91-593: In J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium , Gondolin is a secret city of Elves in the First Age of Middle-earth , and the greatest of their cities in Beleriand . The story of the Fall of Gondolin tells of the arrival there of Tuor, a prince of Men ; of the betrayal of the city to the dark Lord Morgoth by the king's nephew, Maeglin; and of its subsequent siege and catastrophic destruction by Morgoth's armies. It also relates
182-647: A calque on the Book of Genesis (whereas Tolkien's Shire is a calque upon England ). Shippey quotes Tolkien's friend C. S. Lewis , who stated that even Satan was created good; Tolkien has the character Elrond in The Lord of the Rings say "For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even [the Dark Lord] Sauron was not so." Shippey concludes that the reader is free to assume "that the exploit of Morgoth of which
273-622: A frame story that changed over the years , first with an Ælfwine-type character who translates the "Golden Book" of the sages Rumil or Pengoloð; later, having the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins collect the stories into the Red Book of Westmarch , translating mythological Elvish documents in Rivendell . The scholar Gergely Nagy observes that Tolkien "thought of his works as texts within the fictional world " (his emphasis), and that
364-704: A combustion engine would look like "a metal heart filled with flame". Anthony Appleyard similarly likens the mechanical dragons to vehicles driven by internal combustion engines . Tolkien%27s legendarium Tolkien's legendarium is the body of J. R. R. Tolkien 's mythopoeic writing, unpublished in his lifetime, that forms the background to his The Lord of the Rings , and which his son Christopher summarized in his compilation of The Silmarillion and documented in his 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth . The legendarium's origins reach back to 1914, when Tolkien began writing poems and story sketches, drawing maps , and inventing languages and names as
455-612: A complex "literary soup". One element of his construction, she states, is the Norse god Odin . Tolkien used aspects of Odin's character and appearance for the wandering wizard Gandalf , with hat, beard, and staff, and a supernaturally fast horse, recalling Odin's steed Sleipnir ; for the Dark Lord Sauron , with his single eye; for the corrupted white wizard Saruman , cloaked and hatted like Gandalf, but with far-flying birds like Odin's eagles and ravens. In The Silmarillion , too,
546-565: A continuing examination of Tolkien's works and supporting mythology, became a scholarly area of study soon after his death. A legendarium is a literary collection of legends . This medieval Latin noun originally referred mainly to texts detailing legends of the lives of saints . A surviving example is the Anjou Legendarium , dating from the 14th century. Quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary for
637-1020: A host of other titles: Lord of the Dark , the Dark Power of the North, the Black Hand, and Great Enemy. The Edain , the Men of Númenor , call him the Dark King and the Dark Power; the Númenóreans corrupted by Sauron call him the Lord of All and the Giver of Freedom. He is called "Master of Lies" by one of the Edain, Amlach. Melkor is renamed "Morgoth" when he destroys the Two Trees of Valinor , murders Finwë ,
728-473: A private project to create a mythology for England . The earliest story, "The Voyage of Earendel, the Evening Star", is from 1914; he revised and rewrote the legendarium stories for most of his adult life. The Hobbit (1937), Tolkien's first published novel, was not originally part of the larger mythology but became linked to it. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (1954 and 1955) are set in
819-569: A publisher would take it, and notes that Tolkien was a perfectionist, and further that he was perhaps afraid of finishing as he wished to go on with his sub-creation , his invention of myth in Middle-earth. Tolkien first began working on the stories that would become The Silmarillion in 1914. His reading, in 1914, of the Old English manuscript Christ I led to Earendel and the first element of his legendarium, "The Voyage of Earendel,
910-552: A seat upon Thangorodrim and forcing him to witness all that happens (using Morgoth's long sight) to his children in the succeeding years. The encounter with Húrin, is set out in more detail than in The Silmarillion , and in a more connected narrative than in Unfinished Tales . It gives the first allusion to the corruption of Men by Morgoth soon after their awakening, and the assertion by Morgoth of his power over
1001-484: A sequel to The Hobbit . Tolkien began to revise the Silmarillion, but soon turned to the sequel, which became The Lord of the Rings . Writing The Lord of the Rings during the 1940s, Tolkien was attempting to address the dilemma of creating a narrative consistent with a "sequel" of the published The Hobbit and a desire to present a more comprehensive view of its large unpublished background. He renewed work on
