I can not explain what my imagination goes through listing to all tolkiens stories so very great they all are. I marvel at what he gave us all to take as we do. Fantastic this is. Thank you so much for your great reading of this.
I can't begin to state what I am feeling. The Silmarillion is in places the most wonderful epic prose! Tolkein's fantasies will live in honor as long as the English language is still known on earth. Thanks for the excellent reading!
Its honestly hard to believe how many spin offs were in the silmarillion. Unbelievably brilliant. Beren and luthian, Turin son of Hurin, the fall of gondalin and so much more. I think the children of hurin is my favourite though. I listened to the longest version on here read by the guy who played saruman. Its so friggen sad when he accidentally slew his best friend beleg the elf. And accidentally got with his sister thanks to his glaurungs spell. And they all ended up taking their own lives at the end 😢
@@skillsmachine9164Are you familiar with what happened to Hurin after he met up with Morwen at Turin's grave?....The story just gets darker yet more epic and sad....spoiler below Hurin casting the Nauglamir at the feet of Elu Thingol and then his crying out for Turgon at the hidden gate to Gondolin that is sealed, inadvertently revealing the location of the secret realm...damn Morgoth Bauglir did vengeance upon Hurin for his audacity to mock the mightiest of the Valar. Never in my years of reading literature has the story of the curse put upon Hurin resounded so strongly in my soul. I first encountered it in 1977 as my fourth grade teacher saw fit to read to us ten year olds during story hour from his fresh first edition of this strange book called The Silmarillion....I started reading The Hobbit straight away and I have read everything Middle Earth over and over again since ( a few times aloud to various girlfriends). I just finished finished Narn I Hin Hurin again. I am glad I read your comment
Great to see another Rog fan 😂! I don't know if there's a definite answer to this, but it always seemed to me he had a very un-elfy name. I imagined he was given another name, maybe by his orc overseers while slaving in the pits. Then he escaped and kept the name as a reminder of his time as a captive and determination to avenge himself and the friends he had to leave behind. Good ol' Rog. Legend.
1:01:07 Such an epic part. You can feel the wrath of Tuor, and knowing the future importance of Earendil you can truly understand it. And the depths of Maeglins treachery are so foul..
I think in the later version tolkein revised this and said they were way less balrogs as the number was just too big in this. I mean gandalf got taken down by 1 and he was a mair, if morgoth had 100s at the fall of gondalin it wouldn't have been a fair fight. I think slaying 1 in a battle during a 1v1 is a more plausible event...like ecthelion and glorfindal both taking theirs down but dying at the same time. It seems a bit ridiculous that Tour the man could kill 5 on his own.
@@skillsmachine9164As far as I remember you are right, Tolkien revised the number of Balrogs down from 100’s to six. As the Balrogs are fallen Maiar, it makes sense that the fight between Gandalf was lengthy and fairly equal. It also makes sense that killing a Balrog was such a renown deed by Glorfindal as a mere elf. For a man, even as mighty as Tuor to kill even one Balrog seems unlikely - five… implausible. I find a number of things that don’t fit in with Tolkien’s writings on the First Age in this battle. The use of what sound like possessed metal machines created by Morgoth being the strangest.
@user-be4et4be2t yes I agree. I love the lord of the rings books but even in that I find a couple of plot holes. Since we are talking about balrogs, let's mention shelob. How the heck does gollum communicate with her and make a deal or understanding with her to bring her food?
A heavy burden it is to listen again to this long told tale. Glorious Gondolin and the doom and destruction verily pierce the heart for the loss of such a glorious city and its folk therein.
Indeed it is one of the most heartbreaking tales from the history of Middle Earth but the valour and courage of those defending this most beautiful city are inspiring to me beyond words
The very end where it talks about the women of the Gondolthlim being enslaved and their light perishing from the world was gut wrenching and so tragic 😥
'Ere the last dawn of the first age; was Gondolin, gleaming star in midnight hour. Hail Ardamírë, home and hope, aurë entulava! Great is the victory of the Noldorin!
