New Tolkien book, The Fall of Gondolin

This November 2017 video is called Lore of Middle-earth: Gondolin, Part 1; The Rise.

This November 2017 video is called Lore of Middle-earth: Gondolin, Part 2; The Fall.

The Fall of Gondolin, ‘new’ JRR Tolkien book, to be published in 2018. Edited by his son Christopher, Tolkien’s tale of a reluctant hero defending a city was written while the author was in hospital after the Battle of the Somme: here.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

One last time back to Middle-earth

Tolkien fans can enjoy the fantasy world of the English writer one last time. This week The Fall of Gondolin is published, based on surviving fragments edited by Tolkien’s son Christopher.

The story is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The protagonist visits the elven town of Gondolin, which is attacked by the dark ruler Morgoth, predecessor of Sauron.

Tolkien himself once called the story “the first real story” about Middle-earth. He wrote it in 1917, when he recovered from health complaints that he had incurred at the Battle of the Somme.

Tolkien eventually did not publish the work. He continued to write stories about the same fantasy world, which led to The Hobbit in 1937, followed by the Ring trilogy in 1954 and 1955.

Certain fragments from the new book will surely be familiar to fans. Thus the city is besieged by a group of balrogs. Such a monster fights to the death in the Ring cycle with the wizard Gandalf. The sentence ‘You shall not pass’ from that fight became a classic film quote because of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation.

Christopher Tolkien assumes that the oeuvre of his father, who died in 1973, is complete now. He himself, now 93, no longer plans to edit new books, he writes in the preface of the book.