Idril Celebrindal by Lindariel

Idril Celebrindal's footprint in the canon is light and hard to discern beyond the bare bones given in The Silmarillion and The Fall of Gondolin. Yet she exists at the epicenter of the most ancient and shifting ground of Tolkien's entire legendarium, the stories of Eärendel¹ and Gondolin. It is impossible to tell Idril's story without contextualizing it in the magnificent story Tolkien told about the hidden city of Gondolin. Yet while Idril has agency in and is central to both those stories, she is the focus of neither despite her role as the mother of the earliest, most heroic, and most Christlike figure Tolkien ever wrote. One must sift through decades of revisions for elements of her evolving story, look for her at the margins of the stories of male Elves, and be grateful for whatever can be found.

Idril in Aman

Idril Celebrindal was born²a princess of the Noldor in the city of Tirion, during the Years of the Trees. She was among the third generation of Noldor born in Aman, the only child of Turgon of the Noldor and his wife Elenwë of the Vanyar. Her Quenya father-name Itarillë meant "sparkling brilliant light,"³and her mother-name is unknown.

Nothing is known of her life before she participated in the long death-haunted Flight of the Noldor. We are never even told how old she was at the time, although there is no mention of her being a child or subsequently growing up in Beleriand. Presumably she had already come to adulthood at the time of the Darkening and what followed. Much is known of her father Turgon, who spoke forcefully against the House of Fëanor after the Darkening but nevertheless followed his father Fingolfin into exile. Her mother Elenwë, of whom almost nothing is known, is the only Vanyarin Elf known to have participated in the Flight. Why she did so and why Idril chose to leave Aman with her parents are open questions. The record is equally silent on whether Idril or her parents played any role in the Kinslaying when they arrived at Alqualondë, although it is likely that Turgon participated in the charge by the people of Fingolfin when they came upon the battle in full swing.

The entire family survived both the Kinslaying and the subsequent great storm at sea raised by Uinen's weeping, which drowned many Noldor and destroyed many ships. They continued to travel north and were present to witness the proclaiming of the Doom of the Noldor at the borders of Araman. In the face of the Doom, Turgon chose not to return to Aman along with his uncle Finarfin's people, and his wife and daughter chose likewise.

Fëanor rewarded this tacit loyalty to his cause, if not to himself, by abandoning Turgon and his family along with all the other descendants of Finwë's second marriage. When the host arrived at the Helcaraxë in the far north of Araman, Fëanor and his sons seized control of the remaining ships and ferried their own people across to the far north of Middle-earth. Deeming both the ships and the Noldor on the other shore "needless baggage,"⁴ Fëanor destroyed the ships rather than send them back for the sons of Indis and their people, who could see the light of the burning ships from clear across the Helcaraxë.

Idril and her parents then undertook the crossing of the Helcaraxë with the other abandoned Noldor. There where the northern part of the sea they knew touched on the colder boundary waters surrounding all of Arda, strong currents drove icebergs and floes in a constant, treacherous writhing of the terrain. Bitterly cold fogs and mists obscured their vision even more than the Darkness had already done.⁵ Sometime during their struggle, breaking ice caused Idril and Elenwë to fall into the deadly waters. Turgon nearly drowned trying to save both of them but only managed to rescue Idril; "the body of Elenwe was covered in fallen ice."⁶ During that dread crossing, many more of the Noldor were lost or drowned.

Idril in Beleriand

Idril and her father, together with the sadly lessened host of Fingolfin, arrived on the shores of Middle-earth as the Moon rose, entering Mithrim with the first rising of the Sun at the beginning of Year 1 of the First Age.⁷ Fingolfin immediately led the host after the retreating servants of Morgoth, who had been busy battling the host of Fëanor but who were now fleeing the new lights in the sky. From Mithrim to the very gates of Angband the host traveled, challenging Morgoth by banging on the doors and blowing trumpets before Fingolfin deemed his message delivered and made the strategic call to fall back to Mithrim so his people could rest. The sons of Fëanor, already bereft of their father, moved their own encampment from the north side of the lake where they had been living to the southern side in order to give the newly arrived Noldor some space.⁸ The first of Idril's many semipermanent homes in Middle-earth was thus an enormous encampment on the north side of Lake Mithrim, somewhat protected from Morgoth's fortress by distance and the mountains of Ered Wethrin. There she would also have encountered for the first time the Grey-elves, the Avari who had elected to remain on the Hither Shores rather than journey to Aman.

In the fifth year of the First Age,⁹ Idril's uncle Fingon rescued Fëanor's eldest son Maedhros from the cliffs of Thangorodrim, partially healing the rift between the Fëanorions and the House of Indis. When he recovered, Maedhros relinquished his claim to the kingship of the Noldor in Middle-earth to Idril's grandfather Fingolfin.¹⁰ That moved Turgon closer to the crown. It is perhaps due to this change in status that Turgon oversaw a realm of his own by very early in the First Age. He ruled the land of Nevrast, a triangular low-lying territory to the west of Dor-lómin, protected on all three sides by mountains. The area had previously been home to many Grey-elves, and they accepted Turgon's leadership. He built a capital at the westernmost point of the land, near Mount Taras and the coast, where Sindarin and Noldorin Elves set about forging a new, blended Elven culture.¹¹ The second of Idril's homes in Middle-earth was Vinyamar, her father's hall in Nevrast, where she lived along with her father and her aunt Aredhel.

In the year 20 Idril likely accompanied her father to the Mereth Aderthad, the Feast of Reuniting hosted by her grandfather Fingolfin at Ivrin. Other than that, there was very little going on in the first few decades of the First Age unless you were Turgon or Finrod, looking for a place to build a secret fortress. Idril is never said to have been aware of her father's interactions with Ulmo about building a secret fastness against Morgoth, nor about her father's planning of Gondolin. But in the year 64 Turgon sneaked out of Vinyamar with many workers and began construction of Gondolin on the plain of Tumladen in the Echoriath between Mithrim and Dorthonion.¹² At that point Idril would have to have been let in on the secret, especially if she were going to be left behind with Aredhel to keep up appearances in Nevrast during Turgon's absences over the next fifty years.