SECTION 10
#17327763319301092-728: A specially forged chain, Angainor, and brings him to Valinor. He is imprisoned in the Halls of Mandos for three ages. Upon his release, Melkor is paroled to Valinor, though a few of the Valar continue to mistrust him. He pretends humility and virtue, but secretly plots harm toward the Elves, whose awakening he blames for his defeat. The Noldor, most skilled of the three kindreds of Elves that had come to Valinor, are most vulnerable to his plots, since they are eager for his knowledge. While instructing them, he awakens unrest and discontent among them. When
1183-557: A story summarized in Quenta Silmarillion , Húrin and his younger brother Huor are leaders of the House of Hador, one of the three kindred of elf-friends. At Nírnaeth Arnoediad they cover the escape of Turgon to Gondolin by sacrificing their army and themselves. Huor is slain, but Húrin is brought before Morgoth alive. As revenge for his aid to Turgon and his defiance, Morgoth curses Húrin and his children, binding Húrin to
1274-506: A vision of the end of the world, its breaking and remaking, and the recovery of the Silmarilli and the 'light before the Sun'"; and in 1954, "Actually in the imagination of this story we are now living on a physically round Earth. But the whole 'legendarium' contains a transition from a flat world ... to a globe ". On both texts, he explained in 1954 that "... my legendarium , especially
1365-496: Is an epithet, since he, like all the Valar, had another true name in Valarin (in the legendarium , the language of the Valar before the beginning of Time), but this name is not recorded. The Sindarin equivalent of Melkor is Belegûr , but it is never used; instead, a deliberately similar name, Belegurth , meaning "Great Death", is employed. Another form of his name is Melko, simply meaning "Mighty One". Like Sauron , he has
1456-724: Is broken, and the battle of Nírnaeth Arnoediad (Unnumbered Tears) when the armies of the Noldor and the Men allied with them are routed and the men of the East join Morgoth. Over the next several decades, Morgoth destroys the remaining Elven kingdoms, reducing their domain to an island of refugees in the Bay of Balar, and a small settlement at the Mouths of Sirion under the protection of Ulmo . Before
1547-487: Is captured while mining outside the Encircling Mountains, against Turgon's orders. Maeglin is promised Lordship as well as Turgon's daughter Idril , whom he had long coveted. The dark lord Morgoth sends an army over the Encircling Mountains during Gondolin's festival of The Gates of Summer, and sacks the city with relative ease. Morgoth's army consists of orcs , Balrogs , dragons and in early versions of
1638-465: Is described as being equal in power to Manwë , chief of the Valar in Arda. But his power increases in later revisions of the story until he becomes the most powerful among them, and in a late essay more powerful than all of the other Valar combined. He develops from a standout among equals into a being so powerful that the other created beings could not utterly defeat him. Over time, Tolkien altered both
1729-515: Is marred by darkness and rivers of fire. The Valar withdraw into Aman in the far West. The country where they settle is called Valinor , which they heavily fortify. Melkor holds dominion over Middle-earth from his fortress of Utumno in the North. His first reign ends after the Elves, the eldest of the Children of Ilúvatar , awake at the shores of Cuiviénen , and the Valar resolve to rescue them from his malice. Melkor captures some Elves before
1820-580: Is perhaps the behaviour of Creusa and Idril, who clasp the knees of their husbands to prevent them from joining again the battle when all hope is lost." Scholars have noted that Tolkien himself drew classical parallels for the assault, writing that "Nor Bablon , nor Ninwi , nor the towers of Trui , nor all the many takings of Rûm that is greatest among Men, saw such terror as fell that day upon Amon Gwareth". Tolkien appears to have based one scene on another classical source, Euripides ' play The Trojan Women . Maeglin tries to throw Idril's son Eärendil from
1911-471: Is rendered as Orgel ("Pride") and Morgoth as Sweart-ós ("Black God"). Morgoth is once given a particular sphere of interest: in the early Tale of Turambar , Tinwelint (precursor of Thingol ) names him "the Vala of Iron". Melkor has been interpreted as analogous to Satan , once the greatest of all God's angels, Lucifer , but fallen through pride ; he rebels against his creator. Tolkien wrote that of all
SECTION 20
#17327763319302002-523: Is tainted with pride. "His desire to create other beings for his glory" turns into a desire for servants and slaves to follow his own will. This "temptation of creativity" is echoed in Tolkien's work by Melkor's opponent Fëanor , who is prepared to fight a hopeless war to try to regain his prized creations, the Silmarils. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that The Silmarillion is most obviously
