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Abstract
[...]that Tolkien himself clearly meant for us to connect the fall of Gondolin with the story of Troy is strongly suggested in the last lines of The Fall of Gondolin wherein the narrator muses, "Nor Bablon, nor Ninwi, nor the towers of Trui, nor all the many takings of Rum that is greatest among Men, saw such terror as fell that day upon Amon Gwareth in the kindred of the [Elves]" (The Book of Lost Tales Part II [BoLTl] 196). According to Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter, The Fall of Gondolin was "the first story [of what would be The Silmarillion] to be put on paper- it was written out during Tolkien's convalescence at Great Haywood early in 1917" (100), and he completed a full draft some time before he read it to his colleagues at Exeter College in 1920.2 Whether he began the story in 1916 or 1917, The Fall of Gondolin is among the foundational narratives for the First Age of Middle-earth, and those familiar with Tolkien's mythology know that the storylines of the First Age are complex. Tuor also prompts King Turgon to increase his vigilance, but Morgoth times his attack for the "great feast [of] Tarnin Austa or the Gates of Summer" (172). [...]the guard is relaxed when his forces assault the city: the ores breach the walls in their tank-like iron creatures, called "fire-serpents" and "dragons," upon which "rode the Balrogs in hundreds" (170), and the minions of Morgoth set the city ablaze. [...]Tolkien's tale emphasizes the tremendous power of selfless love, love freely given; the union of Tuor and Idril, so strong that it can endure the Fall of Gondolin and the ensuing exile, matters because their child will, with his wife, venture to Valinor and reconcile Man and Elf with the Valar, and through them with Eru Iluvatar. [...]while Tolkien clearly owes a debt to Virgil, TuOr7S tale exceeds that of Aeneas, for if Virgil united "arms and the man" to glorify Augustus and the empire of Rome, Tolkien united body and soul to save all of Middle-earth.11 1 See especially Gergely Nagy, "Saving the Myths: The Re -Creation of Mythology in Plato and Tolkien"; Sandra Ballif Straubhaar, "Myth, Late Roman History, and Multiculturalism in Tolkien's Middle-earth"; Jen Stevens, "From Catastrophe to Eucatastrophe: J.R.R. Tolkien's Transformation of Ovid's Mythic Pyramus and Thisbe into Beren and Luthien"; and Kathleen E. Dubs, "Providence, Fate, and Chance: Boethain Philosophy in The Lord of the Rings."