Goodreads feminist reviews - Tolkien illustrated books: Fall of Gondolin and Unfinished Tales

Fig. 1 - Tuor arrives at Gondolin, by Alan Lee (illustration for The Fall of Gondolin)

 Another Tolkien post, more illustrated book reviews ✨! These were originally separate reviews on Goodreads, but I decided to make a couple of individual longer posts to talk about some of the illustrated Tolkien books published in the last few years: In the latest post I talked lengthily about Beren and Lúthien (which should be frankly rather titled Lúthien and Beren, but ah well, see the post for a lengthy rant about all that xD), and in this post I'll be now commenting on The Fall of Gondolin from the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series, and the newly illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales from 2020, which I got as a gift after finally defending my Astrophysics PhD thesis 😃. 

As a Tolkien collector, I wanted to have all three of these books mainly because of the new illustrations by Alan Lee (alongside John Howe and Ted Nasmith for the latest edition of Unfinished Tales), but in these reviews I'm also going to talk about the pros and cons of these books regarding their material, organization, format and commentary, and how worth it they are, in my opinion, either as reading material for a Tolkienite in general, as source material for a Tolkienite scholar, or as an additional book for a Tolkien book collector. Random feminist ramblings will also feature, as per the norm of this blog xD, and there will be an specific focus on these reviews regarding the representation and portrayal of female characters, as usual.

• 2) The Fall of Gondolin

 Book: The Fall of Gondolin (2018), by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee.  The second of the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series edited by Christopher Tolkien (I-III) and Brian Sibley (IV), and illustrated by Alan Lee.

4/5. Goodreads review also here. 

- Is buying this book worth it? My opinion on content and format: 

As with Beren and Lúthien, this is a compilation of Tolkien works already published in books such as The Book of Lost Tales II or Unfinished Tales, with some added commentary, this time revolving around the story of Tuor, Idril and the Fall of Gondolin, and accompanied by a series of new drawings and watercolour plates by Alan Lee.

I liked this one better than Beren and Lúthien, both regarding format, organization and the content material (I love my namesake Lúthien to bits, but find some problematic issues from a feminist pov regarding the romantic plot, see my other review for more). Format-wise, Beren and Lúthien personally disappointed me quite a lot, as I explained at length in my other review - Instead of an organized compendium of all the versions of the tale of Lúthien and Beren in chronological order, alongside some notes and commentary talking about the evolution of the tale and its different versions, the book basically consisted of a hazaphardly organized selection of excerpts of different versions, already published in former books, with minimal commentary and a lack of organization overall, at least compared to what I was expecting from the book. 

The Fall of Gondolin also didn't include any new material except for some new commentary and notes, and I suspect that many Tolkienites - with me as an example of this 😅 - would have chosen to pay the arguably hefty sum of some 20 pounds (hardcover edition) mainly because of the new illustrations by Alan Lee. If you are a Tolkien book collector and/or like Alan Lee, I would say this book is definitely worth it, and I personally actually liked the graphite drawings and watercolour plates that Lee made for this book better than most of the ones in Beren and Lúthien, overall, although both sets were quite beautiful.

Some may consider this book to be a bit of a rip-off of reorganized existing material so that the Tolkien Estate could keep riding the wave of Tolkien book sells 🙃 (especially in light of the success garnered by The Children of Húrin, the first book in this 'Tales of Middle-earth' series), and frankly, they would have a point. However, I personally consider the Fall of Gondolin to be a book that's way more worth it than Beren and Lúthien, and that's because this is more in the line of what I wished Beren and Lúthien to be, regarding content and general organization: It's a compendium of pretty much all the material published in former books recounting the tale of the fall of Gondolin (minus the Silmarillion version), and including all unabridged versions of it, in chronological order. The commentary was, in my opinion, not particularly adding much to the notes and commentary already published in former books, but even so, I greatly appreciated the fact that this book did contain complete and unabridged versions of the tale of Gondolin, and followed a coherent order throughout, thus serving a compendium purpose as a separate book.

Yay for a book that's actually a reasonably well-organized actual compendium of existing material!

So, while there's no new material, I would say that this book makes way more sense on its own than Beren and Lúthien because of the way it's organized and the material it offers. Not only would the book interest Tolkien collectors and Alan Lee fans, but having a book that's a compendium of just Gondolin content, organized and unabridged, can also be markedly useful for Tolkien scholars and fans alike, be it because you just want to read a book focused on Gondolin tales, or because you're researching on this topic of the Tolkien universe and it's handy to have most Gondolin material all in one volume, instead of having to leaf through Book of Lost Tales, Unfinished Tales, and so on. So I was personally quite happy with it, especially in comparison to the former one. 

