"I am Tuor son of Huor of the House of Hador and the kindred of Húrin, and these names, I am told, are not unknown in the Hidden Kingdom." Indie rp blog for Tuor, canon character from Tolkien's books.
Scattered thoughts on the interim and Last Version of the Fall of Gondolin
Interestingly enough, Ulmo's isolation among the Valar is made explicit here without its later reconciliation. The Valar also come off a lot worse in the sense of indolence and refusal to hear - though it is striking that the Eagles consistently aid Gondolin - not just in its fall but across its entire existence, guarding it from Morgoth's spies, in just about every version. The idea of Gondolin being guarded by Fingoldin's cairn, and not the other way around, is like a blunt knife edged in honey. The Eagles nest there! It's also a pretty consistent show of favour by Manwe to Fingolfin and his children - wow imagine if an Eagle descended from the sky and plucked Aredhel out of Nan Elmoth - ok that's probably stretching it, and Aredhel would probably have shot it.
The version of the Hiding of Valinor in the Book of Lost Tales appended here is really food for thought - it highlights something I'd somewhat forgotten about, which is the Telerin grievance and their likely opposition to pity shown to the Noldorin exiles. That's something explicitly brought up here, and honestly, it does make a lot of the Valar's actions make more sense than as a unitary decision made without consultation of any of the Elves. The Teleri were massacred, should they now be ignored?
Striking is the idea that Tuor's message isn't just EVACUATE but - you can still win if you gather together with men and the sons of Feanor! Like, that idea of Gondolin really being the last bastion of hope, which I feel like probably got abandoned later on (in the sense that the hope is able to be fulfilled, not just perceived as such, certainly even in the Last Version everyone is hoping for Turgon to make a comeback!), is so....I really want to read an AU of this - I feel like losing it!Turgon trying to convince has lost it!Maedhros of the like....possibility of victory he himself barely believes after the Nirnaeth and after Doriath (though timeline changes indicate that by the time Tuor got to Gondolin, Elu Thingol is likely still alive, so if they acted immediately it would have just been Nirnaeth to reckon with, where it's not so much blame than grief) would be...somewhere on the extremes of both comedy and tragedy. I really like the thought that hope exists still! And honestly if we're going by the first Tale's account of Gondolin's last stand, they killed 40+ Balrogs and a DRAGON like...maybe...they did have a chance idk...though where was all that Balrog-slaying when Fingon's banners were trampled into the mire of his blood...but I digress.
The Last Version is SO GOOD and WHY did Tolkien abandon it...like I am really empathising with Christopher Tolkien here, 'perhaps the most grievous of his many abandonments' indeed. Some scattered thoughts in no particular order under the cut:
Rian and Huor...the idea of women lying across mounds for the dead is repeated with Nienor, the cousin by Morwen that Rian never sees
This really alerted me to the fact that Tuor never knew his parents at all. I'm assuming he and Annael had conversations about them (especially Rian, since I doubt Annael knew Huor well), and I hope he and Turgon had some as well.
Annael, the only one to return from the Nirnaeth!! That speaks of some pretty heavy decimation, and means that that little contingent probably has very limited military and defensive capacity...and yet they had pity and took in Rian and then fostered her son...these little sparks of kindness
It's interesting that Annael knows of the Ammon-in-Gelydh, Gate of the Noldor 'in the days of Turgon', while when Tuor asks around later 'such few of the Elves as lingered in the mountains had not heard of it'. I wonder if he passed through Nevrast at times during the Long Peace before the founding of Gondolin?
Speaking of Turgon, 'At that name Tuor was stirred, though he knew not why' - leaving this here without comment.
Tuor being caught in thralldom...I wonder what happened to the other thralls with him when he escaped? And it's pretty sweet that the dogs they set on him basically just wag their tail and go back home.
I love that Annael and his people spoke of Tuor when they reached the Havens in the South. And Tuor says 'Annael my foster-father of the Grey-elves spoke of it to me.' In fact, that whole relationship moves me in a very understated way. I hope they managed to meet again the Havens of Sirion.
'Yet, though I know not why, ever his name stirs in my heart, and comes to my lips. And had I my will, I would go in search of him, rather than tread this dark way of dread.' Tuor about Turgon - again, leaving this here without comment.
I love how the echoing mountains of Lammoth go from a place where Morgoth's screams are echoes back at him to a place where Tuor's harp music 'went forth and rang in the night-clad hill, until all the empty land was filled with music beneath the stars.' And that sudden intrusion of a much older time: 'there once long ago Feanor had landed from the sea...ere the rising of the Moon.'
