Fall of Gondolin

The Fall of Gondolin was the battle between the forces of Gondolin under King Turgon and Morgoth, after Maeglin had betrayed the city's hidden location. This battle claimed lives of most of the Gondolindrim, and of Turgon and his captains. However, a few managed to escape the city through a secret passage: notably Tuor, Idril, and their son, Eärendil.
== History ==
The seeds of Gondolin's fall were set some decades after Nírnaeth Arnoediad, fifth battle of the War of the Great Jewels. During this battle, which had been a decisive victory for Morgoth, the greatest human warrior of the age, Húrin, had been captured by Gothmog, the High Captain of Angband. 
With the Union of Maedhros destroyed, and the power of the Ñoldor broken, the destruction of Gondolin would essentially complete Morgoth's triumph. It was the last of the great Ñoldor kingdoms, and it's king Turgon was now High King of the Ñoldor after Fingon's death. However, Morgoth did not know the city's location. Húrin had spent several years in Gondolin, and Morgoth had been aware of this even before his capture. As such, he subjected Húrin in Angband to horrific torment in an effort to learn where the city was, most notably suffering the whistling whips of flame used by Lungorthin, the second and lesser Lord of Balrogs, who smote Hurin across the mouth. Húrin withstood the torment and laughed in the Dark Lord's face, refusing to give him any information. As punishment, Morgoth cursed his family and placed an enchantment upon Húrin which enabled him to see all the misfortunes that the curse brought upon his family. After decades of this torture, and after his family was all but dead, Morgoth released Húrin, feigning pity to an utterly defeated foe. However, his real hope was that Húrin's release would cause further grief to his foes, for Húrin too was cursed and made bitter after his long and brutal torment. 
Morgoth's hope was fulfilled when Húrin attempted to return to Gondolin. He made his way to the forests of the vale of Sirion and cried out to Turgon. However, Turgon took too long in debating whether or not to acknowledge Húrin and sent out his emissaries too late; by the time the Great Eagles arrived, Húrin was gone. But Morgoth's spies had been following Húrin, and thus the region of Gondolin's location was revealed to him. He drastically increased his patrols and spies in Sirion, hoping either to find the city itself or capture one who did. 
Several years later, Turgon's nephew, Maeglin, against the King's orders, decided to scour the land outside the Encircling Mountains for metal deposits. He was captured in his search by servants of Morgoth, and brought before the Dark Lord. Morgoth threatened Maeglin with unimaginable torment if he did not divulge Gondolin's location. Though Maeglin was no craven, the torment he was threatened with cowed his spirit, and he told all he knew. Morgoth was delighted at this and, to fully secure Maeglin's loyalty, promised him both the rule of the city and the hand of his cousin, Idril. Maeglin had desired Idril for years, but they were considered to be too close in kinship to be married, and furthermore, Idril was disgusted by his lust. Maeglin had become exceedingly bitter when Idril was wed to Tuor, a mortal man held in high esteem by Turgon. This promise secured Maeglin's eager fealty, and Morgoth sent him back to Gondolin to aid Morgoth's assault from within when the time came. 
Morgoth waited many years to initiate the assault, planning with the utmost diligence. The information from Maeglin had furnished Morgoth with knowledge of Gondolin's weaknesses, and his armies crept over the Encircling Mountains at the point where the watch was least vigilant, during a time of festival in the city. They were able to position themselves all about the walls of Gondolin without detection, and by the time the Elves became aware of them, they were beleaguered without hope. For many days the Elves of Gondolin held their ranks and the city. The battles that raged there were bloody and terrible - courageous leaders and warriors, predominantly Ecthelion and Tuor, became legends, and later songs and epic poems would be written about them. Swords such as Orcrist and Glamdring earned their reputations here, becoming feared among Orcs. 