But still, lately most new Tolkien books (Nature of Middle-earth excepted) tend to be compilations or new editions containing already existing-material with some new illustrations, and they are not exactly cheap.  A new edition with new format and/or illustrations is also the only reason Tolkienite collectors do need sometimes and that's perfectly fine (a good faction of my Tolkien books are in my possession solely because of my penchant for collecting xD), but there's that to consider as well.

- ✨The illustrations. How are women portrayed in them?: 

In this book we have a series of graphite drawings and colour plates that I found quite beautiful, showing different scenes from the tale, from 'Gondolin' (Fig. 1 at the top of this post, also shown as the book cover), to 'Swanhaven' (Fig. 2), 'Tuor Strikes a Note on His Harp' (Fig. 3), 'Ulmo Appears before Tuor' (Fig. 4), and 'Glorfindel and the Balrog' (Fig. 5):

Fig. 2 - 'Swanhaven'

Fig. 3 - 'Tuor Strikes a Note on His Harp' 

 

Fig. 4 - 'Ulmo Appears before Tuor'

Fig. 5 - 'Glorfindel and the Balrog'

 But what about the female depictions in these illustrations, the main focus of this blog being feminism and the depiction of female characters in history and fandoms? In the former post about Lúthien and Beren I analysed Lee's illustrations regarding how Lúthien was portrayed (and then followed with a lengthy analysis and rant about how Lúthien is described in the material per se xD), so what about Idril, and the other women mentioned in the tales of Gondolin? 

 Well - Out of a total of 24 watercolours and graphite drawings, there's 2 watercolour plates and 3 graphite drawings depicting women in this book, a rather low number of female depictions 😕: The main one depicts Idril during the siege of Gondolin ('The King's Tower Falls', Fig. 6), and we also have another watercolour plate ('Turgon Strengthens the Watch', Fig. 7) where a golden-haired Elven woman with a child in her arms (potentially also Idril, with Eärendil) appears as a small figure dressed in green with her back to us, standing on the walls of Gondolin.

Fig. 6 - 'The King's Tower Falls'. Idril is depicted dressed in mail and girt with a sword belt, but also in the more traditional setting of the scene where she is entreating her husband Tuor not to put himself in danger to try to rescue her father Turgon.

Fig. 7 - 'Turgon Strengthens the Watch'. A golden-haired female Elf dressed in green, holding a small child in her arms, is standing as a small figure on the battlements. She is quite possibly Idril with Eärendil, discussing with Tuor her forebodings about an attack on Gondolin, and her plans to create a secret escape passageway.

 The graphite drawings depict other women mentioned briefly in these tales - Aredhel (the mother of Maeglin, and formerly named Isfin) stands in the foreground looking over her shoulder while being stalked (ew) by rapey Eöl 😒 in Fig. 8 ('Isfin and Eöl'). Then we have a heavily veiled Rían (the mother of Tuor) in Fig. 9 ('Rían Searches the Hill of the Slain'). Her face completely obscured, she is shown in a traditional female role found in many mythologies, mourning the death of her husband after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and preparing for her own suicide out of grief-stricken love 😬. And finally, there's Elwing, Eärendil's wife, welcoming a group of survivors from Gondolin in Fig. 10 ('Elwing Receives the Survivors of Gondolin').

Fig. 8 - 'Isfin and Eöl'. Aredhel (Isfin) is looking (probably warily) over her shoulder as she commits the audacity of walking alone in a forest while being a woman, thus provoking Dark Elf Eöl into forcibly imprisoning and marrying her.

Fig. 9  - 'Rían Searches the Hill of the Slain'. Rían, wrapped in a mantle with her face completely obscured by hood and shawl, follows the oft found trope of the grief-stricken model wife whose reason for existing (and plot) ends the moment her husband dies in battle. In many tales, even her traditional role as a mother won't overrule the romantic ideal of a woman dying for love.

Fig. 10 - 'Elwing Receives the Survivors of Gondolin'. Elwing, the granddaughter of Lúthien, meets a group of survivors from Gondolin at the Havens of Sirion. 