Speaking of, the Moon is only about 500 years old right now.
Sea-yearning is always....so good in Tolkien. I think it's also because I live in a coastal city, so when Tuor opens his arms...I feel it. Is there anything like looking at the sea.
'...the halls of Vinyamar, eldest of all the works of stone that the Noldor built in the lands of their exile.' - lots of things to unpack here! Turgon and Aredhel moved out REALLY early from Hithlum if Vinyamar went up before Barad Eithel. And Turgon probably took all the architecture nuts with him, himself, of course, being among them. I wonder why he worked so fast? And of course, it's by the sea.
'the proud people, deathless but doomed, from far beyond the Sea.' ah....
the single beam of the setting sun through the high window 'smote the wall before him', i really like that verb here, the specific image of light almost as a force, especially considering that it 'glittered as it were upon burnished metal'. The forge metaphor does wonders for this almost magical girl transformation sequence where Tuor dons the armour Turgon left behind, in a sense transforming his identity into something else.
Though I did start laughing when he stuck seven swan feathers into his helmet
Ulmo coming out of the sea is ...shivers
'that which thy heart hath ever sought,' answered Ulmo: 'to find Turgon, and look upon the hidden city.' - no comments. at all.
Ulmo literally says 'Hi! You're LATE.'
The portrayal of the Doom of Mandos as an active force here that the Noldor are equally trapped from one side as they are by Morgoth on the other side is, really something. It's a pretty clear indication that Mandos' doom isn't just a foretelling or prophecy of causation effects, but a force at work in the world. 'And now the Curse of Mandos hastens to its fulfillment,' etc. I also think that Ulmo's positioning of himself among the Valar is illuminating - he gainsays, but not in rebellion. The advocate as it were, the counterpart to Mandos - pity against consequence. Importantly, I think they're both necessary - consequence must exist, but there must be space made for mercy to breathe through. I don't envy Manwe having to balance between them AT ALL though.
Then there was a noise of thunder, and lightning flared over the sea; and Tuor beheld Ulmo standing among the waves as a tower of silver flickering with darting flames; and he cried against the wind: ‘I go, Lord! Yet now my heart yearneth rather to the Sea.’
And thereupon Ulmo lifted up a mighty horn, and blew upon it a single great note, to which the roaring of the storm was but a wind-flaw upon a lake. And as he heard that note, and was encompassed by it, and filled with it, it seemed to Tuor that the coasts of Middle-earth vanished, and he surveyed all the waters of the world in a great vision: from the veins of the lands to the mouths of the rivers, and from the strands and estuaries out into the deep. The Great Sea he saw through its unquiet regions teeming with strange forms, even to its lightless depths, in which amid the everlasting darkness there echoed voices terrible to mortal ears. Its measureless plains he surveyed with the swift sight of the Valar, lying windless under the eye of Anar, or glittering under the horned Moon, or lifted in hills of wrath that broke upon the Shadowy Isles, until remote upon the edge of sight, and beyond the count of leagues, he glimpsed a mountain, rising beyond his mind’s reach into a shining cloud, and at its feet a long surf glimmering. And even as he strained to hear the sound of those far waves, and to see clearer that distant light, the note ended, and he stood beneath the thunder of the storm, and lightning many-branched rent asunder the heavens above him. And Ulmo was gone, and the sea was in tumult, as the wild waves of Ossë rode against the walls of Nevrast.
Leaving this here as a passage that literally stopped my breath with beauty. Taniquetil as a glimpse of Paradise, the White Mountain, is just...
"Yet being weary he slept at times, and his sleep was troubled with many dreams, of which naught remained in waking memory save one: a vision of an isle, and in the midst of it was a steep mountain, and behind it the sun went down, and shadows sprang into the sky; but above it there shone a single dazzling star." :'(( Earendil!
It's interesting that Tuor knows from the 'piercing glance of his sea-grey eyes' that Voronwe is one of the Noldor. But it can't be the Tree-light, since Voronwe is born in Beleriand. I wonder if it was the colour of the 'piercingness' that did it?
It's incredible that Voronwe is like I never want to go back, and literally the first person we meet is his old buddy Elemmakil, I bet this guy is the ghost of ghosts. Message read 12th July 1995.
Textual mention of cold resistance among the elves who passed the Helcaraxe!
