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The Fall of Gondolin

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The Fall of Gondolin

By: Christopher Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien
Narrated by: Timothy West, Samuel West
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About this listen

Presented for the first time as a standalone work, the epic tale of The Fall of Gondolin reunites fans of The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings with Elves, Balrogs, Dragons & Orcs and the rich landscape unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth. This brand new unabridged audio book is read by Timothy West & Samuel West.

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 Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Elf Feel-Good

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

so amazing

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Very interesting but mostly around Tolkien's story development rather than a true novel. It gives a few versions of the same story as Tolkien developed it over the years. I very much enjoyed it as a Tolkien fan but it wouldn't be for everyone.

For Tolkien fans

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Having read the silmarillion and the previous adaptations of the stories it wasnt a surprise to hear it all again however getting to hear how the story evolved over time from the first sketch to the final story is fascinating.

Great to hear the evolution of this story

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Perhaps the first seeds of Tolkien's creation. A wonderful story and mythology. Connecting so many dots and outlining the evolution of this tale, of which the idea was Tolkien's first story of Middle Earth.

The influence of the Somme in WW1 is particularly evident in the invasion of Gondolin.

Truly the most influential fantasy author of all time.

Tolkien's earliest magic

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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.

Wonderful Father and Son reading

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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

Wonderful Book

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loved it. Really great insight into the first age, the fall of gondolin and the mind of tolkien at that time and throughout his career

really amazing book. definitely recommend

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This is a great evolution of the story and some of the chapters are beautiful to listen to.

Great Passages

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Loved it. Epic story and brilliant performance by the narrators. Christopher Tolkien is sadly missed.

Immersive

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

Mind blowing

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