In the Third Age Gothmog was the name of the lieutenant of Minas Morgul (The Return of the King V.6).)

Hendor ‘was a house-carle of Idril’s and was aged, but bore Eдrendel down the secret passage.’

Idril ‘was that most fair daughter of the king of Gondolin whom Tuor loved when she was but a little maid, and who bare him Eдrendel. Her the Elves name Irildл; and we speak of as Idril Tal-Celeb or Idril of the Silver Feet, but they Irildл Taltelepta.’

See the Appendix on Names, entry Idril.

Indor ‘was the name of the father of Tuor’s father, wherefore did the Gnomes name Eдrendel Gon Indor and the Elves Indorildo or Indorion.’

Legolas ‘or Green-leaf was a man of the Tree, who led the exiles over Tumladin in the dark, being night-sighted, and he liveth still in Tol Eressлa named by the Eldar there Laiqalassл; but the book of Rъmil saith further hereon.’

(See I.267, entry Tбri-Laisi.)

§ 3 Miscellaneous Matters

(i) The geography of The Fall of Gondolin

I have noticed above (p. 205) that in Tuor’s journey all along the coast of what was afterwards Beleriand to the mouths of Sirion there is an unquestionable resemblance to the later map, in the trend of the coast from north-south to east-west. It is also said that after he left Falasquil ‘the distant hills marched ever nearer to the margin of the sea’, and that the spurs of the Iron Mountains ‘run even to the sea’ (pp. 152–3). These statements can likewise be readily enough related to the map, where the long western extension of the Mountains of Shadow (Ered Wethrin), forming the southern border of Nevrast, reached the sea at Vinyamar (for the equation of the Mountains of Iron and the Mountains of Shadow see I. 111–12).

Arlisgion, ‘the place of reeds’ (p. 153) above the mouths of Sirion, survived in Lisgardh ‘the land of reeds at the Mouths of Sirion’ in the later Tuor (p. 34); and the feature that the great river passed underground for a part of its course goes back to the earliest period, as does that of the Meres of Twilight, Aelin-uial (‘the Pools of Twilight’, p. 195). There is here however a substantial difference in the tale from The Silmarillion (p. 122), where Aelin-uial was the region of great pools and marshes where ‘the flood of Sirion was stayed’ south of the Meres the river ‘fell from the north in a mighty fall…and then he plunged suddenly underground into great tunnels that the weight of his falling waters delved’. Here on the other hand the Pools of Twilight are clearly below the ‘cavern of the Tumultuous Winds’ (never mentioned later) where Sirion dives underground. But the Land of Willows, below the region of Sirion’s underground passage, is placed as it was to remain.

Thus the view I expressed (p. 141) of the geographical indications in the Tale of Turambar can be asserted also of those of The Fall of Gondolin.

(ii) Ulmo and the other Valar in The Fall of Gondolin

In the speech of Tuor inspired by Ulmo that he uttered at his first meeting with Turgon (p. 161) he said: ‘the hearts of the Valar are angered…seeing the sorrow of the thraldom of the Noldoli and the wanderings of Men.’ This is greatly at variance with what is told in The Hiding of Valinor, especially the following (I.208–9):*

The most of the Valar moreover were fain of their ancient ease and desired only peace, wishing neither rumour of Melko and his violence nor murmur of the restless Gnomes to come ever again among them to disturb their happiness; and for such reasons they also clamoured for the concealment of the land. Not the least among these were Vбna and Nessa, albeit most even of the great Gods were of one mind. In vain did Ulmo of his foreknowing plead before them for pity and pardon on the Noldoli…

Subsequently Tuor said (p. 161): ‘the Gods sit in Valinor, though their mirth is minished for sorrow and fear of Melko, and they hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic that no evil come to its shores.’ Turgon in his reply ironically echoed and altered the words: ‘they that sit within [i.e. in Valinor] reck little of the dread of Melko or the sorrow of the world, but hide their land and weave about it inaccessible magic, that no tidings of evil come ever to their ears.’

How is this to be understood? Was this Ulmo’s ‘diplomacy’? Certainly Turgon’s understanding of the motives of the Valar chimes better with what is said of them in The Hiding of Valinor.

But the Gnomes of Gondolin reverenced the Valar. There were ‘pomps of the Ainur’ (p. 165); a great square of the city and its highest point was Gar Ainion, the Place of the Gods, where weddings were celebrated (pp. 164, 186); and the people of the Hammer of Wrath ‘reverenced Aulл the Smith more than all other Ainur’ (p. 174).

Of particular interest is the passage (p. 165) in which a reason is given for Ulmo’s choice of a Man as the agent of his designs: ‘Now Melko was not much afraid of the race of Men in those days of his great power, and for this reason did Ulmo work through one of this kindred for the better deceiving of Melko, seeing that no Valar and scarce any of the Eldar or Noldoli might stir unmarked of his vigilance.’ This is the only place where a reason is expressly offered, save for an isolated early note, where two reasons are given:

(1) ‘the wrath of the Gods’ (i.e. against the Gnomes);

(2) ‘Melko did not fear Men—had he thought that any messengers were getting to Valinor he would have redoubled his vigilance and evil and hidden the Gnomes away utterly.’

But this is too oblique to be helpful.

The conception of ‘the luck of the Gods’ occurs again in this tale (pp. 188, 200 note 32), as it does in the Tale of Turambar: see p. 141. The Ainur ‘put it into Tuor’s heart’ to climb the cliff out of the ravine of Golden Cleft for the saving of his life (p. 151).

Very strange is the passage concerning the birth of Eдrendel (p. 165): ‘In these days came to pass the fulfilment of the time of the desire of the Valar and the hope of the Eldaliл, for in great love Idril bore to Tuor a son and he was called Eдrendel.’ Is it to be understood that the union of Elf and mortal Man, and the birth of their offspring, was ‘the desire of the Valar’—that the Valar foresaw it, or hoped for it, as the fulfilment of a design of Ilъvatar from which great good should come? There is no hint or suggestion of such an idea elsewhere.

(iii) Orcs

There is a noteworthy remark in the tale (p. 159) concerning the origin of the Orcs (or Orqui as they were called in Tuor A, and in Tuor B as first written): ‘all that race were bred of the subterranean heats and slime.’ There is no trace yet of the later view that ‘naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindalл before the Beginning’, or that the Orcs were derived from enslaved Quendi after the Awakening (The Silmarillion p. 50). Conceivably there is a first hint of this idea of their origin in the words of the tale in the same passage: ‘unless it be that certain of the Noldoli were twisted to the evil of Melko and mingled among these Orcs’, although of course this is as it stands quite distinct from the idea that the Orcs were actually bred from Elves.

Here also occurs the name Glamhoth of the Orcs, a name that reappears in the later Tuor (pp. 39 and 54 note 18).