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The Fall of Gondolin
- Narrated by: Timothy West, Samuel West
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
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The Fall of Gondolin
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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.
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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What listeners say about The Fall of Gondolin
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rafal (Maledictus_pictures)
- 09-02-21
so amazing
just gray work of son , combining all stories in one .Great! it's so much history of middle earth and elves
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Adam
- 23-04-21
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.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- josh shaw
- 12-01-22
Tolkien at best
For all those entranced by Tolkien, and those yet to be, this is a must
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- DLC
- 21-02-20
Informative + enlightening, a glimpse inside.
May not entirely put the picture in the frame, but clears some shadows on the canvas that kept one from the full image. Great for Tolkien'ians !
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-06-23
Great additional story from the Tolkien Universe
Great additional story from the Tolkien Universe. Well told and interesting to learn about the additional storylines and history.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- andrew
- 11-10-21
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
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Dale
- 05-06-20
really amazing book. definitely recommend
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
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- G. O' Connor
- 25-10-22
Immersive
Loved it. Epic story and brilliant performance by the narrators. Christopher Tolkien is sadly missed.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Asa
- 18-03-23
Great Passages
This is a great evolution of the story and some of the chapters are beautiful to listen to.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- adambrown
- 04-12-19
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.
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7 people found this helpful