2093-622: Is too proud to admit that his creations are made possible entirely by Eru. Instead, Melkor aspires to rival Eru. In an early draft, Tolkien has the Elf Finrod state that "there is nothing more powerful that is conceivable than Melkor, save Eru only". In The Silmarillion , Eru Ilúvatar similarly states that "Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor". Since the Great Music stands as template for all of material creation,
2184-550: Is unstable until the Vala Tulkas enters Eä and tips the balance. Driven out by Tulkas, Melkor broods in darkness, until Tulkas is distracted. Melkor destroys the Two Lamps and the Valar's land of Almaren. Arda is plunged into darkness and fire, and Melkor withdraws to Middle-earth. In later versions, Melkor also disperses agents throughout Arda, digging deep into the earth and constructing great pits and fortresses, as Arda
2275-459: The Book of Genesis with its creation and its fall, even Melkor having begun with good intentions. Marjorie Burns has commented that Tolkien used the Norse god Odin to create aspects of several characters, the wizard Gandalf getting some of his good characteristics, while Morgoth gets his destructiveness, malevolence, and deceit. Verlyn Flieger writes that the central temptation is the desire to possess, something that ironically afflicts two of
2366-728: The Doom of Mandos . On arriving in Beleriand , the Noldor establish kingdoms and make war on Morgoth. Soon, the Sun and the Moon rise for the first time, and Men awake. The major battles include the Dagor-nuin-Giliath (Battle Under the Stars, fought before the first rising of the Moon), Dagor Aglareb (Glorious Battle), Dagor Bragollach (Battle of Sudden Flame) at which the Siege of Angband
2457-626: The First Age . According to The Silmarillion , the Vala Ulmo , the Lord of Waters, shows Turgon the Vale of Tumladen in a dream. Thus guided, Turgon travels from his kingdom in Nevrast and finds it. Within the Encircling Mountains is a round level plain surrounded by sheer walls; a ravine and tunnel, the Hidden Way, lead out to the southwest. In the middle of the vale is the steep Amon Gwareth,
2548-546: The Maiar of Aulë betrays his kind and becomes Morgoth's principal lieutenant and successor, Sauron . Melkor has been interpreted as analogous to Satan , once the greatest of all God's angels, Lucifer , but fallen through pride ; he rebels against his creator. Morgoth has been likened, too, to John Milton 's fallen angel in Paradise Lost , again a Satan-figure. Tom Shippey has written that The Silmarillion maps
2639-584: The Secret Fire , which belongs to Eru alone; Melkor cannot find it. He contends with Eru in the Music of the Ainur , introducing themes of his own. He draws many weaker-willed Ainur to him. Ironically, these attempts do not truly subvert the Music, but elaborate Eru's original intentions: the Music of Eru takes on depth and beauty through the strife and sadness Melkor's disharmonies introduce. Unlike Aulë , Melkor
2730-532: The Third Age of Middle-earth , while virtually all of his earlier writing had been set in the first two ages of the world. The Lord of the Rings occasionally alludes to figures and events from the legendarium to create an impression of depth , but such ancient tales are depicted as being remembered by few until the story makes them relevant. After The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien returned to his older stories to bring them to publishable form, but never completed
2821-451: The fall of Gondolin to the sack of Troy , noting that both cities were famed for their walls, and likening Tolkien's tale to Virgil's Aeneid . Both have frame stories , situated long after the events they narrate; both have "gods" (Tolkien's Valar) in the action; and both involve an escape. David Greenman compares the actions of Tolkien's quest-heroes to those of Aeneas and Odysseus . Greenman compares and contrasts Idril 's part in
Gondolin - Misplaced Pages Continue
2912-516: The "Hill of Watch". There Turgon decides to found a city, designed like the Noldor Elves' former city of Tirion in Valinor . Gondolin is built in secret. The Hidden Way is protected by seven gates, all constantly guarded; the first of wood, then stone, bronze, iron, silver, gold, and steel. After it is completed, he brings all his people from Nevrast to dwell in the hidden city—almost a third of
3003-485: The "primary 'legendarium'", for the core episodes and themes of The Silmarillion which were not abandoned in his father's constant redrafting of the work. The scholars Verlyn Flieger and Carl F. Hostetter edited a scholarly collection " Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth ". Flieger writes that "...the greatest [event] is the creation of the Silmarils, the Gems of light that give their names to
3094-606: The 'Downfall of Númenor ' which lies immediately behind The Lord of the Rings , is based on my view: that Men are essentially mortal and must not try to become 'immortal' in the flesh", and in 1955, "But the beginning of the legendarium, of which the Trilogy is part (the conclusion), was an attempt to reorganise some of the Kalevala ". "Tolkien's legendarium" is defined narrowly in John D. Rateliff 's The History of The Hobbit as