In Beleriand Itarillë eventually became known as Idril, probably after King Thingol of Doriath proscribed the use of the Noldorin tongue¹³ in the year 67 and before the establishment of Gondolin where Quenya was the daily tongue.¹⁴ She gained the by-name Celebrindal ("silver-foot") at some point because "she went ever barefoot and bareheaded, king's daughter as she was, save only at pomps of the Ainur."¹⁵ Reports from Beleriand held that, in addition to being brave, she was tall, "well nigh of warrior's stature."¹⁶ She was further described as "golden as the Vanyar, her mother's kindred"¹⁷; the beauty of her golden hair resembled "the gold of Laurelin before the coming of Melkor"¹⁸ and "a fountain of gold."¹⁹

Idril in Gondolin

In the year 116 Turgon secretly moved his entire court to the newly completed city of Gondolin, the City of Seven Names:

’Tis said and ’tis sung: ‘Gondobar am I called and Gondothlimbar, City of Stone and City of the Dwellers in Stone; Gondolin the Stone of Song and Gwarestrin am I named, the Tower of Guard, Gar Thurion or the Secret Place, for I am hidden from the eyes of Melko; but they who love me most greatly call me Loth, for like a flower am I, even Lothengriol the flower that blooms on the plain.’²⁰

Thus began the centuries of Idril's life in the hidden city, greatest of all Noldorin dwellings on the Hither Shore. Gondolin was magnificent, designed to resemble Tirion upon Túna, city of the Noldor in Aman. It was built on Amon Gwareth, a flat hilltop in the middle of a dried-up lake (probably a caldera) in the midst of impenetrable surrounding mountains, the Echoriath.²¹ There was only one secret way in and out, a deep cleft in the mountains called the Way of Escape, and Turgon had fortified that path with a series of great gates staffed by an equally great number of guards.²² In addition to Elven guards, Thorondor the king of the Eagles in Beleriand took up residence with many of his people on the heights of the Crissaegrim on the southern reaches of the Echoriath.²³

At some unknown point in her life Idril, like many Eldarin nobles, acquired heraldry of her own. Eldarin heraldry preferred radial symmetry; the greater the number of rays in the design, the more highly born the bearer. Idril's device incorporated the menelluin ("sky-blue"), a cornflower,²⁴ displayed on a roundel as was standard for the heraldic devices of females. It has six major and six minor rays, indicating a very high rank. Thus her heraldic device is likely to have been designed sometime after her move to Gondolin, reflecting her status as the king's daughter. It may even have been part of the movement to designate the various houses and leaders of Gondolin with their own insignia. A "plaque" depicting her menelluin device later became one of Gondor's relics of the Elder Days; it was said to have survived Gondolin and been taken to Númenor when Elros' kingdom was founded, where it influenced art styles before Elendil took it to Middle-earth.²⁵

From its founding Gondolin was the most orthodox and traditional of the Noldorin settlements. Turgon had only followed Fëanor because his father had done so, and he had hated the house of Fëanor ever since their actions led to him losing his wife Elenwë in the crossing of the Helcaraxë.²⁶ Accordingly, rejecting the authority of the Valar was not a motivating factor for him the way it was for the Fëanorions. Despite the mixed Sindarin and Noldorin population there, Turgon reinstated Quenya as the everyday speech of Gondolin,²⁷ which was no skin off his nose since Gondolin had no diplomatic relationship with Doriath or any other Elvish stronghold. Further, the aforementioned "pomps of the Ainur"²⁸continued to be observed by the Gondolindrim, even in their exile.

Gondolin's status as a secret apocalypse prepper stronghold minimized but did not entirely prevent drama happening in the world outside from trickling in to affect Idril and her family. In 316 Aredhel convinced Turgon, against his better judgment, to let her go visit relatives outside Gondolin. Once free, she set off in an unexpected direction, got separated from her escort, and disappeared for eighty-four years.²⁹ Apart from the dismay in Gondolin over Aredhel's disappearance, this time passes otherwise unremarked for Idril and Gondolin, although not for the rest of Beleriand. For at about this same time Finrod encountered the first house of the Edain as they migrated westward into Ossiriand. Other houses of Men followed. A great camp of Men grew up in eastern Beleriand, from which several colonies struck out to more permanent homes, many near the Eldar ruling in western Beleriand, and the long yet perplexing friendship of the Eldar and the Edain was established.³⁰

In 400 Aredhel unexpectedly walked back into Gondolin with her adult son, Maeglin Lómion, followed even more unexpectedly by Maeglin's father Eöl. Theirs was a highly dysfunctional family: Eöl was a Sindarin prince who had forsaken Doriath for a solitary life as a smith in the twilit forest of Nan Elmoth. Aredhel had been caught by Eöl's enchantments there; he "took her to wife,"³¹ and they had a son. The level of control Eöl exerted over their lives soon drove Aredhel to thoughts of returning to Gondolin, thoughts she instilled in Maeglin. Once Maeglin was old enough he and Aredhel found an opportunity to leave Nan Elmoth for Gondolin. But Eöl followed them and was captured while entering into Gondolin, precipitating immediate tragedy and presaging the fall of Gondolin. Turgon declared that neither Eöl nor his son could leave Gondolin, as was his policy for any who stumbled into the Hidden Kingdom. But Eöl set his will against Turgon's justice, tried to murder his own son with a poisoned javelin, and wound up striking Aredhel instead when she jumped into the weapon's path to protect Maeglin. Aredhel died, Eöl was executed (cursing Maeglin), and the orphaned Maeglin became the heir presumptive to Gondolin.

Maeglin's presence in Gondolin changed the balance of power there and changed Idril's life for the worse. He grew renowned as a counselor,³² devoted his smithcraft to the improvement of Gondolin's defenses,³³ and did not shirk battle despite his high position when Turgon led an army to the support of Fingon in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.³⁴ But from the moment he first saw Idril, Maeglin had loved her golden beauty. He knew the Eldar did not countenance unions between first cousins, which knowledge eventually turned him both bitter and hungry for power. Idril, for her part, had mistrusted him from the time of Eöl's execution, and with greater reason as time drew onward.³⁵

In early 455, during the winter, Morgoth launched the Dagor Bragollach, a staged volcanic eruption followed by a lengthy infantry campaign of Balrogs, Orcs, and "Glaurung the golden, father of dragons,"³⁶ which shattered the Siege of Angband. Turgon and Gondolin sat tight while many of the Noldor, including some of their princes, died in the North along with their allies among the Edain. Many who did not die were displaced, leaving the power structures of centuries in ashes.

