The Fall of Gondolin (coming August 2018)

Bluebottle wrote:Ah, and how a is that related to the version in the Silmarillion?

Appologies for all the questions

No worries. I'm operating off memory here (and I'm really tired) but IIRC when editing the Silm Christopher had to draw on the BoLT version more than he did with the other Great Tales because there's relatively little Gondolin material from later. However, the version in the 1977 Silm is extremely condensed. Also, there was a lot of what TV Tropes calls early installment weirdness in all of the Lost Tales, of which little to no trace exists in the published Silm. The Fall of Gondolin was clearly influenced by WWI (it was written while Tolkien was recovering from trench fever); Morgoth attacks the city not only with Balrogs but also iron dragons that are described as something closer to tanks than the dragons you find elsewhere in Tolkien's legendarium. There's also an extensive recounting of the twelve noble houses of Gondolin and their heraldry (which differs significantly from Tolkien's later conception of Eldarin heraldry) and of the actual course of the battle. Basically none of this survives in TS other than a passing mention:

Of the deeds of desperate valour there done, by the chieftains of the noble houses and their warriors, and not least by Tuor, much is told in The Fall of Gondolin: of the battle of Ecthelion of the Fountain with Gothmog Lord of Balrogs in the very square of the King, where each slew the other, and of the defence of the tower of Turgon by the people of his household, until the tower was overthrown; and mighty was its fall and the fall of Turgon in its ruin.

Edit: also, speaking of Balrogs, there were hundreds of them and they were not nearly as powerful or imposing as they later became. A whole bunch died in and around Gondolin; Tuor alone killed five. In TS only two died (Gothmog killed by Ecthelion and an unnamed one killed by Glorfindel), but when you consider that there may have been as few as seven Balrogs to have ever existed in later conceptions of the legendarium, having two die in Gondolin when probably none had died before is a little strange. In one of the last texts concerned Glorfindel (which is called "Glorfindel II" in HoMe XII) Tolkien changed the word "Balrog" to "demon" so there's a theory that he intended to downgrade Glorfindel's opponent, though that remains speculation, and even if Tolkien did have that idea, he never followed through on it in any other text AFAIK.

Hey Lance, good to see you in this subforum!

You're correct that Glorfindel's expedited reincarnation and special treatment by Manwë in general was due in part to the heroic nature of his death. The "Glorfindel II" text discusses this at some length, though it continues to use the terminology "demon". Specifically, it notes that one of the reasons Glorfindel was allowed to be reincarnated in Valinor despite being an Exile was:

More important: Glorfindel had sacrificed his life in defending the fugitives from the wreck of Gondolin against a Demon out of Thangorodrim, and so enabling Tuor and Idril daughter of Turgon and their child Earendil to escape, and seek refuge at the Mouths of Sirion. Though he cannot have known the importance of this (and would have defended them even had they been fugitives of any rank), this deed was of vital importance to the designs of the Valar.

In an endnote to this passage, Christopher Tolkien notes that his father had written in the margin, at the same time as the text, that "[t]he duel of Glorfindel and the Demon may need revision."

I don't think this is at all definitive evidence of Tolkien deciding that the demon Glorfindel fought should be less than a Balrog (though still something fearsome, to be sure), and I personally think the story works better if it was, but I find it an intriguing question.

halfwise wrote:Not sure if this adds much to the discussion:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-jrr-tolkiens-earliest-middle-earth-stories-will-be-published-novel-summer-180968798/

Smithsonian Mag wrote:Last year, when Christopher released a novelized version of the Tolkien story Beren and Lúthien, he wrote that it would be “[presumptively] my last book in the long series of editions of my father’s writings,” as Flood reports. So news of The Fall of Gondolin novel came as a very welcome surprise to Tolkien fans.

Calling Beren and Lúthien a novel is a weird description on the magazine's part that I feel would mislead people who aren't already familiar with the book to expect a single, complete narrative written in the style of Tolkien's later works.