It's interesting that all these years later the Noldor still don't have the ability to make ships that can cross the sea to Valinor! Not in the sense that their ships can't make it because of external interventions (Osse) but literally the quality of the ships is not up to scratch. They need Cirdan's help - and this does make the Kinslaying at Alqualonde both more understandable and abhorrent. It must have a mighty work, and not just like, your everyday canoe. Nothing else would have served.
Textual Sindar and Noldor intermarriage!
'There Ulmo is but a servant of Yavanna' - this sentence after we've seen the majesty of Ulmo creates an image of such flourishing growth and beauty in Nan-tathrin. Here, Tuor's never seen it. It's an extra layer of irony that the first time he will will be when they arrive there after fleeing from the fall of Gondolin. It's also really cute that Voronwe is like I hear Valinor has even PRETTIER willow-meads! I want to see!!! I hope he gets to eventually visit those places.
'The Great Sea is terrible...it works the Doom of the Valar.' Again, the Doom as an active force! This probably lends more credence to the Oath as an active force as well.
'Lo! There is Taras, the land of my birth!' Ah...that's heartbreaking. It's an extra twist of the knife that they're shipwrecked literally in sight of land, after SEVEN YEARS at sea.
'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world'.
That meeting with Turin...Nargothrond's already doomed huh. 'Ivrin, Faelivrin! Gwindow and Beleg!' Yeah...poor guy. And this is the only time they meet. GOD.
'Ill it is to be trapped between the Doom of the Valar and the Malice of the Enemy,' said Voronwe. - more biased, but again, textual evidence of either the doom of the Valar as an active force, or at least the belief of it as one. And widespread as well, if it's from the mouth of a Sindar-Noldor intermarriage child born in Beleriand!
'You must forgo the fire, or else forgo Turgon.' Voronwe to Tuor - PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT.
Rouse the Orcs, and I leave you. I really like this for some reason as like, a gesture as the seriousness of the leaguer, and also like, a stand of Voronwe's limits, I guess.
Tuor and Voronwe's journey remind me a lot of Sam and Frodo's. Especially where Tuor 'clasping Voronwe close he cast about them both the folds of the grey cloak of the Lord of Waters, and stepped forth.'
The Eagles! Again, long-term aid of Gondolin. I wondered in the Silmarillion where Turgon was getting his information from since he wasn't letting anyone out - I'm pretty sure it was the Eagles. Wow, I hope he and Manwe get to have a conversation after he's re-embodied.
'Yet it is the road to Turgon,' said Voronwe.
Not the road to Gondolin, the road to Turgon. WHAT HAS TUOR BEEN SAYING.
'And are there not the Eagles, as you have seen? They are the folk of Thorondor, who dwelt once even on Thangorodrim ere Morgoth grew so mighty, and dwell now in the Mountains of Turgon since the fall of Fingolfin. They alone save the Noldor know the Hidden Kingdom and guard the skies above it, though as yet no servant of the Enemy has dared to fly into the high airs; and they bring much news to the King of all that moves in the lands without.' - textual evidence for conjectures above.
Voronwe fearing 'some stroke in the dark' and saying 'if [that hope] fails more surely shall we die than by all the perils of wild and winter' makes it pretty clear that not only is the leaguer there it's also been enforced lethally aforetime.
'Suddenly an elven lantern was unhooded, and its bright ray was turned upon Voronwë before him, but nothing else could Tuor see save a dazzling star in the darkness; and he knew that while that beam was upon him he could not move, neither to flee nor to run forward.' - My mind jumps to Earendil and the Silmaril's light here, though I'm not too sure why. The cold, terrifying light....
'And Voronwë cast back his hood, and his face shone in the ray, hard and clear, as if graven in stone; and Tuor marvelled to see its beauty.' Presented with comment. The comment is: Tuor is bi.
"'This is strange in you, Voronwë,’ [Elemmakil] said. ‘We were long friends." Voronwe was about to ghost this guy forever.
How far that deep road ran Tuor could not guess, and as he stared onward a great weariness came upon him like a cloud. A chill wind hissed over the faces of the stones, and he drew his cloak about him. ‘Cold blows the wind from the Hidden Kingdom!’ he said.
‘Yea, indeed,’ said Voronwë; ‘to a stranger it might seem that pride has made the servants of Turgon pitiless. Long and hard seem the leagues of the Seven Gates to the hungry and wayworn.’