3185-505: The Eldar [Elves] never learnt was the traditional seduction of Adam and Eve by the [Satanic] serpent ", while the Men in the story are Adam's descendants "flying from Eden and subject to the curse of Babel ". The Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns writes in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on The History of Middle-earth that Morgoth, like all Tolkien's Middle-earth characters, is based on
3276-466: The Elves know him by this name alone afterwards. Morgoth resumes his rule in the North of Middle-earth, this time in the half-ruined fortress of Angband. He rebuilds it, and raises above it the volcanic triple peak of Thangorodrim . The Silmarils he sets into a crown of iron, which he wears at all times. Fëanor and most of the Noldor pursue him, along the way slaying their kin the Teleri and incurring
3367-509: The Evening Star". He intended his stories to become a mythology that would explain the origins of English history and culture, and to provide the necessary "historical" background for his invented Elvish languages . Much of this early work was written while Tolkien, then a British officer returned from France during World War I, was in hospital and on sick leave. He completed " The Fall of Gondolin " in late 1916. He called his collection of nascent stories The Book of Lost Tales . This became
3458-527: The Finnish epic, the Kalevala ; or of St Jerome , Snorri Sturlusson , Jacob Grimm , or Nikolai Gruntvig, all of whom Tolkien saw as exemplars of a professional and creative philology. This was, Nagy believes, what Tolkien thought essential if he was to present a mythology for England , since such a thing had to have been written by many hands. Further, writes Nagy, Christopher Tolkien "inserted himself in
3549-582: The Gondolin-made swords Orcrist , Glamdring and the dagger later named Sting are found in a Troll -hoard. Each of these weapons has the ability to reveal nearby Orcs by glowing; they terrify Orcs in battle. According to The Book of Lost Tales , the city has seven names: "’Tis said and ’tis sung: Gondobar am I called and Gondothlimbar , City of Stone and City of the Dwellers in Stone; Gondolin
3640-755: The High King of the Noldor Elves, and steals the Silmarils in the First Age . Before the creation of Eä and Arda (The Universe and the World), Melkor is the most powerful of the Ainur , the "angelic beings" created by Eru Ilúvatar . Melkor, dissatisfied that Eru had abandoned the Void, seeks to emulate his creator and fill the Void with sentient beings. This, however, requires the Flame Imperishable,
3731-707: The Noldor of Fingolfin 's House—and nearly three quarters of the northern Sindar . [ Elrond :] They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the West, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin-wars. They must have come from a dragon 's hoard or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago. This, Thorin , the runes name Orcrist , the Goblin-cleaver in
Gondolin - Misplaced Pages Continue
3822-726: The Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Man Beren and the Elf Lúthien enter Angband and recover a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown after Luthien's singing sends him to sleep. It is inherited by their granddaughter Elwing, who joins those dwelling at the Mouths of Sirion. Her husband Eärendil , wearing the Silmaril on his brow, sails across the sea to Valinor, where he pleads with the Valar to liberate Middle-earth from Morgoth. During
3913-401: The Rings , did he realise the significance of hobbits in his mythology. In 1937, encouraged by the success of The Hobbit , Tolkien submitted to his publisher George Allen & Unwin an incomplete but more fully developed version of The Silmarillion called Quenta Silmarillion . The reader rejected the work as being obscure and "too Celtic ". The publisher instead asked Tolkien to write
4004-405: The Silmarillion after completing The Lord of the Rings , and he greatly desired to publish the two works together. When it became clear that would not be possible, Tolkien turned his full attention to preparing The Lord of the Rings for publication. John D. Rateliff has analysed the complex relationship between The Hobbit and The Silmarillion , providing evidence that they were related from
4095-407: The Silmarils to that of Fëanor, who had created those jewels. She states that the central temptation is the desire to possess, and that possessiveness itself is the "great transgression" in Tolkien's created world. She observes that the commandment "Love not too well the work of thy hands and the devices of thy heart" is stated explicitly in The Silmarillion . Flieger compares Tolkien's descriptions of
4186-399: The Stone of Song and Gwarestrin am I named, the Tower of the Guard, Gar Thurion or the Secret Place, for I am hidden from the eyes of Melko; but they who love me most greatly call me Loth , for like a flower am I, even Lothengriol the flower that blooms on the plain." The Book of Lost Tales states that the active male Elves of Gondolin belong to one of the 11 "Houses" or Thlim , plus