Two noble Edain youths of the House of Hador, Húrin and Huor, became lost in the wilderness of upper Sirion after participating in local battles of the Dagor Bragollach campaign. Eventually they strayed so close to the Crissaegrim that Thorondor had two of his Eagles take them into Gondolin. Fortunately, Turgon had been prepared by prophetic dreams sent to him by Ulmo to welcome the coming of the first Men to the hidden city. He fostered the brothers for nearly a year, teaching them much, until they sought to return to their own people. Turgon was swayed by the elder boy Húrin's argument that the brothers did not know where Gondolin actually was since they had arrived there on Eagles; he allowed them to leave despite his longstanding policy against letting anyone who discovered the location of Gondolin leave before the time of the opening of Gondolin.³⁷ All of this great change in the power structure of Beleriand must surely have caused a lot of drama for Idril in her daily life. She might also have been involved in the education of the two fosterlings.

Shortly after Turgon permitted the Eagles to return Húrin and Huor to their people, in a time when Beleriand was still in great tumult after the Dagor Bragollach, Fingolfin rode off to Angband and challenged Morgoth to single combat.³⁸ Following the valiant yet disastrous (no matter how metal it was) death of the High King of the Noldor, Thorondor evacuated his broken body to the northeastern Echoriath, overlooking Gondolin. There Turgon built his father a cairn. Once again the balance of power changed among the Noldor, this time passing to the next generation as Idril's uncle Fingon assumed her grandfather's title of High King.³⁹

The affair of Beren and Lúthien beginning in 465 probably had little initial impact on the Hidden City save that Turgon's cousin Finrod Felagund gave his life for Beren's at Tol Sirion. Once again family power shifted as Finrod's nephew Orodreth, who had been Finrod's vassal at Tol Sirion before it was conquered, assumed the crown of Nargothrond.⁴⁰ But the successful stealing of a Silmaril from Morgoth encouraged Maedhros to plan another run at Morgoth, starting with the formation of the Union of Maedhros.

In 472, Maedhros had succeeded in assembling enough allies to launch an all-out assault on Angband. Orodreth chose to keep the troops of Nargothrond from the fray, although one of his nobles led a small band on a mission to avenge his brother. Likewise Doriath remained mostly apart. But Maedhros and his remaining brothers were joined by the forces of High King Fingon, two of the houses of the Edain, and for the first time a host of the Naugrim, Dwarves from Nogrod and Belegost. They first undertook a campaign that cleared away the Orcs from the North, of which it is said the news came to Turgon. Then they launched a second, pincer attack with Fingon's forces taking the flank to the west of Angband. On that flank, in one of the most stirring moments in the entire Silmarillion,

a cry went up, passing up the wind from the south from vale to vale, and Elves and Men lifted their voices in wonder and joy. For unsummoned and unlooked for Turgon had opened the leaguer of Gondolin, and was come with an army ten thousand strong, with bright mail and long swords and spears like a forest.⁴¹

The Gondolindrim were held in reserve as a western rearguard until the sixth morning of the battle, when briefly it looked as if the alliance would succeed despite Orcs, Wargs, dragons, and Balrogs. But treachery among some of the human allies led to an unmitigated disaster: the sons of Fëanor were scattered and their army destroyed when the Easterling unit commanded by the sons of Ulfang switched their loyalty to Morgoth. Fingon was slain by Gothmog lord of Balrogs, and his army destroyed. A few of the Men of Dor-Lómin, including Húrin and Huor, remained alive. Huor urged Turgon to flee back to Gondolin and spoke prophetically:

'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.⁴²

Turgon took the Men's advice, leading the Gondolindrim and the remnant of Fingon's people back down Sirion while the Men of Dor-Lómin made a stand at the Fen of Serech where everybody was killed save Húrin, who was captured and taken to Angband. Thus ended the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.⁴³ After the Nirnaeth, Maeglin built a seventh gate for Gondolin, the Gate of Steel, at the mouth of the Way of Escape nearest to Amon Gwareth.⁴⁴

Nothing more is known of Gondolin until the Sack of Nargothrond in 495. Celebrimbor the son of Curufin, who had been living in Nargothrond, came then to Gondolin as a refugee. He was a renowned jewel smith, and he continued his work after he came to Gondolin. Sometime between 495 and 503 he captured some of the light of the Sun in a green jewel, the Elessar, that was said to have magical and healing powers. Celebrimbor gave the jewel to Idril, who was wont to wear it on her breast.⁴⁵

Idril in Love

In the Fell Winter of 496 a Man and an Elf together walked into Gondolin. They were Tuor son of Huor, who had been led there by Voronwë son of Aranwë, one of Turgon's mariners, and they both had a lot of backstory.

Voronwë was the lone survivor of one of Turgon's attempts to send mariners to Valinor; he had managed to swim to shore at Vinyamar where he met up with Tuor. Tuor, for his part, had survived orphaning, fosterage by the Elves of Mithrim, capture by Orcs, thralldom to other Men, escape and outlawry, followed by a period of wandering in northwestern Beleriand that led him to be first of all Men to see the Sea. He fetched up at Vinyamar in Nevrast at the same time as Voronwë, but that was less a coincidence than a fulfillment of prophecy.

In Vinyamar Tuor had just found a set of warrior's gear with a swan's wing that had been left there by Turgon when he moved his court to Gondolin.⁴⁶ Turgon had done this on the advice of Ulmo:

'... even from Nevrast one shall come to warn thee, and from him beyond ruin and fire hope shall be born for Elves and Men. Leave therefore in this house arms and a sword, that in years to come he may find them, and thus shalt thou know him, and not be deceived.’ And Ulmo declared to Turgon of what kind and stature should be the helm and mail and sword that he left behind.⁴⁷

The gear had fit Tuor perfectly, right down to the swan's-wing helmet. When he donned it and went to the seashore, Ulmo appeared to him. Ulmo gave him "a great cloak, to mantle him in shadow,"⁴⁸ instructing him to find Gondolin and take a message to Turgon. The next morning Tuor encountered Voronwë, one of Turgon's subjects who had emerged from the Sea on this very shore, desirous of home. Voronwë then led Tuor to Gondolin.⁴⁹

Their arrival together at the Way of Escape created quite an unprecedented stir. They were escorted through the first six gates and challenged before the Steel Gate. Tuor wrapped his cloak more closely around him and spoke words of prophecy from Ulmo, whereupon Ecthelion permitted him through the gate. Tuor walked out onto a height overlooking Gondolin and his shadowy cloak fell away, revealing the armor of Nevrast. Many of the guard there recognized it from the time of their leaving Nevrast, and Tuor was doubted no longer.