I love how Tuor makes an objective comment on the weather and Voronwe immediately turns it into a passive-agressive attack on Elemmakil's hospitality. This is an understated comedy. What is Tuor feeling, he speaks again later, he is so brave. I can see them throwing glares at each other over his head.
The Gate of Writhen Iron really struck me for the illusion of its light as being that of the Moon. I'm not sure, I think it's a device that's repeated a couple of times - it being daylight but the ravine so deep you can still see the stars, light on the snow coming as moonlight etc. I feel like it's hinting at something, the illusion...idk. It's hard to pin because it's not the usual 'something masquerading as the sun', it's the other way around where sunlight is filtering as something else, and the usual associations of sunlight as truth and revelation (in the sense of revealing) aren't quite matching up for me, though I do think there's something there...
'But Elemmakil went forward, and no gate opened to his touch; but he struck upon a bar, and the fence rang like a harp of many strings, giving forth clear notes in harmony that ran from tower to tower.' - about the Seventh Gate which Maeglin made - which, damn! he's GOOD. He made it into music!
'Then Tuor passed through, and coming to a high sward that looked out over the valley beyond, he beheld a vision of Gondolin amid the white snow. And so entranced was he that for long he could look at nothing else; for he saw before him at last the vision of his desire out of dreams of longing.' This moment strikes at the heart. Especially when one thinks of Earendil, all those years later, walking through deserted Tirion with fear rising in his heart, worried that something's happened to it like in Gondolin...in a sense, Gondolin is Tuor's Valinor, except it doesn't last.
I would literally give an arm to see Turgon and Tuor meeting. WHY DID TOLKIEN ABANDON THIS. I am SO curious as to what that initial meeting of like Turgon, Idril and Maeglin meeting Tuor would be like...in my heart of hearts I'm both dreading and hoping that Tuor thinks something like 'But Tuor spoke not, for all his gaze was caught in Idril, called Celebrindal, whose head was crowned with gold. But her eyes were grey and piercing and bright as a fire, and marked her as one of the high folk of the Noldor, and Turgon's daughter.'
I've never been so invested in the relationship between Tuor and Turgon - WHAT IS GOING ON THERE
On a more serious note, I do think that it have been a very profound relationship, not fully friendship, not fully father-son, not romantic, but not completely platonic either - I think they must have loved each other for Turgon to first reject his message and second promote him into his counsels and favour, and for Tuor to be so torn when Turgon despairs.
And hearkening back to the Tuor of the first version of the Tale...wow uh I just had a really bad Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere parallel come to me
The Prophecy of Amnon is incredibly interesting: 'The words of the Prophecy of Amnon, ‘Great is the fall of Gondolin’, uttered by Turgon in the midst of the battle for the city, are cited in two closely similar forms in isolated jottings under this title. Both begin with the words under the title ‘Great is the fall of Gondolin’, and then follow in the one case ‘Turgon shall not fade till the lily of the valley fadeth’ and in the other ‘When the lily of the valley withers then shall Turgon fade’.'
When the lily of the valley withers then shall Turgon fade is such a lovely sentence.
Though it would be really funny if Amnon is just...another name for Mandos. When he gave his Doom he was like P.S. [special doom for Huan], P.P.S [special doom for Turgon]. I wonder what Fingolfin thought.
I think it's also interesting to think that Turgon first named the city 'Ondolinde', and Gondolin was the eventual Sindarisation. I wonder if Turgon's heart sank when he first heard that?
Many parallels can be drawn between Maeglin and Idril, Tuor and Eärendel. It's like looking in a mirror. Maeglin stood upon the right hand of Turgon and Idril on the left hand. One of their parents is non-Noldor: Sindar and Vanyar respectively; Maeglin came from outside of Gondolin and Tuor as well, and they were both outsiders, albeit in different ways, Maeglin with a "Dark Elf" father and Tuor being a Man; To Turgon, Maeglin was his sister's son and Eärendil was his daughter's son. Both of they were prophecised by an family member, though one is ill-fated and other is hopeful, and Maeglin hearded them both in person.
Eöl cried out: ‘So you forsake your father and his kin, ill-gotten son! Here shall you fail of all your hopes, and here may you yet die the same death as I.’
- Silmarillion: Of Maeglin
Then Huor spoke and said: ‘Yet if it stands but a little while, then out of your house shall come the hope of Elves and Men. This I say to you, lord, with the eyes of death: though we part here for ever, and I shall not look on your white walls again, from you and from me a new star shall arise. Farewell!’
And Maeglin, Turgon’s sister-son, who stood by, heard these words, and did not forget them; but he said nothing.
