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Old 07-22-2001, 02:54 PM   #2
jallanite
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Re: Mechanical Monsters at the Fall of Gondolin?

<u> Mechanical dragons or Not?</u>

This is just a listing of evidence pertaining to whether or not Tolkien dropped mechanical dragons from his conception after the original &quot;Fall of Gondolin&quot; or not.


From The Book of Lost Tales 2 (HoME 2), &quot;The Fall of Gondolin&quot;

Meglin counsels Melko:<blockquote>Quote:<hr> Therefore he counselled Melko to devise out of his sorceries a succour for his warriors in their endeavour. From the greatness of his wealth of metals and his powers of fire he bid him make beasts like snakes and dragons of irrestible might that should overcreep the Encircling Hills and lap that plain and its fair city in flame and death.<hr></blockquote>In the battle which follows it appears that all serpents, dragons, and drakes mentioned are artificial beasts of this kind.

But we are also told (underlining mine):<blockquote>Quote:<hr> Then on a time Melko assembled all his most cunning smiths and sorcerers, and of iron and flame they wrought a host of monsters such as <u>have only at that time been seen and shall not again be till the Great End</u>.<hr></blockquote>Therefore we should not expect, if the metal monsters existed still in Tolkien's later concept, to necessarily find any mention of them whatsoever outside of the story of the fall of Gondolin. (Presumably, though they had been successful, Melko set them aside as now obsolete in favour of his newest concept, winged dragons.)

From The Shaping of Middle-Earth (HoME 3), &quot;The Earliest Silmarillion&quot;, 16:<blockquote>Quote:<hr> Not long after this Meglin going far afield over the mountains is taken by Orcs, and purchases his life when taken to Angband by revealing Gondolin and its secrets.<hr></blockquote>No particular mention of his counsel to make beasts of metal.<blockquote>Quote:<hr> At last Morgoth is ready, and the attack is made on Gondolin with dragons, Balrogs, and Orcs.<hr></blockquote>No indication that these are anything but &quot;normal&quot; dragons, who have already been mentioned in this account in the story of Túrin.



From The Shaping of Middle-Earth (HoME 3), &quot;The Quenta&quot;, 18

Meglin is captured by Morgoth:<blockquote>Quote:<hr> ... and he purchased his life and freedom by revealing unto Morgoth the place of Gondolin and the ways whereby it might be found and assailed.<hr></blockquote>Meglin again counsels how the city might be assailed, which might refer to the making of metal beasts as it did in FG.<blockquote>Quote:<hr> ... Morgoth was ready, and he loosed upon Gondolin his Orcs and his Balrogs and his serpents; and of these, dragons of many and dire shapes were new devised for the taking of the city.<hr></blockquote>The account emerges again of serpents or dragons being &quot;devised&quot; (not &quot;bred&quot in many shapes, though it is not said specifically that they are metal.



From The Shaping of Middle-Earth (HoME 3), &quot;The Earliest Annals of Beleriand&quot;:

From 206
:<blockquote>Quote:<hr> Meglin was taken in the hills and betrayed Gondolin to Morgoth.<hr></blockquote>A very unrevealing summary.

From 207:<blockquote>Quote:<hr> Here Morgoth loosed a host of dragons over the mountains from the North and Gondolin's vale was taken and the city besieged.<hr></blockquote>Orcs and Balrog later. Kind of dragon again unspecified. (In the The Lost Road (HoME 5), &quot;The Later Annals of Beleriand&quot;, 307 [507], the last part of this is changed without import to &quot;and they overran the vale of Tumladen, and besieged Gondolin.&quot; This material seems simply a condensation of the Quenta account.



From The Hobbit

In chapter III, &quot;A Short Rest&quot;, Elrond says:<blockquote>Quote:<hr> ... for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago.<hr></blockquote>A very short summary, but Tolkien has placed it in a work intended for publication, not just working notes for himself, and it would have been easy enough write &quot;dragons of iron and flame&quot; or some such if the old concept was still present.



From The War of the Jewels (HoME 11), &quot;The Wanderings of Húrin&quot;

In note 30:<blockquote>Quote:<hr> At this point in the draft manuscript my father wrote:
Later when captured and Maeglin wished to buy his release with treachery, Morgoth must answer laughing, saying: Stale news will buy nothing. I know this already, I am not easily blinded! So Maeglin was obliged to offer more*** to undermine resistance to Gondolin.
Almost exactly the same note is found on the slip giving information about the new meaning of the name Haladin (p.*270); but here, after the words 'undermine the resistance in Gondolin', my father continued: 'and to compassed the death of Tuor and Eärendel if he could. If he did he would be allowed to retain Idril (said Morogth).'<hr></blockquote>The idea that Morgoth knew already the location of Gondolin which disappeared after FG here re-emerges. This could have been a place for Tolkien to also mention that Maeglin suggested the use of mechanical dragons to Morgoth. He does not do so.



The Tale of Years

Too short a summary to be worth even looking at, but of course no mention of metal monsters or it would be worth looking at.



The Published Silmarillion

Christopher Tolkien mostly follows Q30, but changes the certain parts of his original (as underlined):<blockquote>Quote:<hr> ... and he loosed upon Gondolin his Balrogs, and his Orcs, and his <u>wolves</u>; and <u>with them came</u> dragons of <u>the brood of Glaurung, and they were become now become</u> many <u>and terrible</u>.<hr></blockquote>I've been able to find no source for the underlined material. Christopher Tolkien does sometimes mention certain material as being an editorial insertion by himself, but no mention of that here.

This might mean that he simply has not mentioned it in this case. (Some radical changes to the text to the War of Wrath. for example, are only mentioned by him in passing in §3 of &quot;The History of the Akallabêth&quot; in The Peoples of Middle-earth.) Or it might mean he accidently neglected to indicate the source for this information. It might be too that for some of the changes in the Silmarillion text CT is himself in doubt whether they were editorial modication or information taken from a note somewhere that cannot now be located.

The replacement of serpents by wolves is odd however. No wolves appears in the account of the battle in FG.



Conclusion

The created dragons of iron and bronze and flame might well have continued to exist for Tolkien. To suggest he discarded them is to argue from silence. No long account appears from times when he was thinking of the Silmarillion as a publishable text, not as a private account of his legendarium. Christopher Tolkien's emendation in QS77 to the Q30 account is very suspect.

On the other hand it is surprising that so unique a conception would not be explicitly referred to again if Tolkien intended to continue with it. Would he not have been somewhat proud of his originality?

My feeling is that the concept was discarded. I'm not confident in following that feeling. I would certainly not be at all surprised were a late note to appear indicating that the metal dragons were still part of the tale.

This is one of the cases there the principles don't help. Should we go with the metal dragons because we can't prove that they were discarded, for indeed we can't prove it, or should we drop them as here the argument from silence is a reasonably strong one?

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