Tolkien's wonderful writing had a maturation process, for sure. This early writing is not as good. One example: Maeglin being stereotyped as squat, ugly & ill-tempered. I can imagine Tolkien later going "Ugh, any prince of Finwe's house should be valiant & noble and Maeglin's betrayal story gets more interesting, if he is those things." Thus the later descriptions call Maeglin "fell and fearless", "no weakling or craven", "worthy".
It provides an interesting contrast to Hurin as well. Maeglin looked down on him and Huor as unworthy of Turgon’s friends. And both were brought before the throne of Morgoth and asked the same question: “Where is Gondolin?” And Hurin rejects him for two reasons. First out of fealty to Turgon and his oath. Second, because only a fool would accept the promises of Morgoth. In Hurin’s case, those being freedom and a great captaincy in Angband. Tolkien was consistent in writing that Morgoth had no interest in making Maeglin his vassal. But to give Idril to him and burn Earendil and Tuor, “such promises was that evil one fain to redeem.” It’s a similar situation to Mim. The orcs break all their promises to free his son and pay him in precious metals. But they do agree to leave Beleg behind, so that Mim can murder him.
His writing later on was also more conservative with magic and supernatural enemies. Having hundreds of Balrogs and machine worms is a lot. As a stand alone story though, this version is far more moving
I think in the later version tolkein revised this and said they were way less balrogs as the number was just too big in this. I mean gandalf got taken down by 1 and he was a mair, if morgoth had 100s at the fall of gondalin it wouldn't have been a fair fight. I think slaying 1 in a battle during a 1v1 is a more plausible event...like ecthelion and glorfindal both taking theirs down but dying at the same time. It seems a bit ridiculous that Tour the man could kill 5 on his own.
I really like that in the earlier versions of these stories, the elves were smaller than men. It differentiates them more than the LOTR and Hobbit, where elves are just men but better.
This is so beautiful and sad. It reads almost like a different form of English too. The Canon version in the Silmarillion is so much shorter and less detailed.
The arrogance of elf kings is a recurring theme in Middle Earth. Ignoring the order of the valar Ulmo, who rarely speaks, besets the demise of kings. It appears nobody ever possesses the wisdom to build a city resistant to fire drakes.
To be fair these were the first fire drakes to be seen. And building up higher with fences or something could have given away the "hidden city" with only its mountains. I dont think they had much knowledge of glaurung. Because at the start of this story Tuor and veronwe saw Turin briefly but didn't know who he was, so I doubt they knew anything about glaurong.
@@christianmiller5450 it was the name Tolkien gave to Melkor in his earlier versions of the story. Gnomes were in reference to gnosis, which means understanding and wisdom.
No problem. Legolas was born in Miirkwood approximately 7000 years after the fall of Gondolin, but Glorfindel was given a new body and new power after he was killed by a Balrog at the end of this story. He is the one who took Frodo to Rivendell after he was stabbed by the witch king on weathertop. 🥰
I certainly remember that from reading LOTR. Thanks for the info, it's definitely a big help as I am currently making my own LOTR fanfiction on the journey of the Blue Wizards.
To expand upon what he said: try and do your best to un-see gnomes from modern fantasy ala Dungeons & Dragons, or from your grandma's garden=). Being aware of the latter, Tolkien eventually dropped the term which he actually loved, bc to him, a language & history admirer, it had connection to Greek 'Gnosis', Wisdom. His _Gnomes_ therefore became Noldor, second kindred of the Elves, renowned for their penchant for craft and knowledge seeking. (Noldo/Noldor is derived from gNome btw, also Finrod Felagund, the first Elf-lord to encounter humans aka Men, was named by them Nom the Wise, so he was still playing with the name as far as he was able to :)
great company and valient battalion…one by one they fell right after the other. sounds like this tale was written by a man who lived through trench warfare
It was one of the earliest version. See how they use gnomes instead of elves, noldoli instead of Noldor, Cristhrow instead of Crissaegrim, Melko instead of Melkor (Morgoth) and Tor instead of Tuna.