4277-416: The Trojans were celebrating the Greeks' apparent retreat, with the additional note of treachery. The Trojan Horse carried the Greeks into Troy, where they set fire to it, paralleled by the fire-serpents which carried "Balrogs in hundreds" into Gondolin. Tolkien's serpents are matched by the great serpents with "burning eyes, fiery and suffused with blood, their tongues a-flicker out of hissing maws" which kill
4368-480: The Valar attack. He tortures and corrupts them, breeding the first Orcs . Other versions describe Orcs as corruptions of Men , or as soulless beings animated solely by the will of their evil lord. His fortress Utumno disperses deathly cold and brings on an endless winter in the North; for the sake of the Elves, the Valar wage a seven-year war with Melkor, defeating him after laying siege to Utumno. These battles further mar Arda. Tulkas defeats Melkor, binds him with
4459-413: The Valar become aware of this, they send Tulkas to arrest him, but Melkor has already fled. With the aid of Ungoliant , a dark spirit in the form of a monstrous spider , he destroys the Two Trees of Valinor , kills Finwë , the King of the Noldor, and steals the three Silmarils , jewels made by Finwë's son Fëanor , filled with the light of the Trees. Fëanor thereupon names him Morgoth , "Black Foe", and
4550-408: The ancient tongue of Gondolin; it was a famous blade. This, Gandalf , was Glamdring , Foe-hammer that the king of Gondolin once wore. Keep them well!" J.R.R. Tolkien , The Hobbit Gondolin develops its own Sindarin dialect, containing regional elements and words adapted from another Elvish language , Quenya . The Elven smiths of Gondolin make powerful weapons . In The Hobbit ,
4641-505: The body of Tolkien's work consisting of: These, with The Lays of Beleriand , written from 1918 onwards, comprise the different "phases" of Tolkien's Elven legendary writings, posthumously edited and published in The Silmarillion and in their original forms in Christopher Tolkien's series The History of Middle-earth . Other Tolkien scholars have used the term legendarium in a variety of contexts. Christopher Tolkien's introduction to The History of Middle-earth series talks about
SECTION 50
#17327763319304732-423: The bodyguard of Tuor, accounted as the twelfth. Each house has a distinct symbol: a mole, a swallow, the heavens, a pillar, a tower of snow, a tree, a golden flower, a fountain, a harp, a hammer and anvil, and finally the triple symbol of the King, namely the moon, sun, and scarlet heart worn by the Royal Guard. The city stands for nearly 400 years until Maeglin , Turgon's nephew, betrays it to Morgoth . Maeglin
4823-421: The chaos introduced by Melkor's disharmonies is responsible for all evil. Everything in Middle-earth is tainted by his influence. In Morgoth's Ring , Tolkien draws an analogy between the One Ring , into which Sauron commits much of his power, and all of Arda – "Morgoth's Ring" – which contains and is corrupted by Melkor's power until the Remaking of the World. The Valaquenta tells how Melkor seduced many of
4914-474: The city wall, just as Hector 's son Astyanax is thrown down from Troy's walls. Tolkien changes the outcome: Eärendil resists, and Tuor appears just in time to rescue him by throwing Maeglin from the walls instead. The scholar of heraldry Cătălin Hriban writes that the emblems of the houses of Gondolin are simple and figurative, depicting familiar real-world objects. He notes that standard British texts on heraldry describe similar devices. He comments that Maeglin
5005-464: The conception of this character and his name. The name given by Fëanor, Morgoth, was present from the first stories; he was for a long time also called Melko . Tolkien vacillated over the Sindarin equivalent of this, which appeared as Belcha , Melegor , and Moeleg . The meaning of the name also varied, related in different times to milka ("greedy") or velka ("flame"). Similarly the Old English translations devised by Tolkien differ in sense: Melko
5096-411: The deeds of the Ainur, by far the worst was "the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron". John R. Holmes, writing in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia , suggests that Melkor's nature resonates with John Milton 's fallen angel (Satan) in Paradise Lost . Melkor creates an "iron hell" for his elven slave labourers. His greed for ever more power makes him a symbol for
5187-443: The despotism of modern machinery. The Tolkien scholar Brian Rosebury comments that there is a clear mapping to the Christian myth, with Eru as God, Ainur as angels, and Melkor as Satan; but that the differences are equally striking, as creation is in part mediated by the Ainur. His rebellion against Eru is creative, as Melkor is impatient for the void of the world to be filled with things. But his creativity becomes destructive, as it