When Tuor and Voronwë were brought up to the courtyard of Turgon's tower, Idril was watching out a window. Tolkien tells us "the strands of her fate were woven with his even from that day,"⁵⁰ before she came down to join her father sitting in state as Tuor came before him. Tuor must have appeared very rough indeed after so many years on his own in the wilderness; one account has him dressed (presumably under the armor) in bearskins, carrying a fishbone spear and a rough harp.⁵¹ Yet he was of the House of Hador, third house of the Edain, golden-haired and tallest of all Men,⁵² well matched to stand before Turgon, tallest of all the Noldor.⁵³

Tuor delivered Ulmo's message to Turgon: that Turgon's people should go down Sirion to the Sea, abandoning Gondolin. Turgon remembered Ulmo's advice of old and took his time deciding what to do with this new information.⁵⁴ Idril supported Tuor's position⁵⁵ while Maeglin, mindful of the words of Huor and recognizing in Tuor a rival, argued against Tuor's counsel in Turgon's other ear. But by this point in Gondolin's history, Turgon and his subjects preferred to believe in themselves, their city, and the strengths of their disaster preparations more than they did in divine warnings about the dangerous outside world. Turgon decided to ignore Ulmo's advice, and he had the Way of Escape blocked so none could enter or leave Gondolin. For the slow-moving apocalypse was upon them, and the Gondolindrim remained isolated thereafter.

Although Turgon did not take Tuor's advice, he was mindful of the prophecies of both Huor and Ulmo about Tuor's importance to the future. Tuor was therefore welcomed into the city, where he was well-liked by everyone save Maeglin and his faction, who hated him.⁵⁶ Tuor was an ongoing threat to Maeglin's desire for Idril and, relatedly, a threat to Maeglin's status as heir presumptive. Tuor, however, took the opportunity to return to his old ways of learning from the Elves:

There learnt Tuor of building with stone, of masonry and the hewing of rock and marble; crafts of weaving and spinning, broidure and painting, did he fathom, and cunning in metals. Musics most delicate he there heard; and in these were they who dwelt in the southern city the most deeply skilled, for there played a profusion of murmuring founts and springs. Many of these subtleties Tuor mastered and learned to entwine with his songs to the wonder and heart's joy of all who heard.⁵⁷

Turgon treated Tuor very well, commissioning a magnificent replacement set of armor for him that retained the swan's wing as a heraldic identifier. He accommodated Tuor's need for space and open air by allowing a house to be built for Tuor on the walls of the south side of the city. And he did not stand in the way as, over the next seven years, Tuor and Idril fell deeply in love.⁵⁸

Meanwhile, outside of Gondolin, Húrin was released from captivity in Angband in the year 500 in order to live out the rest of the curse under which Morgoth had placed him. Searching for refuge and dogged (at a stealthy distance) by the spies of Morgoth, he sought to return to Gondolin, forty-five years after his youthful sojourn there. He did not know the extent to which "Turgon had hardened his heart against wisdom and pity"⁵⁹ since the days when Turgon had hosted Húrin and Huor. By 501 he had found his way to the Echoriath, but even if he had known the exact location of the Way of Escape it was no longer open. Frustrated, he stood outside and shouted at the mountains, reminding Turgon how Húrin covered the retreat of the Gondolindrim at the Fen of Serech after the Nirnaeth. Thorondor brought the news to Turgon that Húrin was outside seeking entry. Turgon, suspicious of any captive released from Angband, first refused before changing his mind about admitting Húrin; but by the time he sent word to Thorondor to find Húrin, Húrin had disappeared. Morgoth's spies brought him word of Húrin's actions, and the general location of of Gondolin was a secret from him no more.⁶⁰

In 502 Idril and Tuor were married at the Place of Weddings in the great downtown plaza of Gondolin, Gar Ainion, and Idril moved into Tuor's house on the south side of Gondolin.⁶¹ In the spring of 503 she bore Tuor a son whom she named Ardamirë, jewel of Arda.⁶² The child was more commonly known by his father-name, Eärendil, lover of the sea. He was pale-skinned, with eyes as blue as the heavens.⁶³ Eärendil's "first memory of Middle-earth" was the Elessar which Idril was wearing while she sang to him in his cradle.⁶⁴

Idril in Crisis

After the birth of her son, Idril began to worry more about the future of Gondolin. She had a horrific nightmare about Maeglin throwing baby Eärendil into a furnace and trying to do the same with Tuor and herself.⁶⁵ She decided there needed to be a way out of Gondolin that was not known to Maeglin and his associates. Accordingly, she "let prepare a secret way" leading out of the city, under the plain of Tumladen and far away from the city walls to the north, contriving "that no whisper of it came to Maeglin's ears."⁶⁶ The extraordinary wisdom and prophetic insight that drove her to spearhead a mining project of such scope and secrecy is what ultimately caused the downfall of Morgoth, although not before ruin and fire.

In 509 Maeglin, who as the foremost smith in the city searched ever for more and better ore, was captured outside the Echoriath by Orcs. He was taken before Morgoth himself, who threatened Maeglin so effectively that Maeglin gave up the strategic information Morgoth wanted concerning the location and routes into Gondolin. Morgoth promised him "the lordship of Gondolin as his vassal, and the possession of Idril Celebrindal,"⁶⁷ then released him to return to Gondolin. Maeglin was thenceforth more cheerful in outside demeanor, but that only increased Idril's suspicion of him.⁶⁸

During the night vigil on the eve of the Gates of Summer festival in 510, Morgoth unleashed his assault on Gondolin. The Fall of Gondolin tells the tale in great detail.⁶⁹ An army of Orcs, wolves, dragons, Balrogs, and infernal iron war machines swarmed the plain of Tumladen from many points at once, trapping the inhabitants in the city. The warriors of the twelve houses of Gondolin assembled in the center of the city, and Idril wept as she dressed the seven-year-old Eärendil and herself in mail. Turgon held council with his nobles, and as ever Tuor and Maeglin gave opposite counsel. The counsel of Maeglin, seconded by Salgant, to stay in the city the better to protect the work of their hands, won Turgon's approval over the objections of everybody else there. Tuor took his faction, the House of the Wing, home only to discover that Maeglin and his House of the Mole were there before him.