This is a reading of the earliest writing of Tolkien during WWI. Many changes would occur over the decades including making Balrogs much mightier by diminishing their numbers from hundreds to between 3 - 7 and never using gnomes to refer to elves.
This sounds like the tale from The Book of Lost Tales. It's mostly like The Silamillian tales, except that the former are told from elves on the isle of Tol Eressëa (which I probably just misspelled) to a man from just a few centuries ago who accidentally found the island while sailing the North Sea all alone. I didn't particularly enjoy that context because it slowed down getting to the main tales and seemed out of place in the former Arda.
These stories are simply incredible and better than LOTR. Morgoth makes sauron seem like a pussy, and all the spin offs like beren and luthian, the children Hurin etc are equally amazing. I wish they would make a 3 part movie like they did with LOTR.
These readings are from the Unfinished Tales, which are a collection of Tolkien's earlier writings, edited by his son, Christopher. He was constantly writing and re-writing his stories, refining plots, changing characters, developing his language. Tolkien's method of editing wasn't to erase and correct, amend, scribble in the margins. He would simply grab a blank piece of paper, and start again from the beginning. There are at least half a dozen different versions of the Fall of Gondolin alone. It's actually a great shame that it was perhaps the most important story in Tolkien's imagination (he began forming the story in the trenches of World War One), yet at the same time, it's the most incomplete. There is no One definitive version of the story. You have to read the Silmarillion, the Book of Lost Tales, the Unfinished Tales, and a collection of essays and notes to gather a complete picture. One outcome of that is that names are different in earlier versions. Melkor was Melko. Elves are often referred to as Gnomes. The Noldor were the Noldoli. What you're listening to was a story - a whole world, in fact - that was still being created.
This is an early draft in which a lot of the world-building, plot lines, histories, places, and characters were very different. Melkor was named Melko when this was written, and it got changed to what we know later on.
I can not explain what my imagination goes through listing to all tolkiens stories so very great they all are. I marvel at what he gave us all to take as we do.
Fantastic this is.
Thank you so much for your great reading of this.
Tolkiens language makes the imagination run wild in his story. Fabulous and awe inspiring.
Timothy and Samuel West narrate this like bosses.
I can't begin to state what I am feeling. The Silmarillion is in places the most wonderful epic prose! Tolkein's fantasies will live in honor as long as the English language is still known on earth. Thanks for the excellent reading!
Its honestly hard to believe how many spin offs were in the silmarillion. Unbelievably brilliant. Beren and luthian, Turin son of Hurin, the fall of gondalin and so much more. I think the children of hurin is my favourite though. I listened to the longest version on here read by the guy who played saruman. Its so friggen sad when he accidentally slew his best friend beleg the elf. And accidentally got with his sister thanks to his glaurungs spell. And they all ended up taking their own lives at the end 😢
@@skillsmachine9164hphopohhoog
@@skillsmachine9164Are you familiar with what happened to Hurin after he met up with Morwen at Turin's grave?....The story just gets darker yet more epic and sad....spoiler below
Hurin casting the Nauglamir at the feet of Elu Thingol and then his crying out for Turgon at the hidden gate to Gondolin that is sealed, inadvertently revealing the location of the secret realm...damn Morgoth Bauglir did vengeance upon Hurin for his audacity to mock the mightiest of the Valar. Never in my years of reading literature has the story of the curse put upon Hurin resounded so strongly in my soul. I first encountered it in 1977 as my fourth grade teacher saw fit to read to us ten year olds during story hour from his fresh first edition of this strange book called The Silmarillion....I started reading The Hobbit straight away and I have read everything Middle Earth over and over again since ( a few times aloud to various girlfriends). I just finished finished Narn I Hin Hurin again. I am glad I read your comment
1:03:57 . I always remembered how epic The speech, charge,attack,and perishing of Rog and The House Of The Hammer Of Wrath. Sad Epic, and chilling.