 

✨A bit more about the depiction of Idril as a warrior: 

 

Fig. 11 - Idril as described during the siege of Gondolin, clad in mail and wielding a sword, by WollemiSiss (left, account deactivated on DeviantArt) and Kamehame (right)

  "And there in his house upon the walls Idril arrays herself in mail, and seeks Eärendel.(...) and then she fared about gathering womenfolk and wanderers and speeding them down the tunnel, and smiting marauders with her small band; nor might they dissuade her from bearing a sword." (Book of Lost Tales II, HoME II)

I personally really liked that Lee depicted Idril clad in mail in the scene of Fig. 6 (above) 👌⚔️, as that's how she's described in more than one version of The Fall of Gondolin: During the siege, Idril decides to dress herself in mail and bear a sword instead of staying out of the fray or escaping straightaway through the tunnel she herself devised to ensure the survival of as many Gondolindrim as possible. Being highly intelligent and perceptive, and possessing an enhanced gift of premonition, it was Idril who predicted the attack on Gondolin and then devised the strategy to construct an escape tunnel, advising her husband Tuor to oversee the construction secretly. During the battle, she defended herself and her son Eärendil against the attack of rapey stalker Maeglin (like father, like son 🙃), and after that, Idril chose to stay behind for as long as possible to gather up civilians and guide them under protection of her and her armed band into the escape tunnel - smiting enemies with force if necessary. 

What's even better is that Idril is not just the example of a woman who takes up a sword to defend herself in a battle situation without having any prior experience of physical prowess. Apart from being an expert dancer, Idril is described as being brave and very tall, 'nigh of warrior stature', and she is also compared to Galadriel's impressive amazon disposition and stature of near 2 meters (1.95 m), so her inclination to dress herself in armour, bear arms and use them during the siege seems to refer to at least some prior sword(wo)manship experience and training, similarly to Galadriel's athletic feats and physical prowess:

“Wise-hearted even beyond the measure of the daughters of [Elvenessë] was the daughter of the king (...) Very fair and tall was she, well nigh of warrior's stature, and her hair was a fountain of gold. Idril was she named, and called Celebrindal, Silver-foot, for the whiteness of her foot; and she walked and danced ever unshod in the white ways and green lawns of Gondolin.” (The Shaping of Middle-earth, HoME IV) 

Fig. 12 - Idril as a warrior by Egalmoth

In conclusion, Idril rocks

 However, I also feel that it's interesting to comment on the fact that in Lee's watercolour plate Idril is also portrayed in one of the more traditionally-aligned scenes of the siege where she makes an appearance - Turgon's palace going up in flames, Idril is distraught, upon which Tuor, also distraught at the sight of Idril's pain, says he will try to save her father (something that is clearly impossible, judging by the level of destruction), and Idril, still weeping, holds on to him begging him not to go. Even though this scene doesn't ring any significant red flags in the relationship dynamic if we look at it without taking into account any societally established role in regards to gender - it's actually also touching and a good sign that Tuor feels empathy towards her wife's grief and tries to do something about it straight away - it's also a scene that can keep normalizing traditional gender roles and attitudes, in contrast to other more subversive scenes where Idril takes part, and that thought also came to mind when looking at the choice of painting for Idril. Here, both Idril and Tuor have been taking active part in the battle (Tuor more so than Idril before this point, granted) and both are dressed for it, but in this scene all this can become anecdotic if the main focus turns mainly to the vulnerability of the female character in contrast to the sudden chivalrous impulse of the male character to go into the frey recklessly to try to alleviate her emotionally distraught state. This painting is still among my favourites of the Gondolin set, and maybe I'm reading too much into a sole painting and a sole scene, but that is more or less the train of thought that came to mind xD

 

In this particular scene, Idril additionally refers to Tuor as 'My Lord! My Lord!' when begging him not to go into danger  - a feudal and more patriarchal take on a dynamic that is usually shown as one of the healthiest and more egalitarian ones in Tolkien's universe, in spite of the given heteronormative marriage system and the societal gender roles it's established in. This is a bit of a low bar for what a healthy dynamic between a man and a woman should be, but throughout the story, Tuor seems to admire her wife's intelligence and listen to her advice, and Idril is later shown in an active role getting many civilians to safety without Tuor actively dissuading her of being an active participant.

 Like I similarly noted while discussing Lúthien's usual depictions in Tolkien artwork, as well as her portrayal in Tolkien's works, in my former post, there's nothing inherently wrong with a female character that shows fear, grief or vulnerability, like Idril does in this specific scene, or with a woman who enjoys activities which have been traditionally considered as 'feminine', such as dancing, as both Lúthien and Idril enjoy. And if a woman actively finds happiness in a relationship with a man and/or having children, all the better for her. It's not individual instances that are often a problem as much as the patterns and trends that we do find in the media all too often. 

