The Fall of Gondolin

By: Christopher Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien

Narrated by: Timothy West, Samuel West

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

Presented for the first time as a stand-alone work, the epic tale of The Fall of Gondolin reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Balrogs, Dragons and Orcs and the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

This audio production features Samuel West, voicing J. R. R. Tolkien’s original writings, and Timothy West, reading the editorial commentary by Christopher Tolkien. 

Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable, is central to the enmity of two of the greatest powers in the world.

Morgoth of the uttermost evil seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city of his Elven enemies, while the gods in Valinor refuse to support Ulmo Lord of Waters' designs to protect it.

Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Túrin, and guided unseen by Ulmo he sets out on the fearful journey to Gondolin to warn them of their coming doom. Then Morgoth learns through an act of supreme treachery all that he needs to mount a devastating attack on the city, with Balrogs and dragons and numberless Orcs.

©2018 J. R. R. Tolkien (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic Reviews

"Never did [Tolkien] write a more sustained account of battle. With dragons and fiery balrogs galore, the attack on Gondolin makes Peter Jackson’s souped-up cinema battles look like tabletop games." (The Times)

"It’s a load-bearing pillar in the grander narrative that eventually came to encompass better-known works. Tolkien explicitly expressed his wish later in life that the three Great Tales of Middle-earth’s early days — The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin — along with The Lord of the Rings and other writings, should be considered as 'one long Saga of the Jewels and the Rings'." (Entertainment Weekly)

"The text is rife with references to characters and creatures that come to play a role in The Lord of the Rings...one passage in particular seems to set up one of the most famous scenes from the LOTR trilogy." (Time)

Feels like a research paper

I loved the Silmarrilion and I have been so happy that they have been bringing those stories back at an easier to enjoy level. The Children of Hurin is a great story about an absolutely tragic character. The tale of Beren and Luthien tells about star crossed lovers battling near gods to be together. This book is not that. This book is two hours of a fragment of how Gondolin fell. It’s a very interesting two hours. Those two hours are wedged between an eight hour explanation about why this story wasn’t finished by J.R.R. Tolkien. If you are a mega fan of the lord of the rings and need to have everything that Tolkien wrote, then this book is definitely written for you. If you are a casual fantasy fan who thinks they are getting a cool story about a place vaguely mentioned in The Hobbit, stay away. Eight hours of back story for a two hour tale isn’t worth it.

wonderful compilation of the fall of Gondolin

very insightful, learned more of Tolkien's lore that I hadnt known from the silmarillion and a wonderful account of Gondolin. Shame he was never able to finish such a deep story or bring it to fulfillment in detail and stature as it was obviously meant to be. Still loved it

Odd

Guess I should have read the fine print. This is like listening to a screen play, stage directions included. Not what I expected.

Middle Earth History Lesson

There is a reason J.R.R. Tolkien never published this novel while he was alive. Even with the material added by his son, Christopher Tolkien, The Fall of Gondolin reads more like a synopsis than a story. Little effort is made to develop characters or build suspense. Key events are skimmed over rather than fleshed out, and all tension and emotion are wrung out of the prose by the necessity of keeping the majestic narrative flowing. And yet it is that majestic narrative that saves this book from obscurity. Tolkien's words are beautiful and a joy to listen to, especially as performed by Samuel West. Tolkien nerds will probably overlook the book's shortcomings and appreciate the depth added to the Middle Earth lore.

Outstanding

Enjoying JRR Tolkien’s thought process is riveting. We need the history of Middle earth on audio.

Wowzer

Loved it - Children of Hurin levels of heroics, but one great stand right after another in rapid-fire. An experience, to be sure. Plus great insight from Christopher's notes/commentary. Very, very good.

More of an incredible essay than a cohesive tale

Which of course makes sense given the context of the book. If you're expecting a Children of Húrin, this isn't another one of those. But if you want a better understanding of Tolkien and the evolution of Middle Earth, this is an absolute must listen.

Delve deep into history in search of Tuor's story

This is not a story with a single text, but it is instead an archeological study. Join Christoppher Tolkien as he attempts to peaice together the events surrounding The Fall Of Gondolin and the life of Tuor the messenger of Ulmo. You will be presented with multiple contradictory texts obscured by the fog of time. You will need to discern the truth of the facts based only on the weight of the tales presented.

dense but worth it

the text is very dense, and hard to digest large parts at once, but if you can stick it out, it is worth it.

Recommended for all fans of the Tolkien's world!

Amazing and very enjoyable listen! You will appreciate every minute of it. Narrators' performance is excellent!

Added so much to what I love

If you love Tolkien and have read most of his other works you will live this if you have only read LORs this might me hard going.

Incredibly dry

Only for the most loyal Tolkien fans. A dry listen even for bedtime. Links to the Silmarillion and metatextual moments.

Good but lots of filler

The actual story content chapters are great but there's lots of what seems filler content.

Wonderful Father and Son reading

Christopher Tolkien is here engaged in presenting a restoration of his father's work on a key tale at the culmination of the First Age (I think) of Middle Age. So it's fitting that the father and son team of Samuel and Timothy West read this audio book.
Samuel tells the tale, whilst the elder, Timothy, reads the linking and explanatory narrative and notes, basically representing Christopher Tolkien. And it works superbly well, as it did in the similarly formatted 'Beren and Luthien.'
The most substantive sections are an early version of the tale that tells of Tuor, a human, seeking out the elf city of Gondolin to pass on a warning. There follows a terrible betrayal and the titular fall of the last Elf stronghold of Gondolin at the hands of army of monsters led by the Dark Lord 'Melko' (later Morgoth). The other substantive version in this book is from a later text and focuses on Tuor encountering the Sea-God Ulmo and journeying to find the hidden city accompanied by the elf Voronwe, encountering perils on the way and then finding the passage to the Kingdom, having a tense encounter with some elf guards before progressing through a series of majestic gates.. and then that version ends.
Making sense of these different versions and telling the story of how they evolved makes for a fascinating narrative on how a story evolves with the life of its author, and the reasons for its later abandonment.
This is not a jumping on point for those new to Tolkien, you will need to have read the major works of the Legendarium (The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion) to get the most out of it, but its a wonderful addition, and the West's reading is superb, combing scholarly erudition with a poetic and resonant reading.

this is a 1hour short story drawn out to over 8

the actual story is great but 8 hours of a bloke talking about his father's writing no my cup of tea think I lasted 4 hours

Tolkien at best

For all those entranced by Tolkien, and those yet to be, this is a must

Wonderful Book

Another great work from a immensely brilliant author. This stand a long side his great LOTR. Again superb reading from father and son West who really bring it to life and allow the listener to understand at times the complexity of Tolkien history of Middle-Earth (places, names etc) and also a mention to Christopher Tokkien for bring this book into being from his father's countless notes and writing as without him our knowledge of Middle-Earth my never existed. Andrew

Excellent piece of work (But be warned!)

This is a wonderfully put together piece of work chronicling the story of the Fall of Gondolin, very much in the same vien as Beren and Luthien. It isn't a continuous story but rather fragmented pieces (often repeated) that form the story as a whole and show its evolution.

Be warned this is very in depth and will only be of interest to those who have read and enjoyed the Silmarillion.

so amazing

just gray work of son , combining all stories in one .Great! it's so much history of middle earth and elves

Mind blowing

fascinating and mind blowing details I
Have always dreamed of ever since I first read the name gondolin in the hobbit.