<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Moderator
Posts: 69</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: The Attack on Gondolin
<u>
The Attack</u>
This deals with the coming of the Orks to Gondolin and the first part of their battle for untruth, injustice and Morgoth's way up to just before just before Ecthelion's battle with Gothmog at the pargraph beginning "Now Tuor reached the Square of the Folkwell by a way entering from the north, and found there Galdor ...." I am not covering changes to the dragons or the Balrogs as these are covered in separate posts at "Mechanical Monsters at the Fall of Gondolin?"
http://www.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/u...c&f=8&t=000101pub12.ezboard.com/fthebarrowdownsthesilmarillionproposeddraftcanonst udiesandtheories.showMessage?topicID=101.topic</a> and "Bye Bye Balrogs" at
http://www.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/u...c&f=8&t=000105pub12.ezboard.com/fthebarrowdownsthesilmarillionproposeddraftcanonst udiesandtheories.showMessage?topicID=105.topic</a>.
Codes for my sources are as follows:
FG "The Fall of Gondolin" from
The Book of Lost Tales 2 (HoME 2).
Q30 "The Quenta", written in 1930, from
The Shaping of Middle-earth (HoME 4). Quotations are from §16 and from §17 in the Q2 version including later emendations as per the notes.
QS77 Quenta Silmarillion as published in
The Silmarillion edited by Christopher Tolkien in 1977.
To make references easier I have given each mini-discussion a code of the form
FG-A followed by a two-digit decimal number. The
A stands for "Attack". (Decimal numbers could be used for any problem passages I have missed, to keep the order.)
Each section lists the sources from which it is drawn in its header. The first source listed is the primary source, and the second is the secondary source. Main text is always from the primary source and inserted text from the secondary source. When there are more than two sources the codes given at the beginning of this post will be included at the beginning of each insertion.
I naturally do not include passages where the only change is regular normalization: change of a proper name to the latest form, change of a directional word, or changing quotation mark standards from double then single to single then double.
On the directional words: Tolkien reversed compass directions in the accounts following
FG so that, at least in parts of the battle and in the flight of the fugitives,
FG "south"
must become "north",
FG "north"
must become "south", and
FG "west"
must become "east". These changes are to be made in the geography of Gondolin, Tumladen, and the Encircling Mountains everywhere in
FG (other than in placing the Way of Escape to the west) and in one passage to follow.
The following symbols are used:
[ ] Normalized, usually used for proper names indicating they are here in final form, not as in original text. Eg. "[Huor]" probably represents an original "Peleg", "[nor]thward", represents original "southward", and "[']" represents original """.
< > Material inserted from secondary source. If more than one secondary source occurs in the passage then a code appears after the opening angle-bracket, eg. "<
QS77 ".
{ } Material to be deleted.
<u>Underline</u> Material inserted for grammatical reasons or as editorial bridge.
<u>
FG-A01 (FG)</u> Introduction:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Now when the {seventh} summer <u>of</u> <the treason of M[a]eglin> had gone {since the treason of Meglin}, and Eärend[il] was yet of very tender years though a valorous child, M[orgoth] withdrew all his spies, for every path and corner of the mountains was now known to him;<hr></blockquote>In all chronologies from the "The Earliest Annals of Beleriand" to the last version of "The Tale of Years" Maeglin's treachery occurs the year before the fall of Gondolin, not seven years and and some months before its fall as in
FG. I have slightly changed a phrase and moved its position to create the required new information.
<u>
FG-A02 (FG)</u> Maeglin's discovery of the hidden way:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> ; and by reason of the folly of certain of the quarrymen, and yet more by reason of the loose words of certain among his kin to whom word was somewhat unwarily spoken by Tuor, he gathered a knowldge of the secret work and laid against that a plan of his own<hr></blockquote>These words should
possibly be deleted. In
QS77 there is an account of the preparation of the Secret Way which ends with the words: "and no whisper of it came to Maeglin's ears." But I cannot find sources for most of this passage and suspect it to be a CT/Guy Kay editorial addition. If no-one else can find a source then the story of Maeglin's discovery should perhaps be retained.
<u>
FG-A03 (FG)</u> Gladness in winter:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> ... yet the fountains played ever on Amon Gware[d] {and the two trees blossomed,} and folk made merry till the day of terror that was hidden in the heart of M[orgoth].<hr></blockquote>The two trees of Gondolin are now metal images, not live blossoming trees.
<u>
FG-A04 (FG, Q30)</u> The two festivals:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> So came and passed with revelry of children the festival of {Nost-na-Lothion or} the Birth of Flowers, and the hearts of the Gondol[indr]im were uplifted for the good promise of the year; and now at length is that great feast <they named> {Tarnin Austa or} the Gates of Summer near at hand.<hr></blockquote>
Nost is dubious for 'birth', but could be kept as the stem still appears in "Etymologies" with meaning 'beget', but
Tarnin Austa is almost certainly not valid, and so stylistically it makes sense to drop the Elvish names of both feasts.
