The Fall of Gondolin to be the last of J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories published by his son Christopher

On August 30, Harper Collins will release The Fall of Gondolin will be released, rounding out a trilogy of stories by Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien known as the Lost Tales of Middle-Earth. (The other two are The Children of Húrin and Beren and Lúthien). Although Tolkien died in 1972, his son Christopher has been editing and publishing his father works posthumously starting with The Silmarillion in 1977. But sadly, that’s all over. Per Entertainment Weekly, Christopher has said that “The Fall of Gondolin is indubitably the last” of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works he will be involved with.

“I think working on these books gives [Christopher] a new lease on life,” said illustrator Alan Lee. “He threw himself straight into Fall of Gondolin. We didn’t actually know about it until this time last year there was a potential other one. I’m sure he’ll be happy to have those books in his hand. This particular journey is completed.”

The Fall of Gondolin centers around a man named Tuor. Tuor is visited by the sea god Ulmo, who charges him with finding the hidden elvish city of Gondolin, the first step is a plan to topple Morgoth, then the Dark Lord of Middle-earth, from his throne. Tuor succeeds, marries the king’s of Gondolin’s daughter, Idril, and has a son named Eärendel, a very important figure in Tolkien’s mythology. But as the title implies, the good times do not last. Morgoth discovers the location of Gondolin and attacks it with Balrogs, dragons and orcs, but not before Tuor, Idril and their child escape.

The Fall of Gondolin was the first story in Tolkiens’ legendarium that he committed to paper, so it’s appropriate that it’s the final book his son is publishing. “What makes The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings work as well as they do is that they are set into this cultural background with its own history and languages,” Lee said. “You get so much more from those particular stories if you actually delve back and enjoy the mythology of Middle-earth.”

"In that process of the myths changing and developing, you get all these echoes of the earlier stories running through the later ones. It makes the whole thing richer and more satisfying and more dense."

For his part, Lee was happy with his artwork for the book, challenging as it was to capture Ulmo rising from the waves. But in the end he knocked it out of the part; his striking depiction of Ulmo’s visit with Tuor adorns the back cover:

Like Christopher Tolkien, this will also be the last time Lee works on Tolkien’s books. Although Tolkien’s work will invariably stick around in one form or another (Amazon is readying a lavish Lord of the Rings series), in many ways this is the end of an era.

The Fall of Gondolin will be released tomorrow. August 30.

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