 And thus, I feel like it's hardly coincidental that most Tolkien artists, be they official artists or fanartists, choose (consciously or not) to portray women such as Lúthien, Galadriel and Idril in roles and scenes that tend to align with more traditional gender roles and views, rather than go fully and more often for their more subversive inclinations, personality and actions as regards to society's expectations: Thus, Lúthien is most of the time depicted as the beautiful woman who dances alluringly and as the love interest of Beren, rather than as the demigoddess who wields magic so powerful she can topple down fortresses of Dark Lords just by singing; and Galadriel is often portrayed as the ethereal, mystical and beautiful ruler of Lothlórien, rather more often than her other many aspects as an amazonian athlete, a daring adventuress, a dedicated stateswoman, or a powerful magic wielder who can also tear down Dol Guldur with her Ring. 

Fortunately, I'm sure that the portrayal of many of these less-known aspects of Galadriel in the new series The Rings of Power will help to redress this! I hope this will also help to normalize the badass traits of Tolkien women such as Galadriel and Tar-Míriel more, because to be honest, it's been tiring how so many supposed Tolkien fans have been insisting on how warrior and adventuress Galadriel is an invention of Amazon's series (which would also have been totally fine - I love me some Tar-Míriel full on warlike aspect, hell yeah! 😄), when it's actually also 100% canon in Tolkien's works, so 🤣.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in The Rings of Power

In this light, I'm both happy about the fact that Alan Lee chose to portray Idril in mail during the siege, and also a bit disappointed that he chose a scene that's much more traditionally aligned than say, the very cool image of Idril protecting Gondolindrim fleeing through the escape tunnel with her band, or even Idril defending herself against Maeglin fighting 'like a tigress' against him (I say 'even' because this is still a scene depicting sexual harassment and misogynistic violence, and it would have to be handled well for it to work as a critical or empowering work 😬). Although she is also often portrayed primarily as a beautiful Elven woman, a dancer and/or a wife and mother, in the realm of fanart we also do have a handful of very cool depictions of Idril as a warrior, such as Figs. 11 and 12 above, for example. Bonus dash of self-promotion (xD), I myself did a drawing back in c. 2012 showing Idril with her sword (Fig. 13 below; albeit also with an encumbering dress, let's say this is from before she changed into the mail 😅. I adore to see women in realistic, practical armour, but long dresses are another aesthetic of mine, and well xD).

Fig. 13 - Itarildë Ondolindello: My drawing of Idril during the siege of Gondolin, when she took up a sword (her sword, probably, and the Jackson films definitely suggest this, seeing as Arwen's sword is actually Idril's) to defend herself and other civilians in the city. Not quite realistic, seeing as in the book she dressed herself in mail, and a long dress with long sleeves and a long train would be incredibly encumbering and hardly battle-friendly, but that's an aesthetic that was going strong throughout the 2000s and early 2010s for me xD. I'm definitely saying this is a scene from before she changed into the mail xD

So yeah. I just think that it's a shame that official artists especially often don't seem to fully explore and take advantage of the veritable goldmine that is badass Tolkien women doing badass stuff in epic scenes with such an amazing graphic potential (I would personally love to see something like the awesome depiction in Fig. 12 in the style of Lee, Howe or Nasmith, for example).  Like, more than one professional Tolkien artist has tackled Glorfindel defending the Gondolindrim civilians in the tunnel from the Balrog as an epic battle scene, and rightly so, it's an epic scene, but Idril dressed in armour battling Orcs while helping people flee from the battle sounds pretty epic and heroic as well, and still, it's the kind of scene that is still massively underrepresented in the world of Tolkienite art, and especially among official art.

• 3) Unfinished Tales

Book: Unfinished Tales (2020), by JRR Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. A new edition with illustrations by Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith. 

5/5. Goodreads review also here. 

I wanted to end this post with a brief review of the latest illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales, which I've been wanting to add to my collection for a while, and it was finally gifted to me when I got my Astrophysics PhD back in May 😊. I had my eye on this new edition both because Unfinished Tales is one of my favourite Tolkien books, and also because I tend to like to collect new editions of Tolkien books, especially when they're illustrated hardcovers. The only edition that I formerly had of Unfinished Tales was a very dog-eared paperback (not literally dog-eared, but the covers and spine are pretty worn from so much reading and revising for research xD), so this was a welcome addition in that respect as well. 

