The Fall of Gondolin

I really hadn't planned on reading any of these new books by Christopher Tolkien — I've already read most of the History of Middle Earth books, so what new info could there be? But then I saw that the audiobook was read by Timothy & Samuel West! I would listen to Sam West read a phone book, so to Audible I went.

I had expected the audiobook to be a little strange given the format of the book — J. R. R. Tolkien's partially written stories surrounded with (and sometimes interrupted by) Christopher Tolkien's explanatory information — but it worked perfectly! Sam West read the tales and his dad read Christopher Tolkien's commentary, and they both did an excellent job. I shall listen to the Unfinished Tales soon!

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to anyone who wasn't already a giant Tolkien nerd, but I loved it.

Una historia trágica con una gran batalla

The telling of these “heroic” tales from the foundational past of Middle-Earth was just not as enjoyable as the author's The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. I think it was the lack of immediacy that did it for me. I felt that I learned to know Bilbo, Gandalf, Frodo, Samwise and the rest before their adventures started in earnest, and that they were “ordinary people” (for the most part). By contrast, this story was more like reading a history book; some long-ago mythological persons populated the pages, but weren't ever fleshed out as “real” (IMO, of course). I understand that this book (and the previous ones The Children of Hurin and Beren and Luthien) was extracted from the underlying “mythology” of Tolkien's sub-creation that made possible his more popular works, but I didn't feel that the story was really worth knowing, in the end.

(05/10/22 reread) I've always had a soft spot for this story; I wrote a couple of papers on it at uni. It was nice to read it for fun (as it were) again.

The Fall of Gondolin tells of Tuor, a man, who comes to the hidden elven city of Gondolin and of the city's subsequent betrayal and fall at the tail end of the First Age. Indeed, I would consider this event to be the BEGINNING of the end as Tuor's young son, Eärendil, is a survivor of the attack and goes on to be arguably the most important person in ending the war (and thus the Age). He's also the father of Elrond (a recognisable name to most!) and Elros Half-elven. Fans of ‘The Hobbit' will also recognise the name of Gondolin, as the swords in which Thorin's Company find in the troll-hoard were forged there.

The Fall of Gondolin manages to be one of the most thrilling and atmospheric stories in the legendarium, which is quite a feat when only the first draft was finished. Even in draft form, it's great. His final attempt in 1930, and the one most in line with the ultimate state of the legendarium, ends with the arrival of Tuor to the city itself which is incredibly frustrating; the first draft, written during the First World War after Tolkien survived the Somme, tells a full story and is clearly a response to what he saw there.

This particular book is set up in the same way as Christopher Tolkien's previous endeavour ‘Beren and Lúthien' in that it shows the development of the narrative as Tolkien went back to try different versions. The different texts are given and Christopher details information about them and gives context as to when they were written. As such, I would recommend it to people who are interested in seeing this development, but perhaps read the chapter on The Fall of Gondolin in The Silmarillion first!

This was an interesting academic exercise for Tolkien fans. Christopher looks at the different versions of the story that his father worked on over the decades, as well as how they exist in relation to Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. Don't come to this expecting a compelling narrative or particularly engaging story; these unpublished drafts were that way for a reason. But as an insight to how Tolkien's writing process developed over the decades it's a worthwhile read.