Great to see another Rog fan 😂! I don't know if there's a definite answer to this, but it always seemed to me he had a very un-elfy name. I imagined he was given another name, maybe by his orc overseers while slaving in the pits. Then he escaped and kept the name as a reminder of his time as a captive and determination to avenge himself and the friends he had to leave behind. Good ol' Rog. Legend.
This and other UA-cam creations are true gifts from the creators.
Excellent voice actor/narrator. Thank you.
1:01:07 Such an epic part. You can feel the wrath of Tuor, and knowing the future importance of Earendil you can truly understand it. And the depths of Maeglins treachery are so foul..
Ok, so Tuor kills 5 balrogs by himself in one battle and Ecthelion kills 4 (one of them is Gothmog) . . . that is CRAZY.
I think in the later version tolkein revised this and said they were way less balrogs as the number was just too big in this. I mean gandalf got taken down by 1 and he was a mair, if morgoth had 100s at the fall of gondalin it wouldn't have been a fair fight. I think slaying 1 in a battle during a 1v1 is a more plausible event...like ecthelion and glorfindal both taking theirs down but dying at the same time. It seems a bit ridiculous that Tour the man could kill 5 on his own.
@@skillsmachine9164As far as I remember you are right, Tolkien revised the number of Balrogs down from 100’s to six.
As the Balrogs are fallen Maiar, it makes sense that the fight between Gandalf was lengthy and fairly equal. It also makes sense that killing a Balrog was such a renown deed by Glorfindal as a mere elf. For a man, even as mighty as Tuor to kill even one Balrog seems unlikely - five… implausible.
I find a number of things that don’t fit in with Tolkien’s writings on the First Age in this battle. The use of what sound like possessed metal machines created by Morgoth being the strangest.
@user-be4et4be2t yes I agree. I love the lord of the rings books but even in that I find a couple of plot holes. Since we are talking about balrogs, let's mention shelob. How the heck does gollum communicate with her and make a deal or understanding with her to bring her food?
It's a story/legendarium.....? Tolkien acknowledged several plot discrepancies.
A heavy burden it is to listen again to this long told tale. Glorious Gondolin and the doom and destruction verily pierce the heart for the loss of such a glorious city and its folk therein.
Indeed it is one of the most heartbreaking tales from the history of Middle Earth but the valour and courage of those defending this most beautiful city are inspiring to me beyond words
The very end where it talks about the women of the Gondolthlim being enslaved and their light perishing from the world was gut wrenching and so tragic 😥
Well spake
Pray Netflix or Amazon ne'er lay a clawed hand upon the rights, for lament it we shall.
'Ere the last dawn of the first age; was Gondolin, gleaming star in midnight hour. Hail Ardamírë, home and hope, aurë entulava! Great is the victory of the Noldorin!
It doesn't get any better than this.
Yet this is basically the first complete draft, that Tolkien never got around to updating.
Tolkien's wonderful writing had a maturation process, for sure. This early writing is not as good. One example: Maeglin being stereotyped as squat, ugly & ill-tempered. I can imagine Tolkien later going "Ugh, any prince of Finwe's house should be valiant & noble and Maeglin's betrayal story gets more interesting, if he is those things." Thus the later descriptions call Maeglin "fell and fearless", "no weakling or craven", "worthy".
It provides an interesting contrast to Hurin as well.
Maeglin looked down on him and Huor as unworthy of Turgon’s friends. And both were brought before the throne of Morgoth and asked the same question:
“Where is Gondolin?”
And Hurin rejects him for two reasons. First out of fealty to Turgon and his oath. Second, because only a fool would accept the promises of Morgoth. In Hurin’s case, those being freedom and a great captaincy in Angband.
