Publisher Harper Collins releases The Fall of Gondolin, edited by Christopher Tolkien, in August 2018.
This news comes as a surprise for Christopher Tolkien wrote in the preface of Beren and Luthien, published in 2016, that it will be (most likely) his last:
“In my ninety-third year this is (presumptively) my last book in the long series of editions of my father’s writings, very largely unpublished, and of somewhat curious nature” (Beren and Luthien p. 16).
The Fall of Gondolin was “the first real story of [Tolkien’s] imaginary world’ and, together with Beren and Luthien and The Children of Hurin, he regarded it as one of the three ‘Great Tales’ of the Elder Days”. Source: harpercollins.co.uk
The Fall of Gondolin will feature, just as The Children of Hurin and Beren and Luthien, illustrations by Alan Lee.
From the publisher
In the Tale of The Fall of Gondolin are two of the greatest powers in the world. There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwë, chief of the Valar: he is called the Lord of Waters, of all seas, lakes, and rivers under the sky. But he works in secret in Middle-earth to support the Noldor, the kindred of the Elves among whom were numbered Húrin and Túrin Turambar.
Central to this enmity of the gods is the city of Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable. It was built and peopled by Noldorin Elves who, when they dwelt in Valinor, the land of the gods, rebelled against their rule and fled to Middle-earth. Turgon King of Gondolin is hated and feared above all his enemies by Morgoth, who seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city, while the gods in Valinor in heated debate largely refuse to intervene in support of Ulmo’s desires and designs.
Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Túrin, the instrument of Ulmo’s designs. Guided unseen by him Tuor sets out from the land of his birth on the fearful journey to Gondolin, and in one of the most arresting moments in the history of Middle-earth the sea-god himself appears to him, rising out of the ocean in the midst of a storm. In Gondolin he becomes great; he is wedded to Idril, Turgon’s daughter, and their son is Eärendel, whose birth and profound importance in days to come is foreseen by Ulmo.
At last comes the terrible ending. Morgoth learns through an act of supreme treachery all that he needs to mount a devastating attack on the city, with Balrogs and dragons and numberless Orcs. After a minutely observed account of the fall of Gondolin, the tale ends with the escape of Tuor and Idril, with the child Eärendel, looking back from a cleft in the mountains as they flee southward, at the blazing wreckage of their city. They were journeying into a new story, the Tale of Eärendel, which Tolkien never wrote, but which is sketched out in this book from other sources.
Where can you get The Fall of Gondolin?
