Fairies at War: The Fall of Gondolin as the Cornerstone of Middle-earth

Introduction

The works of J.R.R. Tolkien have been parsed, analyzed, explicated, and scrutinized since the publication of The Hobbit in 1937. These examinations have taken different forms, and a common method of such examinations is to research elements that influenced Tolkien's characters, plots, and settings. These elements might include personal experiences, religious beliefs, regional myths, particular authors, and even specific poems and stories. Investigations such as these offer many insights into Tolkien's works. While Tolkien's specialty was philology with an emphasis on Anglo-Saxon, his intellectual range was vast. It is widely documented that Tolkien was influenced by Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic/Norse, and Greco-Roman mythology, plus other authors and stories/poems, both ancient and modern. His Catholicism and personal experiences also influenced his works, as did his friendships throughout his youth and adulthood.¹ These wideranging influences certainly affected Tolkien's writings, yet one influence persisted across the legendarium: his World War I experiences on the battlefield. His son, Christopher, states that The Fall of Gondolin was "a central element in his imagination of the First Age," and that it was "never remade, perhaps, because [it was] so powerful" (FG 18). In The Fall of Gondolin, Tolkien created what became the foundation of his legendarium of Middle-earth, yet the story was born not only from his imagination, but also from his experiences in World War I. The war thus had more than a simple influence on specific characters or places in Tolkien's writing. This paper will argue a two-fold interpretation of The Fall of Gondolin: first, it was born directly from Tolkien's experiences in World War I, and second, it provided unifying elements for Tolkien's other myths, thus forming the cornerstone of what became Middle-earth.

Tolkien's experience in World War I has been the subject of investigation by other scholars, most notably John Garth and Janet Brennan Croft, who trace his military service, his place in the post-war literary culture, and what his works say about war and human nature. Tolkien's participation at the Battle of the Somme has spawned many other investigations into how his battlefield experience translated onto the pages of his legendarium. These investigations tend to target specific parts and influences—such as Sam being representative of a World War I batman (see Hooker). Tolkien's participation in the war is welldocumented, and his experience in the trenches is mirrored by many other accounts (see Graves and Jünger). It seems obvious that such a harrowing experience would influence his later writings, but this influence was far greater than generating a few specific details.

The 2018 publication of The Fall of Gondolin included Tolkien's first version of the story, and while the development of the subsequent versions is interesting in terms of Tolkien's process, the first version is of primary importance. Regarding Middle-earth, Tolkien wrote, "the first real story of this imaginary world almost fully formed as it now appears was written in prose during sick-leave at the end of 1916: The Fall of Gondolin … I wrote a lot else in hospitals before the end of the First Great War" (Letters 215). The Fall of Gondolin was not the first tale of faërie written by Tolkien. Other poems, places, and characters had already burst forth on the page, yet Tolkien considered Gondolin the first real story. It is the first real story of Middle-earth because it set the foundation for his works which had come before and those that would come after. Characters and situations not previously present suddenly took form here; the vast array of languages, mythologies, and legends swirling around in Tolkien's mind then had a foundation on which to reside.

The Fall of Gondolin saw the appearance of a number of elements that became essential to Middle-earth. These first appearances included a universal, named evil (Melko), the theme of war and battles (strategy and tactics), the Orcs (evil's foot soldiers), the theme of nature versus machines (before mechanization...