5278-464: The earth. Morgoth flees into the deepest pit and begs for pardon, but his feet are cut from under him, his crown is made into a collar, and he is chained once again with Angainor. The Valar exile him permanently from the world, thrusting him through the Door of Night into the void until the prophesied Dagor Dagorath, when he will meet his final destruction. But his evil remains, and his will influences all living creatures. In this more complete version of
5369-626: The editor, Christopher Tolkien." Dickerson and Evans use the phrase "legendarium" to encompass the entirety of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings "for convenience". This would encompass texts such as the incomplete drafts of stories published before The History of Middle-earth in the 1980 Unfinished Tales . Shaun Gunner of The Tolkien Society has called the 2021 collection of Tolkien's previously unpublished legendarium writings The Nature of Middle-earth , edited by Carl F. Hostetter, "an unofficial 13th volume of The History of Middle-earth series". Unlike " fictional universes " constructed for
5460-424: The ensuing War of Wrath , Beleriand is destroyed. Morgoth summons many Men to his side during the fifty-year conflict, the longest and bloodiest in Arda's history. Morgoth is utterly defeated. Thangorodrim is shattered when Eärendil kills the greatest of dragons, Ancalagon the Black , who crashes upon it as he falls. The few remaining dragons are scattered, and the few surviving Balrogs hide themselves deep within
5551-408: The entire Earth through "the shadow of my purpose". Melkor is mentioned briefly in the chapter "A Knife in the Dark" in The Lord of the Rings , where Aragorn sings the story of Tinúviel and briefly recounts the role of Morgoth ("the Great Enemy") in the wider history of the Silmarils. In the early versions of Tolkien's stories, Melkor/Morgoth is not seen as the most powerful of the Valar. He
SECTION 60
#17327763319305642-445: The farseeing Vala Manwë, who lives on the tallest of the mountains, and loves "all swift birds, strong of wing", is Odinesque. And just as Sauron and Saruman oppose Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings , so the enemy Morgoth gets Odin's negative characteristics: "his ruthlessness, his destructiveness, his malevolence, his all-pervading deceit". Burns compares this allocation to the way that Norse myth allots some of Odin's characteristics to
5733-463: The flight of the fugitives to the Havens of Sirion , the wedding of Tuor and the Elf Idril , and the childhood of their son Eärendil . Scholars have noted the presence of tank -like iron fighting machines in Morgoth's army in early versions of the story, written soon after Tolkien returned from the Battle of the Somme . They have likened the story of the Fall of Gondolin to the sack of Troy in ancient Greek literature , or to Virgil 's Aeneid ;
5824-403: The functional place of Bilbo" as editor and collator, in his view "reinforcing the mythopoeic effect" that his father had wanted to achieve, making the published book do what Bilbo's book was meant to do, and so unintentionally realising his father's intention. Morgoth Morgoth Bauglir ( [ˈmɔrɡɔθ ˈbau̯ɡlir] ; originally Melkor [ˈmɛlkor] ) is a character, one of
5915-414: The godlike Valar and the primary antagonist of Tolkien's legendarium , the mythic epic published in parts as The Silmarillion , The Children of Húrin , Beren and Lúthien , and The Fall of Gondolin . Melkor is the most powerful of the Valar but he turns to darkness and is renamed Morgoth, the primary antagonist of Arda . All evil in the world of Middle-earth ultimately stems from him. One of
6006-456: The greatest figures in the legendarium, Melkor and Fëanor . The name Morgoth is Sindarin (one of Tolkien's invented languages ) and means "Dark Enemy" or "Black Foe". Bauglir is also Sindarin, meaning "Tyrant" or "Oppressor". "Morgoth Bauglir" is thus an epithet . His name in Ainulindalë (the creation myth of Middle-earth and first section of The Silmarillion ) is Melkor , which means "He Who Arises in Might" in Quenya. This too
6097-496: The high priest Laocoön and his sons. Aeneas and his wife Creusa become separated during their escape; her ghost pleads with him to leave when he searches for her, and he travels to Italy; in contrast, Tuor and Idril escape to Sirion together, eventually sailing from there to Valinor . Marco Cristini adds that both cities are fatally attacked during a feast; their heroes both leave their wives to fight, and both see their kings die. Cristini comments further that "The most evident analogy
6188-445: The idea of multiple 'voices' who collected the stories over the millennia. When Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937 (which was itself not originally intended for publication, but as a story told privately to his children), the narrative of the published text was loosely influenced by the legendarium as a context, but was not designed to be part of it. Carpenter comments that not until Tolkien began to write its sequel, The Lord of