Maeglin grabbed Idril by the hair and dragged her toward the battlements because he wanted to throw Eärendil over them, but Idril fought him "alone as she was, like a tigress for all her beauty and slenderness."⁷⁰ Tuor and his house charged Maeglin and his house, and so Maeglin tried to stab Eärendil. The child bit him and his mail turned the knife, giving Tuor time to reach Maeglin. Tuor seized Maeglin and threw him over the battlements; his body hit the stone of Amon Gwareth three times before falling into flames on the plain of Tumladen. The House of the Mole were quickly scattered by Tuor's house. Tuor left a detachment of his warriors to guard Idril and Eärendil, led by Voronwë, then hastened to the battle.

The tale after that is long, sad, bloody, and studded with the grisly deaths of valiant heroes. Tuor killed five Balrogs before saving Ecthelion from a fire-drake, then fell back to the courtyard of the king's tower where he and Glorfindel rallied all the remaining troops. The badly injured Ecthelion then repaid Tuor by saving him from Gothmog Lord of Balrogs, whom he injured and fell with into the deep fountain to drown. Turgon came out of his tower with fresh troops which prevailed for a while, but eventually Turgon admitted the city would fall. He commanded his subjects to flee and follow Tuor, forsook his kingship, declared he was through fighting, and cast away his crown. He climbed to the top of his tower, and his last words, roared from that height, were "great is the victory of the Noldoli!"⁷¹ Tuor was so worried about Idril that he obeyed Turgon, chivvying the remaining civilians south with as many warriors as he could rally and heading up to Gar Ainion.

Meanwhile, Idril and Voronwë waited at home as the battle joined. Idril instructed most of her guard to escort Eärendil down the escape route. She armed herself with a sword and sought out people in the street to send them away also, fighting small bands of invaders alongside the remaining group of guards. Eventually a large band of invaders killed all her guards save Voronwë and burned Tuor's house, at which point Idril wandered grief-stricken and exhausted into the city as Voronwë struggled to protect her. She wound up at Gar Ainion.

When he arrived at Gar Ainion, Tuor saw Idril there too, "with her hair unbraided as on that day of their marriage,"⁷² and guarded only by Voronwë. They were watching the assault on the king's tower; the slaughter and destruction were horrific, and Tuor's host also watched and wept.

Idril cried, "Woe is me whose father awaiteth doom even upon his topmost pinnacle; but seven times woe whose lord hath gone down before Melko and will stride home no more!"⁷³ Tuor vowed he would rescue Turgon, but Idril suddenly realized that her lord was still alive and clutched at him, crying. As she did so, the king's tower fell. Idril said, "[S]ad is the blindness of the wise,"⁷⁴ and wept bitterly.

Tuor urged the company to continue moving south to his home and the escape route, asking Voronwë along the way how they had come to be at Gar Ainion. Voronwë told him everything that had happened, by which time they had arrived at the burning house. Tuor heard Orcs nearby and hurried everyone in his company into the escape tunnel. By now Tuor's group was a very mixed band of warriors, women, children, infants, the sick, the injured, and other people who could not fight. Some of the lastcomers took picks and set to closing off the entrance behind them so they would not be followed.

It took two hours for the group to get through the tunnel, and a tenth of the folk who entered it did not emerge. Parts of the tunnel, being near the surface, were very hot from the flames on the surface. Fumes filled some sections, and along the way rocks fell and killed some of the refugees. They stumbled over bodies of some of the earlier refugees who had been killed in the same ways. But eventually the survivors stumbled out of the tunnel into a shallow basin overgrown with bushes where they found other refugees who had made it through the tunnel before them. Eärendil was not among them, which distressed Idril and Tuor.

The survivors watched the sacking and burning of Gondolin as they discussed what to do next. One faction wanted to head for the Way of Escape, while Tuor's faction wanted to continue with the original plan to make for Cristhorn, the Eagle's Cleft to the north near Fingolfin's cairn. Idril counseled that they not trust the safety of the Way of Escape, but a large group split off and headed in that direction. They walked straight into "the jaws of a monster"⁷⁵ Morgoth had set there at Maeglin's suggestion, and they all perished. The group that stayed with Tuor took a long march toward Cristhorn, "led by one Legolas Greenleaf of the house of the Tree,"⁷⁶ whose night vision and knowledge of the terrain were exceptional.

Tuor's party stopped to rest at a distance from Cristhorn; they had come nearly five leagues and had between two and three leagues yet to go. The sun was up, and the mists that had shrouded Gondolin ever since Morgoth's dragons had encountered the fountains of Gondolin was beginning to clear. Tuor spotted a small party of his own guard, the House of the Wing, being chased by Orcs on wolves and recognized Eärendil riding on the shoulders of Hendor, an old "house-carle"⁷⁷ sworn to Idril, among the group. He led fifty of his warriors in a sortie and called to the beleaguered guard to hold their ground defensively. The guard formed a circle protecting Eärendil and Hendor, and Tuor's party killed all the wolves and most of the Orcs.

Eärendil was glad to see his father, saying first, "I am thirsty, father, for I have run far, nor had Hendor need to bear me," and then, "[T]'was good to see M[a]eglin die so, for he would set arms about my mother, and I liked him not; but I would travel in no tunnels for all Melkor's wolfriders."⁷⁸ Hendor had in fact carried Eärendil through the escape tunnel. Tuor smiled at his son even though he had no water to give him, set him on his shoulder and carried him back to his mother. Eärendil made his mother put him down, saying that she was too tired to carry him and besides, mailed Elven warriors do not ride.

The party continued on until they reached the foothills. It was full daylight, but they rested again until nearly sundown, eating what little food they had with them and drinking from a nearby brook. Eärendil learned that Gondolin was no more and cried when told that Ecthelion had died.

The party set out again, moving up into the mountains. At a great turn in the path they looked back on Gondolin for the last time. The plain of Tumladen was empty of foes, and the last remaining tower of Gondolin fell as they watched in the last light of sunset. Then began the long march over treacherous paths in the dark. They were struggling along a long, snowy path clinging to the side of the deep, rocky canyon of Thorn Sir, a narrow mountain stream, when the armed vanguard led by Galdor was attacked from the front, followed by rocks launched on them from above. Then the rearguard led by Glorfindel was also attacked, and a Balrog was among the Orcs.

