drawings. Four editions of the book will be published, paperback, ebook hardback and hardback with deluxe slipcase. The Fall of Gondolin is due to be out as a standalone book this August and the publisher is HarperCollins.
Summary
This is a wonderful piece of work where the author tells a tale of a hidden city which will eventually be ruined by darkness. Tuor arrives at Gondolin and there he marries Idril, daughter of King Turgon, the king in Gondolin. They had a child Eärendel, who happens to be an important character in The Silmarillion. As the story evolves, Morgoth, a dark Lord, battles with Ulmo, the Lord of Waters, when no one else but Ulmo will intervene for the people of Middle-Earth. Ulmo, worked in secret and guided Tuor, who was on his way to discover the hidden city when he encounters Ulmo. He supported Noldor, the kindred of the Elves who live in the undiscoverable city of Gondolin against Morgorth. However, Maegen, a cousin to Idril leaked the secrets of Gondolin to Morgoth.
Gondolin finally meets its doomsday when Morgoth surrounds the city with Balrogs, dragons and Orcs. After the attack, Tour fled the city with his wife and child to the mountains while they journeyed into a new story which Tolkien drafted but never wrote, “The Tale of Eärendel”. References were made to this book in the Silmarillion as the destruction of the hidden city of Gondolin.
Christopher Tolkien
In completion of his life-long achievement as his father’s editor, Christopher Tolkien, now at 93 may finally be wrapping it up here. Although, in the preface of Bergen and Lúthien, he may have suggested Bergen and Luthien would be his final work. His father began writing the Fall of Gandolin in 1917, before going back to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He took up the task in the wake of his father’s death in 1973, and began to analyze, compile, and edit the unpublished work of his father. Among the ones he edited include:
- The Silmarillion,1977
- The Children of Húrin 2007
- Beren and Lúthien 2017
Although he is taking stories from The Silmarillion, restructuring them to the best of his knowledge, he is also making sure they are close to his father’s original version.