6279-448: The minor Ainur, the Maiar , into his service. After the Creation, many Ainur enter into Eä . The most powerful of them are the Valar , the Powers of the World; the lesser, the Maiar, act as their followers and assistants. They set about the ordering of the universe and Arda within it, as they understand the themes of Eru. Melkor and his followers enter Eä as well, but he is frustrated that his colleagues do not recognize him as leader of
6370-471: The name for the first two volumes of The History of Middle-earth , which include these early texts. Tolkien never completed The Book of Lost Tales ; he left it to compose the poems " The Lay of Leithian " (in 1925) and " The Lay of the Children of Húrin " (possibly as early as 1918). The first complete version of The Silmarillion was the "Sketch of the Mythology" written in 1926 (later published in Volume IV of The History of Middle-earth ). The "Sketch"
6461-453: The narrative framing device of an Anglo-Saxon mariner named Ælfwine or Eriol or Ottor Wǽfre who finds the island of Tol Eressëa , where the Elves live, and the Elves tell him their history. He collects, translates from Old English , and writes the mythology that appears in The History of Middle-earth . Ælfwine means "Elf-friend" in Old English; men whose names have the same meaning, such as Alboin, Alwin, and Elendil , were to appear in
6552-508: The nature of evil in Arda , the origin of Orcs , the customs of the Elves , the nature and means of Elvish rebirth, the "flat" world, and the story of the Sun and Moon. In any event, with one or two exceptions, he made little change to the narratives during the remaining years of his life. The scholar Verlyn Flieger writes that Tolkien thought of his legendarium as a presented collection, with
6643-417: The new realm, despite his great knowledge. In anger and shame, Melkor sets about ruining and undoing whatever the others do. Each of the Valar is attracted to a particular aspect of the world. Melkor is drawn to extremes and violence—bitter cold, scorching heat, earthquakes, darkness, burning light. His power is so great that at first the Valar cannot restrain him; he contends with their collective might. Arda
6734-573: The overlapping of different and sometimes contradictory accounts was central to his desired effect. Nagy notes that Tolkien went so far as to create facsimile pages from the Dwarves' Book of Mazarbul that is found by the Fellowship in Moria . Further, Tolkien was a philologist ; Nagy comments that Tolkien may have been intentionally imitating the philological style of Elias Lönnrot , compiler of
6825-445: The purpose of writing and publishing popular fiction, Tolkien's legendarium for a long period was a private project, concerned with questions of philology , cosmology , theology and mythology. His biographer Humphrey Carpenter writes that although by 1923 Tolkien had almost completed The Book of Lost Tales , "it was almost as if he did not want to finish it", beginning instead to rewrite it; he suggests that Tolkien may have doubted if
6916-528: The role of Tuor's wife Idril has similarly been compared to that of Cassandra or Helen of Troy in accounts of the Trojan War . The city of Gondolin in Beleriand , in the extreme northwest of Middle-earth , is founded with divine inspiration. The mightiest of the Elvish cities, it is hidden by mountains and endures for centuries before being betrayed and destroyed. Gondolin is founded by King Turgon in
7007-473: The start of The Hobbit ' s composition. With the success of The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien in the late 1950s returned to the Silmarillion, planning to revise the material of his legendarium into a form "fit for publication", a task which kept him occupied until his death in 1973, without attaining a completed state. The legendarium has indeed been called "a jumble of overlapping and often competing stories, annals, and lexicons." Much of his later writing
7098-649: The start of the war, while the second half "surely reverberates to his collision with war itself." To defeat Gondolin, Melkor (at first called Melko) uses monsters, Orcs and Balrogs, supported by "beasts like snakes and dragons of irresistible might that should overcreep the Encircling Hills and lap that plain and its fair city in flame and death". The monstrous beasts are not of flesh and blood, but are made by "smiths and sorcerers". There are three kinds, Garth explains: heavy, slow, bronze dragons that can break gaps in Gondolin's walls; fiery monsters, unable to climb
7189-466: The steep smooth hill on which the city sits; and iron dragons in which Orc-soldiers can ride, and which travel on " iron so cunningly linked that they might flow ... around and above all obstacles", and are armoured so that they clang hollowly when bombarded or attacked with fire. Garth comments that these are not so much like mythical dragons as "the tanks of the Somme", and that to the story's Elf-narrator,
7280-409: The story iron machines powered by "internal fires". These are used to carry soldiers, to surmount difficult obstacles, and to defeat fortifications. Idril, noted for her intuition, had prepared a secret route out of Gondolin prior to the siege. While her father Turgon perishes as his tower is destroyed, Idril flees the city, defended by her husband Tuor, a prince of Men . Tolkien scholars have compared
