Galdor of Gondolin by oshun

Galdor of the Tree appears in The Book of Lost Tales, in the story of the Fall of Gondolin. Therein he is named as an important leader and a proactive hero of the Gnomes (Tolkien's name for his earliest version of the Noldor). That early narrative contains many of the significant plot elements of Melkor's assault upon Gondolin that Tolkien would carry over into his later revisions and rewrites of both the storyline and descriptive details of the organization of the city and its inhabitants. Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter asserts that the first story of Tolkien's legendarium "to be put on paper" was the Fall of Gondolin, which "was written out during Tolkien's convalescence at Great Haywood early in 1917."¹

Many Tolkien fans of varying degrees of scholarly interest in Tolkien's pre-history to The Lord of the Rings, from fan fiction writers or gamers to actual professors or medievalists, are familiar with the Lost Tales' account of the twelve great noble houses of Gondolin. Galdor is named as the Lord of the House of the Tree: "There were those of the Tree, and they were a great house, and their raiment was green. They fought with iron-studded clubs or with slings, and their lord Galdor was held the most valiant of all the Gondothlim save Turgon alone."²

Galdor is not simply a placeholder in that version of the tale, but actually is mentioned no less than twenty-nine times in the text of Lost Tales. By comparison, the more widely recognized Glorfindel is cited therein by name forty-two times. This makes Galdor a notable supporting character in one of Tolkien's earliest and most important tales, the fall of the great hidden city built by the one of the principal leaders of the exiled Noldor in Middle-earth. The Fall of Gondolin is widely considered to be a pillar of Tolkien's legendarium, "one of the three ‘Great Tales' alongside The Children of Húrin and Beren and Lúthien."³ It would not be an exaggeration to say Galdor plays more than a walk-on role in one of Tolkien most important texts.

In his Tolkien and the Great War, John Garth describes the birth of this epic tale thusly: "[I]n hospital, he begins to write the dark and complex story of an ancient civilization under siege by nightmare attackers . . . . This is the first leaf of Tolkien's vast tree of tales."⁴ That first permutation of the Fall of Gondolin gives us in the character of Galdor a hero born of a sterner quality than "the flitting fairies" best known at that time: "Here are ‘Gnomes', or Elves; but they are tall, fierce, and grim."⁵

The Lost Tales' version of the story of Gondolin is the only complete account of the Fall written by Tolkien. The Unfinished Tales' version was the beginning of a total rewrite of the story of Gondolin and yet breaks off with Tuor's arrival at the hidden city.⁶ It is heartbreaking that Tolkien was never able to finish that account because it truly is magnificent in its details and characterization. The Silmarillion version is a compilation by Christopher Tolkien, an admirable effort to bring together the various unfinished versions to fit within the account of the First Age that becomes the published Silmarillion. Galdor of the House of the Tree does not appear in either The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales narratives. But Galdor does fill a few important roles in that first recounting of the Fall of Gondolin.

The lead-up to the assault by Melkor describes Gondolin as an idyllic city whose fortunate populace is in the midst of celebrating one their major festivals. After feasting and music, the sun has set and they prepare to await the coming dawn in reverent silence. Looking into the darkened sky they see an unexpected glow. First greeting the surprising sight with awe and curiosity, their astonishment quickly turns to horror: "Then wonder grew to doubt as the light waxed and became yet redder, and doubt to dread as men saw the snow upon the mountains dyed as it were with blood. And thus it was that the fire-serpents of Melko [later Melkor] came upon Gondolin."⁷

Galdor is, as noted above, a well-respected leader of one of the city's twelve noble houses. When the warriors of those noble houses prepare to defend their city, Galdor's fighters are ready. Galdor is a valiant and capable captain who keeps his head in the midst of the unexpected assault waged not only by a huge force of Balrogs and Orcs, but with never-before-encountered gruesome mechanisms which "violate the boundary between mythical monster and machine, between magic and technology."⁸ He is a stalwart leader in battle who gathers his house around him to join with the forces of the powerful Rog:

Then did Rog shout in a mighty voice, and all the people of the Hammer of Wrath and the kindred of the Tree with Galdor the valiant leapt at the foe. There the blows of their great hammers and the dint of their clubs rang to the Encircling Mountains and the Orcs fell like leaves.⁹

Galdor and his troops seem to be at the right place at the right time at every point in this losing battle. Later it is Galdor who saves the life of Tuor. And later, along with Tuor, he helps rescue the wounded Ecthelion, Lord of the House of the Fountain, enabling him to live long enough to destroy Gothmog the Lord of Balrogs.  When it looks as though the city is all but lost, Turgon calls a war council which includes Galdor: "Then did King Turgon call a council, and thither fared Tuor and Meglin, as royal princes; and Duilin came with Egalmoth and Penlod the tall, and Rog strode thither with Galdor of the Tree and golden Glorfindel and Ecthelion of the voice of music."¹⁰ They debated how or whether to abandon the city or try to hold it.