The moon rose as the Elves fought back against the Orcs. They were winning, but they could do nothing about the rocks being flung down on them from above. Fortunately Thorondor heard the tumult and called his Eagles to attack the Orcs above the Elves. The Eagles pulled the Orcs off the walls and flung them into the canyon. Out of gratitude toward their rescuers the surviving Gondolindrim "made in after days the Eagle a sign of their kindred in token of their joy, and Idril bore it."⁷⁹ Meanwhile, Galdor's vanguard forced the Orcs ahead of them to fall back as Glorfindel's rearguard continued to fight off the following Orcs. Things were looking very hopeful until the Balrog leapt forward past Glorfindel's warriors into the press of vulnerable noncombatants. Glorfindel followed, and he and the Balrog leapt atop a great rock next to the path for a brief, epic battle. Glorfindel prevailed, but at the last moment the Balrog "falling clutched Glorfindel's yellow locks beneath his cap"⁸⁰ and pulled him into the canyon as well. The Orcs fought no more and either fled or were slain. Thorondor retrieved Glorfindel's body; Tuor had a cairn built for him at the head of the Thorn Sir waterfall, and the golden flowers of Glorfindel's house appeared and grew all about the stones there. The eight hundred remaining Gondolindrim wept for Glorfindel and continued their flight through the mountains and beyond.⁸¹

Idril's March to the Sea

One account says the Gondolindrim host spent more than a year wandering "tangled in the magic of those wastes"⁸² before coming to the great River Sirion. Other accounts suggest a more direct march. It must surely have been a brutal reminder to Idril of the privations she had suffered during the crossing of the Helcaraxë, for this time there had been no time to pack provisions, warm clothing, or anything else that would lighten the woes of a refugee host. The Gondolindrim wound up following Sirion downstream, which would have had to take them past Brethil and the borders of ruined Doriath. No aid came to them, though, and they struggled further south.

The marsh Fen of Sirion was particularly miserable, with its flies and fevers. But as they moved south the voice of Ulmo became clearer to Tuor and Voronwë, and they felt safer and protected. Sometime in 511 the host eventually made it to Nan-tathren, where they rested either a few seasons⁸³ or a few years.⁸⁴ Their bodies healed, and they made a feast in memory of Glorfindel and all the others who had fallen.

Long before he had come to Gondolin, Tuor had fallen under the spell of Ulmo's conch music. Now as time went on in Nan-tathren the voice of Ulmo grew louder to Tuor. He composed a song for Eärendil about how he had met Ulmo, and he began to manifest the sea-longing again, as did Eärendil.⁸⁵ Tuor and Idril led the six hundred remaining Gondolindrim⁸⁶ south along Sirion until they reached the Mouths of Sirion, the sandy delta at the Bay of Balar, where Círdan's people had a haven.⁸⁷ The numbers of the Falathrim had been swelled by many refugees from the Second Kinslaying at Doriath, including Elwing the young granddaughter of Lúthien who bore the Silmaril. There also had some few people of the Drúedain taken refuge from the ruin of Brethil.⁸⁸ As they mingled with these folk in the sacred light of the Silmaril at the Haven of Sirion, things finally began to go better for the Gondolindrim, who now called themselves simply the Lothlim⁸⁹ in memory of the best loved name of Gondolin.

The Fate of Idril

Now we come to the most confusing of all the parts of Idril's story. She and her family lived peacefully at the Haven of Sirion until Eärendil grew up and fell in love with Elwing. In 525 the two were married, and Eärendil thereby became the lord of the Haven. By then Tuor was fifty-three, suffused with the sea-longing, and by some accounts feeling his age. He built a ship named the Eärrámë, "Sea-Wing," and he and Idril put to sea in it.

Eärendil built a great ship, Vingilot, and set sail also. He searched for his parents, but he never found them, and they were never heard of again. A tradition later arose that Tuor and Idril had sailed into the uttermost West, where Tuor had been granted the fate of the Eldar.⁹⁰

Before she left, Idril gave the Elessar to her son, telling him "to none other shalt thou deliver it." In later years whenever Eärendil sailed West, he wore the Elessar in hopes of finding his mother. ⁹¹ Over six thousand years later, Eärendil's descendant Aragorn would insist that Bilbo put a green stone into his poem about Eärendil, to wit, "upon his breast an emerald."⁹² Thus Idril's jewel passed from Gondolin to Valinor to the firmament.

Early and Alternate Elements of Idril's Story

Idril's story is part of the very oldest strand of Tolkien's legendarium, the story of Eärendel (see note 1). That story, and consequently Idril's story, shifted through several versions over many decades. Following it is so tricky that sometimes even Christopher Tolkien threw up his hands helplessly. The principal texts in which parts of her story appear, from oldest to most recent, are The Fall of Gondolin (published in The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two), "Sketch of the Mythology" (published in The Shaping of Middle-earth), Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin (published in Unfinished Tales), and Quenta Noldorinwa (published in The Shaping of Middle-earth), which was the main source from which Christopher Tolkien prepared the published Silmarillion. Significant details come from many other sources in the legendarium, but they are mostly details. Tolkien reimagined and tweaked the important dates in Gondolin's history and in Idril's, Tuor's, and Eärendil's stories several times.

Tolkien also changed characters' names frequently, sometimes wavering between two versions of a name before settling on one. Idril herself underwent many such name changes. The insight into Tolkien's shifting versions of Idril's story line provided by her changing names would likely reward long study. Depending on when Tolkien was writing, her father-name was either Idhril, Iðril, Idril, Irildë, Itaril, Itarildë, or Itarillë. Some works, such as The Shibboleth of Fëanor, contain several at once. The Sindarin name Idril by which she is best known was not a translation of her Quenya name Itarillë, as Tolkien tells us, "for neither of the Quenya stems that the name contains were found in Sindarin."⁹³ Tolkien went back and forth on the meaning of Idril and Idhril, providing different meanings for the two names and then changing those meanings. Tolkien also tried out several different versions of her epessë, or by-name, before settling on Celebrindal: Gelebrendal, Talceleb, Taltelepta, Taltelepsa, and Taltelemna. ( Taltelenma is also given in the index of The Lost Road, but that is a printing error.) Tolkien even translated her name into Old English, where it became Ideshild Silfrenfót.⁹⁴ In English she had the by-names "of the Silver Feet" and "the far-sighted."⁹⁵

The character of Idril's mother underwent many changes also. While Elenwë was always Vanyarin, she did not come on the crossing of the Helcaraxë in any version of the story until the late 1950s.⁹⁶ Her name changed from the original Alairë to Anairë before that name was appropriated for Fingolfin's wife and Elenwë was devised for Turgon's wife.⁹⁷