<u>
FG-A05 (FG, Q30)</u> Light in the North:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> <At last, and Eärend[il] was then seven years of age, Morgoth was ready, and he loosed upon Gondolin his Or[k]s and his Balrogs and his serpents; and of these, dragons of many and dire shapes {were} new devised for the taking of the city. The host of Morgoth came over the Northern hills where the height was greatest and the watch less vigilant, and it came at night at time of festival><u>.</u> For know that on <u>that</u> night it was their custom to begin a solemn ceremony at midnight, continuing it even till the dawn of {Tarnin Austa} <the Gates of Summer> broke, and no voice was uttered in the city from midnight till the break of day, but the {dawn} <rising sun> they hailed with ancient songs <at its uplifting>. For years uncounted had the coming of summer thus been greeted with music of choirs, <all the folk of Gondolin> standing upon their gleaming eastern wall; and now comes even the night of vigil and the city is filled with silver lmaps, while in the groves upon the new-leaved trees lights of jewelled colours swing, and low musics go along the ways, but no voice sings until the dawn.
****The sun has sunk beyond the hills and folk array them for the festival gladly and eagerly*** glancing in expectation to the East. {Lo!} <But> even when she was gone and all was dark, a new <red> light suddenly began, and a glow there was, but it {was} <mounted> beyond the {northward heights} <hills in the North and not in the East>, and men marvelled, and there was a thronging of the walls and battlements.<hr></blockquote>
For know that on a night it was their custom to begin a solemn ceremony at midnight, continuing it even till the dawn of {Tarnin Austa} <u>the Gates of Summer</u> broke, ...[/quote]Merging of the two accounts. I removed the word "were" as a detailed account of the devising will have already appeared from
FG. This is the only place where directions in the old
FG account should not be reversed.
<u>
FG-A06 (FG)</u> Turgon's emblems:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Mighty was the array of the house of the king and their colours were white and gold {and red}, and their emblems the moon and the sun {and the scarlet heart}.<hr></blockquote> The embalmed heart of Turgon's father which became his symbol early vanished from the legendarium. I suppose he
could still have the heart as a symbol, but now with some other origin. But such is never mentioned. Removing
all information on colors and emblems here is difficult because the information is given for every other house and at the end we are told: "This was the fashion and the array of the eleven houses of the Gondothlim with their signs and emblems, ...." Unfortunately Tolkien, so far as I know, did not create a colored heraldic design for Turgon as he did for many of the other Noldorin princes.
<u>
FG-A07 (FG, Q30)</u> The Comming of the Host:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> ****And now came the Monsters across the valley <and there was no stay in the advance of the foe until they were beneath the very walls of Gondolin> and the white towers of Gondolin reddened before them <, and Gondolin was beleaguered without hope>.<hr></blockquote> Merging two accounts.
<u>
FG-A08 (FG)</u> Maeglin's plotting:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> {Learning much of the secret delving of Tuor (yet only at the last moment had he got this knowledge and he could not discover all) he said nought to the king or any other, for it was his thought that of a surety that tunnel would go in the end toward the Way of Escape, this being the most nigh to the city, and he had a mind to use this to his good, and to the ill of the Noldli. {Messenges by great stealth he dispatched to Melko to set a guard about the outer issue of that Way when the assault was made}; but} He himself thought now to take Eärend[il] and cast him into the fire beneath the walls, and seizing Idril he would {constrain her to guide him to the secrets of the passage, that he might} win out of this terror of fire and slaugher and drag her withal along with him to the lands of M[orgoth]{. Now M[a]eglin was afeared that even} <u>with</u> the secret token which M[orgoth] had given him {would fail in that dierful sack, and was minded to help that Ainu to the fulfilment of his promises of safety}.<hr></blockquote>These outer deletions need not be made if it is decided that the
QS77 declaration that Maeglin did not discover the delving is taken as valid. Unless someone can find the passage that says so and is the souce of the
QS77 I think they should be retained.
In any case, the last part of it is seemingly a backflash to when Maeglin first discovered the Tuor's tunnel, at which point he then, and only then, sent to Melko concerning the Way of Escape. This is odd, why wait till then to mention this possible exit? And as CT questions, who would Meglin be able to trust to send on this mission? This also depends on whether the Way of Escape is considered openable at this time, or whether all such mentions should be ignored. I think probably a separate Way of Escape discussion is needed on this theme, like Balrogs and metal dragons it is a thread of incidents that needs to be treated as a whole, and which does not effect anything else in the tale.
Odd variant version
From
The Hobbit, chapter IV, "Over Hill and Under Hill", on Orcrist:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> They knew the sword at once. It had killed hundreds of goblins in its time, when the fair elves of Gondolin hunted them in the hills or did battle before their walls.<hr></blockquote>This seems to picture a long siege in which there are battles before the walls. The hunting in the hills might refer to the time of Morogth's spying, but if any Orks escaped to tell the tale, would that not have revealed Gondolin's location to Morgoth? Even too great a slaughter or Orkish spies in particular regions would have cast suspicion on those regions.
In the original
FG only Rog and his troop fight before the walls and are quickly destroyed to an elf: all other fighting occurs within the city. I don't think anything can be done with this but ignore it.
</p>