- Silmarillion: the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoendiad
Scattered thoughts on the interim and Last Version of the Fall of Gondolin
Interestingly enough, Ulmo's isolation among the Valar is made explicit here without its later reconciliation. The Valar also come off a lot worse in the sense of indolence and refusal to hear - though it is striking that the Eagles consistently aid Gondolin - not just in its fall but across its entire existence, guarding it from Morgoth's spies, in just about every version. The idea of Gondolin being guarded by Fingoldin's cairn, and not the other way around, is like a blunt knife edged in honey. The Eagles nest there! It's also a pretty consistent show of favour by Manwe to Fingolfin and his children - wow imagine if an Eagle descended from the sky and plucked Aredhel out of Nan Elmoth - ok that's probably stretching it, and Aredhel would probably have shot it.
The version of the Hiding of Valinor in the Book of Lost Tales appended here is really food for thought - it highlights something I'd somewhat forgotten about, which is the Telerin grievance and their likely opposition to pity shown to the Noldorin exiles. That's something explicitly brought up here, and honestly, it does make a lot of the Valar's actions make more sense than as a unitary decision made without consultation of any of the Elves. The Teleri were massacred, should they now be ignored?
Striking is the idea that Tuor's message isn't just EVACUATE but - you can still win if you gather together with men and the sons of Feanor! Like, that idea of Gondolin really being the last bastion of hope, which I feel like probably got abandoned later on (in the sense that the hope is able to be fulfilled, not just perceived as such, certainly even in the Last Version everyone is hoping for Turgon to make a comeback!), is so....I really want to read an AU of this - I feel like losing it!Turgon trying to convince has lost it!Maedhros of the like....possibility of victory he himself barely believes after the Nirnaeth and after Doriath (though timeline changes indicate that by the time Tuor got to Gondolin, Elu Thingol is likely still alive, so if they acted immediately it would have just been Nirnaeth to reckon with, where it's not so much blame than grief) would be...somewhere on the extremes of both comedy and tragedy. I really like the thought that hope exists still! And honestly if we're going by the first Tale's account of Gondolin's last stand, they killed 40+ Balrogs and a DRAGON like...maybe...they did have a chance idk...though where was all that Balrog-slaying when Fingon's banners were trampled into the mire of his blood...but I digress.
The Last Version is SO GOOD and WHY did Tolkien abandon it...like I am really empathising with Christopher Tolkien here, 'perhaps the most grievous of his many abandonments' indeed. Some scattered thoughts in no particular order under the cut:
Rian and Huor...the idea of women lying across mounds for the dead is repeated with Nienor, the cousin by Morwen that Rian never sees
This really alerted me to the fact that Tuor never knew his parents at all. I'm assuming he and Annael had conversations about them (especially Rian, since I doubt Annael knew Huor well), and I hope he and Turgon had some as well.
Annael, the only one to return from the Nirnaeth!! That speaks of some pretty heavy decimation, and means that that little contingent probably has very limited military and defensive capacity...and yet they had pity and took in Rian and then fostered her son...these little sparks of kindness
It's interesting that Annael knows of the Ammon-in-Gelydh, Gate of the Noldor 'in the days of Turgon', while when Tuor asks around later 'such few of the Elves as lingered in the mountains had not heard of it'. I wonder if he passed through Nevrast at times during the Long Peace before the founding of Gondolin?
Speaking of Turgon, 'At that name Tuor was stirred, though he knew not why' - leaving this here without comment.
Tuor being caught in thralldom...I wonder what happened to the other thralls with him when he escaped? And it's pretty sweet that the dogs they set on him basically just wag their tail and go back home.
I love that Annael and his people spoke of Tuor when they reached the Havens in the South. And Tuor says 'Annael my foster-father of the Grey-elves spoke of it to me.' In fact, that whole relationship moves me in a very understated way. I hope they managed to meet again the Havens of Sirion.
'Yet, though I know not why, ever his name stirs in my heart, and comes to my lips. And had I my will, I would go in search of him, rather than tread this dark way of dread.' Tuor about Turgon - again, leaving this here without comment.
I love how the echoing mountains of Lammoth go from a place where Morgoth's screams are echoes back at him to a place where Tuor's harp music 'went forth and rang in the night-clad hill, until all the empty land was filled with music beneath the stars.' And that sudden intrusion of a much older time: 'there once long ago Feanor had landed from the sea...ere the rising of the Moon.'