The first textual mention of the Elessar is in The Fellowship of the Ring, where it denotes the green jewel Galadriel gifted to Aragorn during the Quest of Mount Doom. In subsequent writings Tolkien put forward more than one version of the origin of the Elessar. First, in notes rejected from the Quenta Silmarillion manuscript (circa 1951), Fëanor gives Maedhros a green stone on his deathbed which Maedhros subsequently gives to Fingon in connection with his rescue from Angband.⁹⁸

Tolkien abandoned that line of thought in favor of the versions set down in the much later manuscript "The Elessar" (no earlier than the late 1960s), wherein he credited the making of the Elessar to one Enerdhil of Gondolin, the second-greatest jewelsmith of the Noldor (after Fëanor). Enerdhil appears nowhere else in the legendarium. By the end of that same four-page manuscript Tolkien had changed his mind and written that the Elessar had been made instead by Celebrimbor and that he made not one but two of them. The first is simply described as a green stone which he gave to Idril. The second he made for Galadriel and is said to have "set it within a great brooch of silver in the likeness of an eagle rising upon outspread wings."⁹⁹ That matches the description of the brooch Galadriel gives to Aragorn in The Fellowship of the Ring, "a great stone of a clear green, set in a silver brooch that was wrought in the likeness of an eagle with outspread wings."¹⁰⁰In all these later versions, Tolkien retained Gondolin as the place of its creation. Since he did not change the rest of the early story of Idril's ownership of the first Elessar, it seems appropriate to regard that as settled canon.

A great deal of interesting and sometimes alternative detail about Tuor's life before Gondolin, much of which did not make it into the published Silmarillion, can be found in The Fall of Gondolin ( The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two). The section that occurs in Nan-tathren in particular is worth reading despite the fact that Tolkien excised this entire portion of Tuor's story in later versions for geographic reasons.

Originally Cristhorn, the Eagles Cleft, the Cirith Thoronath (S), was in the south of Tumladen, but by the time of the alliterative Lay of Eärendel it had shifted to the north.¹⁰¹ Confusion ensued in some versions about where the Eagles lived, but the version in The Silmarillion is definitive.

In one late note in The Tale of Years, Tolkien addressed the time between when Tuor came to Gondolin and when Idril married him. He wrote "[a]fter seven years' service Tuor weds Idril of Gondolin."¹⁰² One could read this as a somewhat Biblical implication that Tuor was performing some kind of labor for the hand of Idril. However, in the very next revision of that manuscript ( The Tale of Years C), Tolkien literally crossed off more than a century's worth of dates, including the reference to Tuor's service, and it never returns to the tale. Perhaps Tolkien could not decide what service the mortal Tuor could offer the glorious hidden city that was worthy of marriage to its valiant princess.

One shifting element of the Gondolin story is how Morgoth came to know its location. It is interesting that both the agents of Gondolin's discovery, Maeglin and Húrin, are the victims of curses. Maeglin inherited the Curse of the Noldor from his mother, and he was also personally cursed by his own father. The original The Fall of Gondolin sports the most evil version of Maeglin. In that version Morgoth has spies that have worked out the location of the Way of Escape entry into Gondolin, partly by subverting some Noldor. Maeglin volunteers the knowledge when captured, then colludes with Morgoth. In the later Quenta Noldorinwa, which offers up a second version of the fall of Gondolin, Morgoth knows nothing of Gondolin's location before the capture of Maeglin, and he tortures Maeglin into revealing then promises him Idril as a reward. Tolkien expressly depicts Maeglin as "no weakling or craven, but the torment wherewith he was threatened cowed his soul,"¹⁰³ making him a slightly less odious villain. Húrin, on the other hand, was cursed by Morgoth himself for being such a hero. In annalistic writings associated with The Wanderings of Húrin, which seems to be the latest of all the pieces, Húrin unintentionally tips off Morgoth's spies who hear him shouting near Gondolin's erstwhile entrance. The version of the story in the published Silmarillion takes into account the late development from The Wanderings of Húrin, while relying for the bulk of the story on the Quenta Noldorinwa version.

From the earliest version of the fall of Gondolin, the idea of the escape route from Gondolin came from Idril. However, Idril's exact degree of agency in creating the escape route from Gondolin changed from version to version. In The Fall of Gondolin we are told Idril manifested a deep insight, foreboding that Maeglin would seek to do evil to her family. She advised Tuor to have an escape route excavated secretly and the knowledge kept from Maeglin. She told him it should lead from their house beneath the plain of Tumladen to the Cleft of Eagles, a high pass in the mountains to the south (later changed to north) of the city. Tuor doubted the work could be completed given the hardness of the rock, but he agreed and arranged for the work to be undertaken. After Maeglin's capture by Morgoth, her foreboding deepens even though she knows nothing of his capture, and she asks Tuor for an update on the progress of the tunnel. While the escape route is her idea, Tuor is the one who makes it happen. She also insists Tuor create a household guard under his livery and entrust them with the secret of the escape route. In Sketch of the Mythology the escape route is "a secret tunnel previously made by Idril's advice."¹⁰⁴ In Quenta Noldorinwa there is no elaboration on the creation of the route; we simply learn that Tuor and Idril led some of their people through an incomplete "secret way that ldril had let prepare in the days of her foreboding."¹⁰⁵ By this point (circa 1930) Tolkien has given Idril all the credit for the planning and execution of the escape route. The published Silmarillion version borrows its language of "letting prepare" from the Quenta Noldorinwa version.

Tolkien wrote well over a dozen different versions of Tuor's departure, many of which leave Idril behind in various circumstances. By about 1930 Tolkien seems to have changed his mind forever, though. In every version he wrote thereafter, Idril and Tuor sail off together. At about the same time, although in a slightly later draft, he made explicit that "Tuor alone of mortal men was numbered among the elder race."¹⁰⁶ Decades later, Tolkien laid out a more or less theological justification for this. In a draft letter to a fan that he never mailed, Tolkien explained that Tuor being granted the Gift of the Eldar was the exception that balanced the exception made for Lúthien being granted the Gift of Men.¹⁰⁷ Evidently the Gifts of Ilúvatar were a zero-sum game in his mind at that time.

