Closeups of my map of Gondolin with the XII houses marked.
🔷 Placement of the houses on my map of Gondolin 🔷 In my interpretation there is a fortress for every of the twelve houses within the city walls as the houses serve as military centers. I assume most of each of the houses members were living in their fortress or in nearby houses. Fortresses are placed on the outer parts of the city and a few in the center - should citizens need to hide behind walls there is always a fortress in the neighborhood. Of course this will mean nothing when facing dragons... but there were no dragons when they built it.
Placement of the houses is mostly a guess.
🎼The closest to description in The Fall of Gondolin is the House of the Harp which was placed north of the Lesser Market.
🎩The Northern gate was closest to the mine of Anghabar in the North, which is one of the reasons the House of the Mole is in the NW part of the city - Maeglin would prefer to be close to the gate.
💦Ecthelion got his fortress close to the Fountains of the South since musicians used to dwell there.
💥The Hammer of Wrath got the first place near the Main Gate since they were most eager to defend Gondolin and fight the enemy.
💎The richest of the houses - the Heavenly Arch - got its place close to the king's castle, as did The Wing which I imagine being the king's guard, right after the king's own men.
Tuor was part of the Wing, but I guess since he married Idril he was not living in their fortress. In the text his private house was close to the fountains and the towers on the southern wall.
🔷 Based on descriptions from The Fall of Gondolin (The Book of Lost Tales II) and the map from The Atlas of Middle-earth.