Speaking of, the Moon is only about 500 years old right now.
Sea-yearning is always....so good in Tolkien. I think it's also because I live in a coastal city, so when Tuor opens his arms...I feel it. Is there anything like looking at the sea.
'...the halls of Vinyamar, eldest of all the works of stone that the Noldor built in the lands of their exile.' - lots of things to unpack here! Turgon and Aredhel moved out REALLY early from Hithlum if Vinyamar went up before Barad Eithel. And Turgon probably took all the architecture nuts with him, himself, of course, being among them. I wonder why he worked so fast? And of course, it's by the sea.
'the proud people, deathless but doomed, from far beyond the Sea.' ah....
the single beam of the setting sun through the high window 'smote the wall before him', i really like that verb here, the specific image of light almost as a force, especially considering that it 'glittered as it were upon burnished metal'. The forge metaphor does wonders for this almost magical girl transformation sequence where Tuor dons the armour Turgon left behind, in a sense transforming his identity into something else.
Though I did start laughing when he stuck seven swan feathers into his helmet
Ulmo coming out of the sea is ...shivers
'that which thy heart hath ever sought,' answered Ulmo: 'to find Turgon, and look upon the hidden city.' - no comments. at all.
Ulmo literally says 'Hi! You're LATE.'
The portrayal of the Doom of Mandos as an active force here that the Noldor are equally trapped from one side as they are by Morgoth on the other side is, really something. It's a pretty clear indication that Mandos' doom isn't just a foretelling or prophecy of causation effects, but a force at work in the world. 'And now the Curse of Mandos hastens to its fulfillment,' etc. I also think that Ulmo's positioning of himself among the Valar is illuminating - he gainsays, but not in rebellion. The advocate as it were, the counterpart to Mandos - pity against consequence. Importantly, I think they're both necessary - consequence must exist, but there must be space made for mercy to breathe through. I don't envy Manwe having to balance between them AT ALL though.
Then there was a noise of thunder, and lightning flared over the sea; and Tuor beheld Ulmo standing among the waves as a tower of silver flickering with darting flames; and he cried against the wind: ‘I go, Lord! Yet now my heart yearneth rather to the Sea.’
And thereupon Ulmo lifted up a mighty horn, and blew upon it a single great note, to which the roaring of the storm was but a wind-flaw upon a lake. And as he heard that note, and was encompassed by it, and filled with it, it seemed to Tuor that the coasts of Middle-earth vanished, and he surveyed all the waters of the world in a great vision: from the veins of the lands to the mouths of the rivers, and from the strands and estuaries out into the deep. The Great Sea he saw through its unquiet regions teeming with strange forms, even to its lightless depths, in which amid the everlasting darkness there echoed voices terrible to mortal ears. Its measureless plains he surveyed with the swift sight of the Valar, lying windless under the eye of Anar, or glittering under the horned Moon, or lifted in hills of wrath that broke upon the Shadowy Isles, until remote upon the edge of sight, and beyond the count of leagues, he glimpsed a mountain, rising beyond his mind’s reach into a shining cloud, and at its feet a long surf glimmering. And even as he strained to hear the sound of those far waves, and to see clearer that distant light, the note ended, and he stood beneath the thunder of the storm, and lightning many-branched rent asunder the heavens above him. And Ulmo was gone, and the sea was in tumult, as the wild waves of Ossë rode against the walls of Nevrast.
Leaving this here as a passage that literally stopped my breath with beauty. Taniquetil as a glimpse of Paradise, the White Mountain, is just...
"Yet being weary he slept at times, and his sleep was troubled with many dreams, of which naught remained in waking memory save one: a vision of an isle, and in the midst of it was a steep mountain, and behind it the sun went down, and shadows sprang into the sky; but above it there shone a single dazzling star." :'(( Earendil!
It's interesting that Tuor knows from the 'piercing glance of his sea-grey eyes' that Voronwe is one of the Noldor. But it can't be the Tree-light, since Voronwe is born in Beleriand. I wonder if it was the colour of the 'piercingness' that did it?
It's incredible that Voronwe is like I never want to go back, and literally the first person we meet is his old buddy Elemmakil, I bet this guy is the ghost of ghosts. Message read 12th July 1995.
Textual mention of cold resistance among the elves who passed the Helcaraxe!