On the fate of Idril, even less is said than on the fate of Tuor. One cannot help but wonder how Idril was received in Aman. Idril would still have been subject to the Ban of the Valar at the very least until the time Eärendil completed his errand to the Valar in 542. In addition to the decision process whereby Tuor was (presumably) granted the gift of the Eldar, there would have to have been a decision about whether or not to admit Idril. However, Tolkien's writings are silent on this front, as they are on whether Eärendil encountered them in Aman. In the earliest version he wrote of Tuor being granted the Gift of the Eldar, Tolkien said that Tuor spent his time sailing in his ship "or resting a while in the harbours of the Gnomes of Tol Eressëa."¹⁰⁸ Perhaps Idril shared his voyages with him, or perhaps she was permitted to live on Tol Eressëa.

Works Cited

¹The first work of what would become Tolkien's legendarium was "The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star," a poem published in 1914. The spelling Éarendel was taken from the unique occurrence of that name he had encountered in Anglo-Saxon literature. (See History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, "The Tale of Eärendel.") After that he consistently spelled the name Eärendel from late 1914 until the early 1950s, including in The Fall of Gondolin. In 1951-2 the manuscript of The Tale of Years captures the shift from -del to -dil in one of Tolkien's edits of the name. By the time of the publication of The Lord of the Rings he consistently spelled it Eärendil which became the commonly recognized and canonical spelling.

² History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor; also, Ibid., note 48, the name appears as Itarildë in early genealogical tables.

³ Ibid., note 42.

⁴ The Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor."

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor.

⁷ The Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor."

⁸ The Silmarillion, "Of the Return of the Noldor."

⁹The dates in this article are taken from Tolkien's latest writings on the subject: principally The Grey Annals, supplemented (in the case of dates past 499 where The Grey Annals ends) by The Tale of Years and The Wanderings of Húrin, all of which are published in The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels.

¹⁰ The Silmarillion, "Of the Return of the Noldor"

¹¹ The Silmarillion, "Of Beleriand and Its Realms."

¹² The Silmarillion, "Of the Noldor in Beleriand."

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor.

¹⁵ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

¹⁶ History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, §16 in the Q II version.

¹⁷ The Silmarillion, "Of Maeglin."

¹⁸ The Silmarillion, "Of the Noldor in Beleriand."

¹⁹ History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, §16 in the Q II version.

²⁰ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

²¹ The Silmarillion, "Of the Noldor in Beleriand."

²² The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

²³ The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin."

²⁴ Centaurea cyanus, also called bachelor button.

²⁵ Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator (New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 2000 [1995]), 192-3 and illustration 189.

²⁶ The Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor."

²⁷ History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor.

²⁸ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

²⁹ The Silmarillion, "Of Maeglin."

³⁰ The Silmarillion, "Of the Coming of Men into the West."

³¹ The Silmarillion, "Of Maeglin."

³² Ibid.

³³ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin.

³⁴ The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad."

³⁵ The Silmarillion, "Of Maeglin."

³⁶ The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin."

³⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ The Grey Annals has the accepted date of 455 for the Dagor Bragollach but also for the story of the fostering of the two Men in Gondolin, followed by a date of 456 for the death of Fingolfin. The Silmarillion tells the story in the reverse order.

³⁹ The Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin."

⁴⁰ The Silmarillion, "Of Beren and Lúthien."

⁴¹ The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad."

⁴² Ibid.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin.

⁴⁵ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn, "The Elessar."

⁴⁶ The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

⁴⁷ The Silmarillion, "Of the Noldor in Beleriand."

⁴⁸ The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

⁴⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, Narn i Hîn Húrin, "The Childhood of Túrin"

⁵³ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin, note 31.

⁵⁴ The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

⁵⁵ History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, Sketch of the Mythology, Section 16.

⁵⁶ The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

⁵⁷ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁵⁸ Ibid.

⁵⁹ The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Wanderings of Húrin.

⁶⁰Ibid.

⁶¹ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁶² History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor.

⁶³ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁶⁴ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn, "The Elessar."

⁶⁵ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁶⁶ The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ Ibid.

⁶⁹ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁷⁰ Ibid.

⁷¹ Ibid.

⁷² Ibid.

⁷³ Ibid.

⁷⁴ Ibid.

⁷⁵ Ibid.

⁷⁶ Ibid.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁷⁹ Ibid.

⁸⁰ Ibid.

⁸¹ Ibid.

⁸² Ibid.

⁸³ The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

⁸⁴ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁸⁵ The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

⁸⁶ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁸⁷ The Silmarillion, "Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad."

⁸⁸ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, The Drúedain.

⁸⁹ History of Middle-earth, Volume II: The Book of Lost Tales, Part 2, The Fall of Gondolin.

⁹⁰ The Silmarillion, "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin."

⁹¹ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn, "The Elessar."

⁹² The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, "Many Meetings."

⁹³ History of Middle-earth, Volume XII: >The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, note 42 in particular.

⁹⁴ History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, The Quenta, Appendix I, Old English Equivalents of Elvish Names.

⁹⁵ History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, Sketch of the Mythology, §16.

⁹⁶ The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Wanderings of Húrin and Other Writings Not Forming Part of the Quenta Silmarillion, "Maeglin," §12. The change may have been the one made in the late 1959 Elvish genealogies, or it may have been presaged by the (undated) note attached to the 1958 Annals of Aman.

⁹⁷ Ibid., §12.

⁹⁸ For this earliest version, see The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Later Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Siege of Angband," §88 and §97. These are commentaries concerning changes that did not make it into those specific sections of the version of the early Silmarillion published in The Lost Road and Other Writings, Valinor and Middle-earth before the Lord of the Rings, Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Siege of Angband."

⁹⁹ Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn, "The Elessar."

¹⁰⁰ The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, "Farewell to Lórien."

¹⁰¹ History of Middle-earth, Volume III: The Lays of Beleriand, Poems Early Abandoned, "Fragment of an alliterative Lay of Eärendel," Commentary.

¹⁰² The History of Middle-earth, Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, The Wanderings of Húrin and Other Writings Not Forming Part of the Quenta Silmarillion, The Tale of Years, B, 502. This change dates to the very early 1950s.

¹⁰³ History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, Quenta Noldorinwa, Section 16.

¹⁰⁴ History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, Sketch of the Mythology.

¹⁰⁵ History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, Quenta Noldorinwa, Section 16.

¹⁰⁶ History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, Quenta Noldorinwa, §17 in the QII version, footnote 3.

¹⁰⁷ The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, "153 to Peter Hastings (draft)," September 1954.

¹⁰⁸ History of Middle-earth, Volume IV: The Shaping of Middle-earth, Quenta Noldorinwa, §17 in the QII version, footnote 3.