However, Morgoth's armies were far too numerous and powerful for the Elves to overcome, as they were comprised not only of Orcs and other mundane Dark creatures, but of Balrogs and an entire brood of dragons fathered by Glaurung. Furthermore the information provided by Maeglin had furnished Morgoth with the means to plan a perfect siege.Turgon, High King of the Ñoldor, fell defending the citadel of the city, after refusing to leave it out of pride. Ecthelion of the Fountain fought with Gothmog, High Captain of Angband, in the Place of the Fountain near the Fountain of the King; he impaled Gothmog with the spike atop his helm after losing his sword, pushing Gothmog back into the fountain, in which both of them drowned. With the enemy prevailing, Tuor and Idril gathered as many of the people as they could find and attempted to escape the city, through a secret passageway in the mountains, but they were confronted by Maeglin, who attempted to steal away Idril. Tuor fought him and cast him off of the ledge below Gondolin to his death. Within the high passes, the group then encountered a Balrog (possibly Lungorthin) commanding a contingent of Orcs. Glorfindel fought the demon, driving him to the cliff's edge, but as the Balrog began to stumble over it, he grabbed Glorfindel by his golden hair, and both fell to their death.
Despite the defenders' effort, Gondolin was overrun and sacked. Morgoth's victory over his foes was now entirely complete, and the last of the great Elven kingdoms in exile was no more. 
== Accounts ==
"The Fall of Gondolin" is counted as the third of the Great Tales, but was the first written by Tolkien; and is the second most complete of the tales, after "The Children of Húrin".
The sources for this major First Age event are the chapters "The Fall of Gondolin" of The Book of Lost Tales Part TwoThe History of Middle-earth, Vol. II: The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, chapter III: "The Fall of Gondolin" and "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin" in The Silmarillion, which both tell of the founding of Gondolin, the arrival Tuor of the Edain, the betrayal of the city to Morgoth by Turgon's nephew Maeglin, and its subsequent destruction by Morgoth's armies.The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XXIII: "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin" Tolkien wrote also a poem: "The Lay of the Fall of Gondolin".J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lays of Beleriand, "II. Poems Early Abandoned" These three accounts were compiled into Christopher Tolkien's work, The Fall of Gondolin, published by HarperCollins in 2018.
The account of the Fall given in The Book of Lost Tales Part Two gives the most depth of all accounts, telling in detail of Tuor's and Ecthelion's feats in battle, for example, and giving great detail on each of the Houses of the Gondolindrim.
A partial, new version of "The Fall of Gondolin" was published in the Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth under the title "Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin". This narrative, originally entitled "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin", shows a great expansion by Tolkien of the earlier tale. It may be surmised from this text that Tolkien would have rewritten the entire story, but, for reasons unknown , abandoned the text before the point at which Tuor finally reaches Gondolin. For this reason, Christopher Tolkien retitled the story before including it in Unfinished Tales.
=== Background ===
J.R.R. Tolkien began writing the story that would become "The Fall of Gondolin" in 1917, in an army barracks on the back of a sheet of military marching music. It is the first substantive, traceable story he ever physically wrote about the Middle-earth legendarium.
Because Tolkien was constantly revising his First Age stories, the narrative he wrote in 1917 (published posthumously in The Book of Lost Tales Part Two) remains the only full account of the Fall. The narrative in The Silmarillion was the result of the editing by his son Christopher of various different sources.
=== Real-world references ===
'Fall of Gondolin' is one of very few instances in the legendarium in which Tolkien makes reference to real world events, comparing the fall of the city to tragic story of real ancient cities such as Rome, Troy, or Babylon.