It's interesting that all these years later the Noldor still don't have the ability to make ships that can cross the sea to Valinor! Not in the sense that their ships can't make it because of external interventions (Osse) but literally the quality of the ships is not up to scratch. They need Cirdan's help - and this does make the Kinslaying at Alqualonde both more understandable and abhorrent. It must have a mighty work, and not just like, your everyday canoe. Nothing else would have served.
Textual Sindar and Noldor intermarriage!
'There Ulmo is but a servant of Yavanna' - this sentence after we've seen the majesty of Ulmo creates an image of such flourishing growth and beauty in Nan-tathrin. Here, Tuor's never seen it. It's an extra layer of irony that the first time he will will be when they arrive there after fleeing from the fall of Gondolin. It's also really cute that Voronwe is like I hear Valinor has even PRETTIER willow-meads! I want to see!!! I hope he gets to eventually visit those places.
'The Great Sea is terrible...it works the Doom of the Valar.' Again, the Doom as an active force! This probably lends more credence to the Oath as an active force as well.
'Lo! There is Taras, the land of my birth!' Ah...that's heartbreaking. It's an extra twist of the knife that they're shipwrecked literally in sight of land, after SEVEN YEARS at sea.
'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world'.
That meeting with Turin...Nargothrond's already doomed huh. 'Ivrin, Faelivrin! Gwindow and Beleg!' Yeah...poor guy. And this is the only time they meet. GOD.
'Ill it is to be trapped between the Doom of the Valar and the Malice of the Enemy,' said Voronwe. - more biased, but again, textual evidence of either the doom of the Valar as an active force, or at least the belief of it as one. And widespread as well, if it's from the mouth of a Sindar-Noldor intermarriage child born in Beleriand!
'You must forgo the fire, or else forgo Turgon.' Voronwe to Tuor - PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT.
Rouse the Orcs, and I leave you. I really like this for some reason as like, a gesture as the seriousness of the leaguer, and also like, a stand of Voronwe's limits, I guess.
Tuor and Voronwe's journey remind me a lot of Sam and Frodo's. Especially where Tuor 'clasping Voronwe close he cast about them both the folds of the grey cloak of the Lord of Waters, and stepped forth.'
The Eagles! Again, long-term aid of Gondolin. I wondered in the Silmarillion where Turgon was getting his information from since he wasn't letting anyone out - I'm pretty sure it was the Eagles. Wow, I hope he and Manwe get to have a conversation after he's re-embodied.
'Yet it is the road to Turgon,' said Voronwe.
Not the road to Gondolin, the road to Turgon. WHAT HAS TUOR BEEN SAYING.
'And are there not the Eagles, as you have seen? They are the folk of Thorondor, who dwelt once even on Thangorodrim ere Morgoth grew so mighty, and dwell now in the Mountains of Turgon since the fall of Fingolfin. They alone save the Noldor know the Hidden Kingdom and guard the skies above it, though as yet no servant of the Enemy has dared to fly into the high airs; and they bring much news to the King of all that moves in the lands without.' - textual evidence for conjectures above.
Voronwe fearing 'some stroke in the dark' and saying 'if [that hope] fails more surely shall we die than by all the perils of wild and winter' makes it pretty clear that not only is the leaguer there it's also been enforced lethally aforetime.
'Suddenly an elven lantern was unhooded, and its bright ray was turned upon Voronwë before him, but nothing else could Tuor see save a dazzling star in the darkness; and he knew that while that beam was upon him he could not move, neither to flee nor to run forward.' - My mind jumps to Earendil and the Silmaril's light here, though I'm not too sure why. The cold, terrifying light....
'And Voronwë cast back his hood, and his face shone in the ray, hard and clear, as if graven in stone; and Tuor marvelled to see its beauty.' Presented with comment. The comment is: Tuor is bi.
"'This is strange in you, Voronwë,’ [Elemmakil] said. ‘We were long friends." Voronwe was about to ghost this guy forever.
How far that deep road ran Tuor could not guess, and as he stared onward a great weariness came upon him like a cloud. A chill wind hissed over the faces of the stones, and he drew his cloak about him. ‘Cold blows the wind from the Hidden Kingdom!’ he said.
‘Yea, indeed,’ said Voronwë; ‘to a stranger it might seem that pride has made the servants of Turgon pitiless. Long and hard seem the leagues of the Seven Gates to the hungry and wayworn.’
I love how Tuor makes an objective comment on the weather and Voronwe immediately turns it into a passive-agressive attack on Elemmakil's hospitality. This is an understated comedy. What is Tuor feeling, he speaks again later, he is so brave. I can see them throwing glares at each other over his head.