Tolkien was consistent in writing that Morgoth had no interest in making Maeglin his vassal. But to give Idril to him and burn Earendil and Tuor, “such promises was that evil one fain to redeem.”
It’s a similar situation to Mim. The orcs break all their promises to free his son and pay him in precious metals. But they do agree to leave Beleg behind, so that Mim can murder him.
His writing later on was also more conservative with magic and supernatural enemies. Having hundreds of Balrogs and machine worms is a lot. As a stand alone story though, this version is far more moving
Maeglin being only one example, but I also find interesting most of the changes for Tuor's character.
Yeah maeglin was revised and considered to be turgons favourite, until tuor comes to the city.
Damn this is one of the most epic sounding storys that i heard. Gives me the chills @1:11:00
Yep
I think in the later version tolkein revised this and said they were way less balrogs as the number was just too big in this. I mean gandalf got taken down by 1 and he was a mair, if morgoth had 100s at the fall of gondalin it wouldn't have been a fair fight. I think slaying 1 in a battle during a 1v1 is a more plausible event...like ecthelion and glorfindal both taking theirs down but dying at the same time. It seems a bit ridiculous that Tour the man could kill 5 on his own.
I really like that in the earlier versions of these stories, the elves were smaller than men.
It differentiates them more than the LOTR and Hobbit, where elves are just men but better.
1:36:27 surely he can't be referring to same legolas we know from lord of the rings? Someone please answer my question
It's an earlier work, so it's most likely just the name being recycled. The Legolas in the LOTR was fairly young, born in the third age iirc.
@1:04:00 What a badass!
I like this version much more, thanks
@Nikolas Donald lol ok thanks
This is so beautiful and sad. It reads almost like a different form of English too. The Canon version in the Silmarillion is so much shorter and less detailed.
Nice work dude thanks
The arrogance of elf kings is a recurring theme in Middle Earth. Ignoring the order of the valar Ulmo, who rarely speaks, besets the demise of kings. It appears nobody ever possesses the wisdom to build a city resistant to fire drakes.
Dol-Asbestos has the stench of the enemy. We must fly to Loth-Teflon-eon.
To be fair these were the first fire drakes to be seen. And building up higher with fences or something could have given away the "hidden city" with only its mountains. I dont think they had much knowledge of glaurung. Because at the start of this story Tuor and veronwe saw Turin briefly but didn't know who he was, so I doubt they knew anything about glaurong.
1::04 Rog Of The Hammer - Legend. The most glorious charge.
This is beautiful language,
Gnomes and Melko? Lol aight I’m down
Melko was getting on my nerves hard
@@christianmiller5450 it was the name Tolkien gave to Melkor in his earlier versions of the story. Gnomes were in reference to gnosis, which means understanding and wisdom.
1:23:00 I love the defiance of Turgon
Epic
Yes. This one. 💪
Wait, did I hear the name Legolas Greenleaf? But how is that possible?
This is an earlier version and not Canon. The story in the Silmarillion is much shorter than this and Legolas isn't named
Thanks for that
No problem. Legolas was born in Miirkwood approximately 7000 years after the fall of Gondolin, but Glorfindel was given a new body and new power after he was killed by a Balrog at the end of this story. He is the one who took Frodo to Rivendell after he was stabbed by the witch king on weathertop. 🥰
I certainly remember that from reading LOTR. Thanks for the info, it's definitely a big help as I am currently making my own LOTR fanfiction on the journey of the Blue Wizards.
Awesome
This is the best really the best story.
Annar kaluvar tiellianna
Melko and Gloom weaver
You would beat the crap out of both of them. ✌
@@DanIel-fl1vc 😆 🤣 😂 indeed 😆 🤣
It keeps saying Melco like it will get demonetized if it says Melkor
Melko is the earlier draft name of Melkor.