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Afrikaans 	Val van Gondolin
Albanian 	Rënia e Gondolin
Amharic 	የጎንዶሊን ውድቀት
Arabic 	سقوط جوندولين
Armenian 	Գոնդոլինի անկում
Asturian 	Cayida de Gondolin
Azerbaijani 	Gondolinın süqutu
Basque 	Gondolin Jaitsiera
Belarusian Cyrillic 	падзенне Гондолина
Bengali 	পতনের গন্ডোলিন
Bosnian 	Pad Gondolina
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Падането на Гондолин
Catalan 	Caiguda de Gondolin
Cantonese 	贡多林的陷落
Cebuano 	Pagkapukan sa Gondolin
Chinese (Simplified)	冈多林的陷落
Corsican 	Caduta di Gondolin
Croatian 	Pad Gondolina
Czech 	Pád Gondolinu
Danish 	Gondolins fald
Dutch 	Val van Gondolin
Esperanto 	Falita de Gondolin
Estonian 	Gondolini langemine
Filipino 	Pagbagsak ng Gondolin
Finnish 	Gondolinin tuho
French 	Chute de Gondolin
Frisian 	Fal fan Gondolin
Georgian 	გონდოლინის დაცემა
German 	Der Fall von Gondolin
Greek 	Πτώση της Γκόντολιν
Gujarati 	ફોલ ઓફ ગોન્ડોલીન
Haiti Creole 	Tonbe nan Gondolin
Hawaii 	Hina o Gondolin
Hebrew 	נפילתה של גונדולין
Hungarian 	Gondolin Bukása
Hmong 	Zeeg ntawm Gondolin
Icelandic 	Fall Gondolins
Indonesian 	Jatuhnya Gondolin
Italian 	Caduta di Gondolin
Irish Gaelic 	Titim de Gondolin
Japanese 	ゴンドリンの陥落
Javanese 	Tiba saka Gondolin
Kannada 	ಫಾಲ್ ಆ ಗೊಂಡೋಲಿನ್
Kazakh 	құлдырауы Гондолін (Cyrillic) Quldırawı Gondolin (Latin)
Korean 	곤돌린의 몰락
Kurdish 	Ketina ji Gondolin (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	кулашы оф Гондолин
Latin 	Ruina Gondolin
Latvian 	Gondolins krišana
Lithuanian 	Rudenį Gondolin
Luxembourgish 	Stuerz vun Gondolin
Macedonian Cyrillic 	Падот на Гондолин
Malagasy 	Nianjeran'i Gondolin
Malaysian 	Kejatuhan Gondolin
Maltese 	Waqgħa tal Gondolin
Maori 	Hinga o Gondolin
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Гондолинын уналт
Nepalese 	पतन ङोन्दोलिन
Norwegian 	Gondolins fall
Persian 	سقوطگوندولین
Polish 	Upadek Gondolinu
Portuguese 	Queda de Gondolin
Romanian 	Căderea Gondolin
Russian 	Падение Гондолина
Scots 	Faw o Gondolin
Scottish Gaelic 	Tuiteam de Gondolin
Serbian 	Пад Гондолина (Cyrillic) Pad Gondolina (Latin)
Sinhalese 	ෆල්ල් ඔෆ් ගොඳොලින්
Slovak 	Pád Gondolinu
Slovenian 	Padec Gondolin
Somali 	Dhici ee Gondolin
Spanish 	Caída de Gondolin
Sundanese 	Ragrag tina Gondolin
Swahili 	Kuanguka kwa Gondolin
Swedish 	Gondolins fall
Tajik Cyrillic 	тирамоҳи оф Гондолин
Tamil 	கோண்டோலின் வீழ்ச்சி
Telugu 	ఫాల్ అఫ్ గొండోలిన్
Thai 	การล่มสลายของกอนโดลิน
Turkish 	Gondolin'in yıkımı
Turkmen 	Gondolin Ýykylmak ?
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	падіння Гондоліна
Uzbek 	Фалл оф Гондолин (Cyrillic) Gondolin'de qulashi (Latin)
Vietnamese 	Sụp đổ của Gondolin
Welsh 	Cwymp Gondolin
Xhosa 	Ukuwa Gondolin
Yiddish 	פאַלן פון גאָנדאָלין
Yoruba 	Isubu ti Gondolin
==References==
Category:Events
Category:Battles
Category:War of the Great Jewels
es:Caída de Gondolin
it:Caduta di Gondolin
pl:Upadek Gondolinu
ru:Падение Гондолина