7371-432: The story to Cassandra and Helen of Troy , two prominent female figures in accounts of the Trojan War : like the prophetess, Idril had a premonition of impending danger and like Helen, her beauty played a major role in instigating Maeglin 's betrayal of Gondolin, which ultimately led to its downfall and ruin. Conversely, Greenman notes that Idril's advice to enact a contingency plan for a secret escape route out of Gondolin
7462-421: The synonymous noun legendary date from 1513. The Middle English South English Legendary is an example of this form of the noun. Tolkien described his works as a "legendarium" in four letters from 1951 to 1955, a period in which he was attempting to have his unfinished Silmarillion published alongside the more complete The Lord of the Rings . On the Silmarillion, he wrote in 1951, "This legendarium ends with
7553-497: The task. Tolkien's son Christopher chose portions of his late father's vast collection of unpublished material and shaped them into The Silmarillion (1977), a semi-chronological and semi-complete narrative of the mythical world and its origins. The sales were sufficient to enable him to work on and publish many volumes of his father's legendarium stories and drafts; some were presented as completed tales, while others illustrated his father's complex creative process. Tolkien research ,
7644-540: The traitor, of the House of Moles, fittingly has the colour black; like the animal, his people are miners, used to living underground in the dark. In his book Tolkien and the Great War , John Garth states that Tolkien wrote his 1917 story "The Fall of Gondolin" in hospital after returning to England from the Battle of the Somme . In his view, the tale's first half seems to reflect Tolkien's "slow acceptance of duty" at
7735-544: The troublemaker god Loki . Odin has many names, among them "Shifty-eyed" and "Swift in Deceit", and he is equally a god of the Norse underworld, "Father of the Slain". She notes that Morgoth, too, is named "Master of Lies" and "Demon of Dark", and functions as a fierce god of battle. The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger , discussing the splintering of the original created light of Middle-earth , likens Melkor/Morgoth's response to
7826-420: The two characters: "the heart of Fëanor was fast bound to these things that he himself had made", followed at once by "Melkor lusted for the Silmarils, and the very memory of their radiance was a gnawing fire in his heart". She writes that it is appropriately ironic that Melkor and Fëanor, one the greatest of the Ainur, the other the most subtle and skilful of the creative Noldor among the Elves – should "usher in
7917-505: The two unfinished time travel novels, The Lost Road in 1936 and The Notion Club Papers in 1945, as the protagonists reappeared in each of several different times. There is no such framework in the published version of The Silmarillion , but the Narn i Hîn Húrin is introduced with the note "Here begins that tale which Ǽlfwine made from the Húrinien ." Tolkien never fully dropped
8008-544: The whole legendarium", equating the legendarium with the Silmarillion (which with italics denotes the 1977 book published under that name, and without italics means the larger body of un-edited drafts used to create that work). In the J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia , David Bratman writes that " The History of Middle-earth is a longitudinal study of the development and elaboration of Tolkien's legendarium through his transcribed manuscripts, with textual commentary by
8099-555: Was a 28-page synopsis written to explain the background of the story of Túrin to R. W. Reynolds, a friend to whom Tolkien had sent several of the stories. From the "Sketch" Tolkien developed a fuller narrative version of The Silmarillion called Quenta Noldorinwa (also included in Volume IV). The Quenta Noldorinwa was the last version of The Silmarillion that Tolkien completed. The stories in The Book of Lost Tales employ
8190-412: Was heeded by her people, unlike the warning of Cassandra; and that Idril had always rejected Maeglin's advances and remained faithful to Tuor, unlike Helen who left her husband King Menelaus of Sparta for Prince Paris of Troy. Alexander Bruce writes that Tolkien's tale parallels Virgil's account, but varies the story. Thus, Morgoth attacks while Gondolin's guard is lowered during a great feast, whereas
8281-442: Was however concerned more with the theological and philosophical underpinnings of the work, rather than with the narratives themselves. By this time, he had doubts about fundamental aspects of the work that went back to the earliest versions of the stories, and it seems that he felt the need to resolve these problems before he could produce the "final" version of The Silmarillion . During this time he wrote extensively on such topics as
#929070