So, stalwart Galdor is also a part of Turgon's inner leadership circle and serves him loyally even when the king begins to lose hope and to suffer from disorientation and despair. At one point Turgon, believing all is lost, casts aside his crown and Galdor tries to convince him to take it up again:

"Fight not against doom, O my children! Seek ye who may safety in flight, if perhaps there be time yet: but let Tuor have your lealty." But Tuor said: "Thou art king" and Turgon made answer: "Yet no blow will I strike more", and he cast his crown at the roots of Glingol.¹¹ Then did Galdor who stood there pick it up, but Turgon accepted it not, and bare of head climbed to the topmost pinnacle of that white tower that stood nigh his palace. There he shouted in a voice like a horn blown among the mountains, and all that were gathered beneath the Trees and the foemen in the mists of the square heard him: "Great is the victory of the Noldoli!" And 'tis said that it was then middle night, and that the Orcs yelled in derision.¹²

The many-hours-long battle for the city is almost Homeric in its vivid details (reminiscent for this writer of The Iliad). We have, among other characters, a natural leader in Tuor; the timorous Salgant; a traitorous, conniving Meglin (Maeglin); physically heroic Rog; glittering Ecthelion with his flautists; golden Glorfindel; and of course, the loyal and courageous Galdor, who includes among the fellows of his House the sharp-eyed Legolas.¹³ We even are treated to the vision of Idril donning her chainmail armor and scooping up little Eärendil, who is clad in his own tiny set of mail.

Along with Tuor, Idril, Glorfindel, and his own lieutenant Legolas, Galdor plays a significant role in helping to lead the survivors out of the city into safety. Near the end of Galdor's story is his organization of the exhausted and traumatized survivors, in large part women, children, and infants, in their escape from the city. Few know of Idril's secret tunnel and fewer still have any knowledge of the difficult path leading away from the city or are familiar with its hazardous terrain. Galdor and the others at last manage to shepherd the terrified exiles out of the city. Finally, when they arrive at the most treacherous part of their escape route, they suffer a surprise attack:

Galdor and his men were come now to the end nigh to where Thorn Sir¹⁴ falls into the abyss, and the others straggled, for all Tuor's efforts, back over most of the mile of the perilous way between chasm and cliff, so that Glorfindel's folk were scarce come to its beginning, when there was a yell in the night that echoed in that grim region. Behold, Galdor's men were beset in the dark suddenly by shapes leaping from behind rocks where they had lain hidden even from the glance of Legolas.¹⁵

Here it is that Glorfindel encounters and slays a Balrog, which in turn pulls him to his own destruction. Galdor and his remaining compatriots of the House of the Tree, along with Tuor and others, manage to shepherd the remaining survivors to safety, with some help from Thorondor and his Eagles. The journey of those exiles was long and arduous, lasting many months, but eventually they found a place to settle at the mouth of Sirion:

Yet now those exiles of Gondolin dwelt at the mouth of Sirion by the waves of the Great Sea. There they take the name of Lothlim, the people of the flower, for Gondothlim is a name too sore to their hearts; and fair among the Lothlim Eärendel grows in the house of his father.¹⁶

Not to Be Confused with Other Characters Called Galdor

Tolkien must have liked the name Galdor because he used it no less than four times from the Lost Tales to The Lord of the Rings.

An Elf named Galdor appears in the account of the Council of Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring, described as "Galdor, an Elf from the Grey Havens who had come on an errand from Círdan the Shipwright."¹⁷ Christopher Tolkien discusses in his notes to the "Last Writings" the likelihood of whether or not Galdor of Gondolin and Galdor of the Havens may have been the same person but asserts that his father ultimately rejected the idea and opined that, as a common Sindarin name, it had simply been repeated.¹⁸

In The Silmarillion there is a Man of the Edain called Galdor the Tall, who became the Lord of Dor-lómin and was the father of Húrin Thalion.¹⁹ Tolkien also used the name Galdor, for a time, in drafts of The Lord of the Rings for an old man of the Rohirrim who was a seneschal of Edoras.²⁰

Acknowledgements

I want to thank IgnobleBard who encouraged me to write the biography of this particular character. Having done so, he did not abandon me, but continued to offer suggestions, based upon the fruits of his own recent research. He also nitpicked my last draft for errors. As usual, I want to thank my patient editor Dawn Felagund for her final copy check.

Works Cited

1. Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (London: Harper Collins, 2011), 128.
2. The History of Middle-earth, Volume II: Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
3. Shaun Gunner, "Another Tolkien book? Bring it on!" The Tolkien Society, August 15, 2018, accessed March 20, 2021.
4. John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth (Boston:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), 38.
5. Ibid.
6. Unfinished Tales, Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin.
7. The History of Middle-earth, Volume II: Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
8. John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War, 220.
9. The History of Middle-earth, Volume II: Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
10. Ibid.
11. In the Lost Tales version of Gondolin, Glingol is the golden one of two live trees, "one that bore blossom of gold and the other of silver. . . shoots of old from the glorious Trees of Valinor." The History of Middle-earth, Volume II: Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
12. The History of Middle-earth, Volume II: Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
13. Legolas of the House of the Tree is not to be confused with Lord of Rings' Legolas. See our biography Legolas of Gondolin.
14. A river at the bottom of a gorge in the Encircling Mountains into which Glorfindel and the Balrog fell (only mentioned in The Book of Lost Tales).
15. The History of Middle-earth, Volume II: Book of Lost Tales 2, The Fall of Gondolin.
16. Ibid.
17. The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Council of Elrond."
18. The History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: Peoples of Middle-Earth, "Last Writings."
19. The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin."
20. The History of Middle-earth, Volume VIII: The War of the Ring, "Book Five Begun and Abandoned."