The Gate of Writhen Iron really struck me for the illusion of its light as being that of the Moon. I'm not sure, I think it's a device that's repeated a couple of times - it being daylight but the ravine so deep you can still see the stars, light on the snow coming as moonlight etc. I feel like it's hinting at something, the illusion...idk. It's hard to pin because it's not the usual 'something masquerading as the sun', it's the other way around where sunlight is filtering as something else, and the usual associations of sunlight as truth and revelation (in the sense of revealing) aren't quite matching up for me, though I do think there's something there...
'But Elemmakil went forward, and no gate opened to his touch; but he struck upon a bar, and the fence rang like a harp of many strings, giving forth clear notes in harmony that ran from tower to tower.' - about the Seventh Gate which Maeglin made - which, damn! he's GOOD. He made it into music!
'Then Tuor passed through, and coming to a high sward that looked out over the valley beyond, he beheld a vision of Gondolin amid the white snow. And so entranced was he that for long he could look at nothing else; for he saw before him at last the vision of his desire out of dreams of longing.' This moment strikes at the heart. Especially when one thinks of Earendil, all those years later, walking through deserted Tirion with fear rising in his heart, worried that something's happened to it like in Gondolin...in a sense, Gondolin is Tuor's Valinor, except it doesn't last.
I would literally give an arm to see Turgon and Tuor meeting. WHY DID TOLKIEN ABANDON THIS. I am SO curious as to what that initial meeting of like Turgon, Idril and Maeglin meeting Tuor would be like...in my heart of hearts I'm both dreading and hoping that Tuor thinks something like 'But Tuor spoke not, for all his gaze was caught in Idril, called Celebrindal, whose head was crowned with gold. But her eyes were grey and piercing and bright as a fire, and marked her as one of the high folk of the Noldor, and Turgon's daughter.'
I've never been so invested in the relationship between Tuor and Turgon - WHAT IS GOING ON THERE
On a more serious note, I do think that it have been a very profound relationship, not fully friendship, not fully father-son, not romantic, but not completely platonic either - I think they must have loved each other for Turgon to first reject his message and second promote him into his counsels and favour, and for Tuor to be so torn when Turgon despairs.
And hearkening back to the Tuor of the first version of the Tale...wow uh I just had a really bad Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere parallel come to me
The Prophecy of Amnon is incredibly interesting: 'The words of the Prophecy of Amnon, ‘Great is the fall of Gondolin’, uttered by Turgon in the midst of the battle for the city, are cited in two closely similar forms in isolated jottings under this title. Both begin with the words under the title ‘Great is the fall of Gondolin’, and then follow in the one case ‘Turgon shall not fade till the lily of the valley fadeth’ and in the other ‘When the lily of the valley withers then shall Turgon fade’.'
When the lily of the valley withers then shall Turgon fade is such a lovely sentence.
Though it would be really funny if Amnon is just...another name for Mandos. When he gave his Doom he was like P.S. [special doom for Huan], P.P.S [special doom for Turgon]. I wonder what Fingolfin thought.
I think it's also interesting to think that Turgon first named the city 'Ondolinde', and Gondolin was the eventual Sindarisation. I wonder if Turgon's heart sank when he first heard that?
"No, it is not." Dark eyes glanced at the man before he moved his belongings around to accommodate the newcomer. While his hope was that by placing his belongings around would give enough of a hint that he wished to be left alone, it seemed that not everyone in the tavern understood the message. "My apologizes."
"Thank you!" Tuor exclaimed. He could not find any seats and this was the only one that was empty. "I promise I will not disturb you. I will be silent" he continued after a while. He was melancholic that day and he didn't know if things would get better soon.
"Weselton is partly tropical, just so you, Tuor," Edgar then explained to the other man. "But yes, thank you for finding them intriguing as well." the smaller man replied.
"They are intriguing, indeed" Tuor commented. He wished to see a real flamingo soon. He could not help but wonder if Virdan had seen any Flamingos in the south.
"You're welcome, Tuor," thanked Edgar after listening to the other man's explanation of why he chose to give a swan. "Intriguing that swans mean that in your culture. In my own country with flamingos they symbolize good luck to those who see one," mentioned the smaller man with a smile.
"Flamingos are wonderful." He doubted he had ever seen a flamingo before. But these birds were wonderful, indeed. They had a symbolism, just like the swans near his homeland. He wished to see that land once again.
My heart rather yearneth to the sea @strengthandvigour - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
