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Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silmarillion, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Unity vs. Division
Fate, Doom, and Free Will
Pride and Arrogance
Greed, Jealousy, and Obsession
Inevitable Loss
Myth and Memory
Summary
Analysis
Rían is only married to Huor for two months before his death during the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. She leaves their son Tuor to be fostered by the elves of Mithrim shortly before her own death. In his youth, Tuor is kidnapped by orcs and enslaved before his eventual escape, then lives as an outlaw. At that time, Ulmo chooses Tuor to carry out his plans. Tuor travels through a tunnel built by Turgon’s people towards the sea, unnoticed by Morgoth.
Though the rest of the Valar have closed themselves off in Valinor, Ulmo remains actively involved in the lives of elves and men, offering warnings and, occasionally, directly intervening through an intermediary like Tuor. Tuor is also fated, according to Ulmo, to bring hope to elves and men, though exactly how he’ll do so remains to be seen.
Themes
Reaching Nevrast, Tuor falls in love with the sea. He finds Turgon’s abandoned home and takes the sword and armor that Ulmo commanded Turgon to leave for him before departing for Gondolin. In a storm, Ulmo urges Tuor to find Gondolin and gives him a cloak to shadow him from his enemies. In the morning, Tuor meets Voronwë, an elf of Gondolin sent unsuccessfully as a messenger to Valinor, who was rescued from the storm by Ulmo. They travel together to Gondolin, where Tuor uses his sword and armor to prove that Ulmo sent him.
Before Turgon departed for Gondolin, Ulmo warned him that he would send a messenger from Nevrast when Gondolin was about to fall. Ulmo has chosen Tuor to be this messenger, meaning that the end of Gondolin is near. Based on the history of Beleriand, this new collaboration of elves and men will result in a Beleriand strengthened against Morgoth.
Themes
Tuor meets with Turgon and delivers Ulmo’s warning that the curse of Mandos is almost complete. Ulmo urges him to abandon Gondolin and travel to the sea. Turgon remembers Ulmo’s words in Nevrast that the Noldor’s “true hope” comes from the sea, but he’s become proud, and when Maeglin speaks against Tuor, he decides to reject Ulmo’s counsel. However, because of the warning of the curse, he begins to fear treason and closes the door to the city. After the eagles bring news of the death of Dior, he swears to never ally himself with the sons of Fëanor.
Turgon’s dismissal of Ulmo’s warning, driven by his pride in the beauty of the city and his confidence in its capabilities, will almost certainly end in disaster. Gondolin can’t remain hidden forever—and even if it can, hiding won’t solve the problems in Beleriand, but only trap them inside. Turgon’s unwillingness to break free of the city and his resolution to never ally with the sons of Fëanor, even to fight Morgoth, is unproductive at best and ruinous at worst.
Themes
Tuor remains in Gondolin and falls in love with Idril, and Turgon allows them to marry. Maeglin hates Tuor, since he wants to marry Idril and become king after Turgon. The next year, Tuor and Idril have a son, Eärendil, who has light in his face and loves the sea like his father. Meanwhile, Morgoth searches the mountains for Gondolin, since Húrin accidentally betrayed its region. Idril has a sense of foreboding and prepares a secret escape route from the city.
Idril’s foresight is good—Morgoth knows Gondolin’s location, and if he hasn’t found it yet, he will soon. Her long-time dislike of Maeglin may also prove justified; he hasn’t grown less spiteful in defeat. Unlike her father, content to sit and wait for disaster to strike, Idril quietly makes plans for the impending attack.
Themes
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While outside the city against Turgon’s orders, Maeglin is captured by orcs and tortured into revealing Gondolin’s location and weaknesses to Morgoth. Morgoth promises to give Maeglin kingship of Gondolin and Idril as a wife, then sends him back to Gondolin to avoid suspicion. When Eärendil is seven, Morgoth attacks Gondolin at night during a festival. Tuor tries to rescue Idril during the attack, but Maeglin grabs both her and Eärendil. Tuor fights him and throws him from the walls of the city. Gothmog is killed in the square of the king.
Ultimately, it isn’t Maeglin’s malice that dooms Gondolin, but his fear and greed. When offered the right incentive (power and Idril, the two things he most wants), he readily becomes the traitor Turgon fears and the doom of the Noldor predicts. But Maeglin’s betrayal isn’t as fruitful as he hoped—instead, he falls victim to his own curse, placed on him by Eöl and fulfilled when Tuor throws him from the walls.
Themes
Tuor and Idril lead the survivors of Gondolin away through Idril’s secret path. As they climb through the mountains, they’re ambushed by orcs. Glorfindel, the lord of one of the noble houses of Gondolin, fights the Balrog that’s with them, and both fall from the mountain. Tuor and the survivors follow the River Sirion to the sea and join Elwing and the refugees from Doriath. With Turgon’s death, Gil-galad is named High King of the Noldor. Círdan’s mariners also join the people of Doriath and Gondolin there to build ships.
Thanks to Idril’s foresight, some of the people of Gondolin are saved. They join with the survivors of Doriath, also lately destroyed. The two last great elven kingdoms have fallen, but their remnants gather together, finding relative safety in unity and proximity to the sea.
Themes
Morgoth believes that he’s finally triumphed over the Noldor and doesn’t regret his lost Silmaril. If he knows about the elves gathering at the mouth of the Sirion, he doesn’t attack.
In many ways, Morgoth has won the war. However, his pride makes him hasty to disregard the remaining elves and declare himself the victor.
Themes
At that time, Ulmo visits the other Valar and asks them to save the elves from Morgoth, but Manwë refuses. It’s said that it wasn’t time yet for their interference and that only someone speaking for both the elves and the men could compel the Valar to pity Middle-earth. It’s also possible that Manwë can’t act until the sons of Fëanor give up their claim on the Silmarils. When Tuor grows old, he builds a ship and sails away with Idril. Elven tradition believes that he arrived in Valinor and became one of the immortal Noldor.
Ulmo recognizes that the people of Beleriand are failing—their kingdoms have fallen, and they are too divided for a united attack against Morgoth. Only the Valar can save them now, but only a symbol of the unity between men and elves could provoke the Valar to act. Elven tradition can be as fanciful and contradictory as it can be brutal and pragmatic—though their lore believes Tuor reaches Valinor, other stories argue that no ships find their way to the west until the representative of both men and elves arrives to petition the Valar.
Themes