While this is also a pricey book, and more so than Beren and Lúthien and Fall of Gondolin, I personally feel that it is completely worth it as an illustrated edition, especially for Tolkien collectors. Also, the book is exactly what it promises to be, in contrast to some of the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series such as Beren and Lúthien 😬 (not a compendium at all). Fall of Gondolin does fulfill the intention of being a compendium with pretty much all Gondolin material, but I still believe that this series is riding the wave of The Children of Húrin (an important publication which offered new material, new organization, and new illustrations), and so the final product of Gondolin might have been disappointing to some people who hyped it more before publication, as well. This edition of Unfinished Tales, however, is exactly what it advertises to be: A new edition of an already published book, with no new material or addenda, and with the addition of a series of new illustrations by three of the most important Tolkien artists: Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith. As well as the illustrations, this edition features thick pages, a fabric marker and a full colour map as the endpaper, and it's a very beautiful book overall, a good choice for Tolkien collectors and fans in general.

Regarding these illustrations, which include both full-page colour plates and graphite drawings, I also wanted to comment on the female representation, as usual. Even though all illustrations are gorgeous (I'm showing a selection below, Figs. 15 to 21), I was personally disappointed to see that out of them all, only two depicted women 😕: a sleeping Nimrodel by Alan Lee, in a colour plate (Fig. 13), and Galadriel alongside Celeborn in another colour plate by Ted Nasmith (Fig. 14). The content material of the tales included in this book also include several other women, such as Morwen, Nienor, Idril, Erendis, Tar-Ancálimë and all the Queens of Númenor, and so I was frankly baffled to see that not even Erendis or Tar-Ancálimë, who feature heavily in the Númenor section and of whom we don't really have all that much official Tolkien art - if any? Only fanart comes to mind right now :S  -, had made the cut 😬. Hopefully this will also be redressed in the upcoming fourth book of the illustrated 'Tales of Middle-earth' series, The Fall of Númenor.

Fig. 13 - Nimrodel (detail), by Alan Lee, depicted sleeping and missing her encounter with Amroth while he is shown tragically drowning in the top part of the full colour plate.

Fig. 14 - Galadriel, in the foreground, and Celeborn in Lake Evendim, by Ted Nasmith (bonus note, Celeborn's fringe is very amusing to me xD).

 I was especially looking forward to seeing some new art of Galadriel to illustrate the chapter of the 'History of Galadriel and Celeborn', and we did get a new Ted Nasmith colour plate depicting both Galadriel and Celeborn (Fig. 14) at Lake Evendim, which is additionally a part of Galadriel's life which is hardly ever featured in Tolkien art. I was also looking forward to maybe some new Galadriel art by Alan Lee or John Howe too because there's never enough Galadriel art, but ah well xD. I do like the new Galadriel colour plate that this book features, but I also want to mention that I still think it's a shame that the opportunity was again passed up to depict Galadriel in some of her many subversive traits described especifically in Unfinished Tales, from her amazon disposition and athletic feats in Valinor, to her participation in the fight of Alqualondë, to her friendship with the Dwarves of Moria, or her work against Sauron in Eregion. 

As I've already mentioned in the case of both Lúthien and Idril in these two posts, I believe that many artists choose (consciously or not) to depict these Tolkien women in their more traditional roles and scenes, giving up the chance to fully exploit the many subversive and badass aspects of their characterization and their more epic scenes, which would push them towards a bit of a more equal standing with all the epic portrayals of male Tolkien heroes in the official Tolkien art published in these books (but still not really, also bearing in mind that we have way fewer female characters than male ones to start with) . 

 

Although I loved this edition, it's frankly disheartening to see the lack of interest in actually depicting Tolkien women, disregardless of the trait or scene chosen for them, in this particular selection 😕.

A selection of the illustrations: 

 

Fig. 15 - Colour map of Beleriand, endpaper

Fig. 16 - Meeting of Gandalf and Thorin (Alan Lee)

 

 

Fig. 17 - Nazgûl, 'The Hunt for the Ring' (John Howe)

Fig. 18 - 'Beleg Approaches Amon Rudh' (John Howe)

Fig. 19 - 'Amon Rûdh' (Ted Nasmith)

Fig. 20 - 'The Blue Wizards Journeying East' (Ted Nasmith)

Fig. 21 - Isildur on the Gladden Fields (Alan Lee)