Unfinished Tales - Part One - I - Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin

[Aiwendil]

This is one of my favorite pieces of writing by Tolkien. Part of that, I admit, may come from its place as the first piece in UT and hence, at least for me, the fact that it was my first exposure to any of his writings beyond The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the published Silmarillion.

I had read those three works at quite a young age (actually, the first time through they were bed-time stories read to me by my mother), and Tolkien was already my favorite author. But, while I had picked up UT and the first few volumes of HoMe over the years, the (as it seemed to me at the time) copious editorial notes and strange, fragmentary nature of the stories was not what I was expecting, and I'm ashamed to say they sat, unread, on my bookshelf for a long time. It was not until high school when one morning, already late for the bus, I remembered there was standardized testing that day and I would need a book to fill the interminable intervals after finishing each section. More or less at random, I grabbed Unfinished Tales out of my bookcase.

I suppose I'd become more patient since first picking up the book years before, for I found Christopher Tolkien's introduction interesting rather than tedious. And then I started reading 'Tuor', and suddenly I was swept out of the little window-less classroom to the empty lands of Nevrast and the shores of Middle-earth. I was deeply enchanted, and I couldn't believe that for so many years this (and who knew what other treasures) had been sitting on my bookshelf unread. It's quite a thing to discover a new and unlooked-for gem by one's favorite author; it's another thing indeed to realize that this is just the beginning of thirteen volumes full of potential gems.

So it's hard for me to say whether the esteem in which I hold 'Tuor' is due to its own merits or to the unveiling of the vast and rich literary landscape that it was for me. But it hasn't occurred to me until now to wonder just why it is the first story in UT. After all, Tuor's story comes after Turin's, not before it, in the Silmarillion. I can only surmise that perhaps my reaction to 'Tuor' is not singular; perhaps Christopher Tolkien decided to place it in the first position precisely because it does such a good job of opening up that literary landscape. The 'Narn' is certainly a deeper story - at least than this fragment - and perhaps better, but I would venture to say that it is not as enchanting or beguiling. There's a certain lyricism in 'Tuor' that stands almost alone in Tolkien's writings; the closest things to it, as others have noted, would have to be certain passages of LotR. Perhaps that makes it the best 'hook' with which to open UT.

Originally Posted by Estelyn

What is it with Tolkien's wives and mothers?! Here we have yet another who effectively abandons her child (yes, she provided for fostering, but that's not the same as having an actual mother). Rather than staying with Tuor, Rían leaves him with the Elves and dies. Is life as a wife more important than life as a mother? Does her life end with that of her husband? This is an attitude I don't understand.

This is a good observation, and I largely agree with you. But I think that to fully consider Rian's fate we need to look again at the parallels and contrasts between Tuor's story and Turin's. Rian and Morwen are cousins, but are starkly contrasted in temperament. Morwen is a realist; she is stern but very strong, and though her grief after the Nirnaeth was surely terrible, she kept it under control and did what she thought best for her children, painful though sending Turin away to Doriath was for her. Rian seems to have been made for a gentler world. I would not quite say that her husband meant more to her than her son, nor that she ended her life because she considered herself his wife and nothing beyond that. Rather, I'd say that the grief of the Nirnaeth and the darkness of the days ahead was more than she could deal with without him. Killing herself was definitely the wrong thing to do, but it's a failure for which I don't think we should judge her too harshly.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I don't know that I agree with the comparison between Voronwë and Beleg.

The latter became Túrin's friend naturally, through an association of many years.

On the other hand, Voronwë really wasn't a friend at all. He was placed in Tuor's path by Ulmo, and intended as a guide for Tuor to Gondolin.

I have always seen Voronwe as the analogue of Gwindor - Gwindor guides Turin to Nargothrond and Voronwe guides Tuor to Gondolin. That parallel goes deeper - if you recall, Finrod and Turgon both had dreams sent to them by Ulmo urging them to found hidden cities, and Nargothrond and Gondolin were the respective results. It's also worth noting that in the Book of Lost Tales, Voronwe was an escaped thrall from Angband just as was Gwindor ('Flinding' in the Lost Tales). Indeed, I've always kind of suspected that Tolkien changed Voronwe's background to avoid making the analogy too blatantly obvious.