Also named Morgoth by Faenor in his rage before the exile of the Noldor.
Who is Melkow? Who are the Noldolin? Since when there are gnomes in Middle Earth?
Melkor, Noldor, and Elves. This was written decades before the Silmarillion and a lot was changed
To expand upon what he said: try and do your best to un-see gnomes from modern fantasy ala Dungeons & Dragons, or from your grandma's garden=).
Being aware of the latter, Tolkien eventually dropped the term which he actually loved, bc to him, a language & history admirer, it had connection to Greek 'Gnosis', Wisdom.
His _Gnomes_ therefore became Noldor, second kindred of the Elves, renowned for their penchant for craft and knowledge seeking.
(Noldo/Noldor is derived from gNome btw, also Finrod Felagund, the first Elf-lord to encounter humans aka Men, was named by them Nom the Wise, so he was still playing with the name as far as he was able to :)
1:08:04 gives me chills every single time.
The flutes stop and battle begins
Alas for Gondolin!
11:23
great company and valient battalion…one by one they fell right after the other. sounds like this tale was written by a man who lived through trench warfare
Melko?
Yeah, Frodo's cousin.
@@feefifofum6383 😄
It was one of the earliest version. See how they use gnomes instead of elves, noldoli instead of Noldor, Cristhrow instead of Crissaegrim, Melko instead of Melkor (Morgoth) and Tor instead of Tuna.
45:00
1:43:00
Melko
Why does he keep saying "Melko" instead of "Melkor" or "Morgoth"???
This is a reading of the earliest writing of Tolkien during WWI. Many changes would occur over the decades including making Balrogs much mightier by diminishing their numbers from hundreds to between 3 - 7 and never using gnomes to refer to elves.
@@marvinarthur8705 yeah, I read up on it and figured it out. Thanks though! You're completely right!
This sounds like the tale from The Book of Lost Tales. It's mostly like The Silamillian tales, except that the former are told from elves on the isle of Tol Eressëa (which I probably just misspelled) to a man from just a few centuries ago who accidentally found the island while sailing the North Sea all alone. I didn't particularly enjoy that context because it slowed down getting to the main tales and seemed out of place in the former Arda.
Gandalfs early name was Blehdorfin lol. And Frodo was supposed to be named Gandalf. Celeborn was Teleporno lmao
These stories are simply incredible and better than LOTR. Morgoth makes sauron seem like a pussy, and all the spin offs like beren and luthian, the children Hurin etc are equally amazing. I wish they would make a 3 part movie like they did with LOTR.
"melko"
These readings are from the Unfinished Tales, which are a collection of Tolkien's earlier writings, edited by his son, Christopher.
He was constantly writing and re-writing his stories, refining plots, changing characters, developing his language. Tolkien's method of editing wasn't to erase and correct, amend, scribble in the margins. He would simply grab a blank piece of paper, and start again from the beginning. There are at least half a dozen different versions of the Fall of Gondolin alone. It's actually a great shame that it was perhaps the most important story in Tolkien's imagination (he began forming the story in the trenches of World War One), yet at the same time, it's the most incomplete. There is no One definitive version of the story. You have to read the Silmarillion, the Book of Lost Tales, the Unfinished Tales, and a collection of essays and notes to gather a complete picture.
One outcome of that is that names are different in earlier versions. Melkor was Melko. Elves are often referred to as Gnomes. The Noldor were the Noldoli. What you're listening to was a story - a whole world, in fact - that was still being created.
@@KesselRunner606 Extremely based
107
It's melkor not melko
This is an early draft in which a lot of the world-building, plot lines, histories, places, and characters were very different. Melkor was named Melko when this was written, and it got changed to what we know later on.
It's both
@@augustwest4233 Yes Tolkein said Melkor was also named Melko in early Quenia by the elves.
1:12:00 (just a bookmark 🥲👍)
1:04:36
Rog and his house were baddass
28:17