Editing Tuor and Idril (section)

== Analysis ==

=== Tuor ===

<!--The theology scholar Lisa Coutras writes-->Scholars have stated that Tuor demonstrated wisdom by listening to his wife, whose wise counsel is her defining trait, whereas a leader of greater stature like [[Thingol]], the Elvenking of Doriath, was brought low by his recklessness and pride.<ref name="Coutras193">{{cite book |last=Coutras |first=Lisa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zrLIDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA193 |title=Tolkien's Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth |publisher=Springer |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-1375-5345-4 |page=193}}</ref> Jennifer Rogers writes in ''[[Tolkien Studies]]'' that [[Christopher Tolkien]] seamlessly introduces the story in his book ''[[The Fall of Gondolin]]'' by providing short extracts of his father's 1926 "Sketch of the Mythology" and "The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor", thus setting "Tuor's story in the context of the [[Doom of Mandos]] and the [[Oath of Fëanor]]", in other words within the [[Tolkien's legendarium|legendarium]].<ref name="Rogers2019">{{cite journal |last=Rogers |first=Jennifer |title=The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=16 |issue=1 |year=2019 |pages=170–174 |issn=1547-3163 |doi=10.1353/tks.2019.0013|s2cid=211969055 }}</ref> The [[Tolkien scholar]] Linda Greenwood notes that Tuor is the only mortal Man in the legendarium permitted to live as an immortal.<ref name="Greenwood 2005">{{cite journal |last=Greenwood |first=Linda |title=Love: 'The Gift of Death' |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=2 |issue=1 |year=2005 |pages=171–195 |issn=1547-3163 |doi=10.1353/tks.2005.0019|s2cid=171004496 }}</ref> Tolkien suggests an explanation in a letter, namely that [[Eru Ilúvatar]], the One God, directly intervenes as a unique exception, just as in [[Lúthien]]'s assumption of a mortal fate.<ref name="Letter 153" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#153 to Peter Hastings, September 1954 }}</ref>

[[File:Aeneas' Flight from Troy by Federico Barocci.jpg|thumb|Tuor has to flee the wreck of a kingdom, just as [[Aeneas]] had to escape the wreck of [[Troy]],<ref name="Greenman 1992"/> as depicted in this painting by [[Federico Barocci]], 1598]]

David Greenman, in ''[[Mythlore]]'', compares Tuor both with the Hobbit heroes of ''The Lord of the Rings'', and with classical heroes:<ref name="Greenman 1992">{{cite journal |last=Greenman |first=David |year=1992 |title=Aeneidic and Odyssean Patterns of Escape and Release in Tolkien's 'The Fall of Gondolin' and 'The Return of the King' |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=18 |issue=2 |at=Article 1 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol18/iss2/1}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ David Greenman's comparison of Tuor with other heroes<ref name="Greenman 1992"/>
! Era !! Tolkien's "quest-heroes" !! Action !! [[Tolkien and the classical world|Classical analogues]]
|-
| Early || Tuor of Gondolin || Escapes wreck of city, creates anew elsewhere || [[Aeneas]] escapes [[Trojan War|the fall of Troy]], founds Rome
|-
| Late  || [[Hobbit]]s of [[the Shire]] || Return to despoiled home, [[The Scouring of the Shire|scour it clean]] || [[Odysseus]] scours Ithaca of Penelope's suitors
|}

Tolkien's biographer [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]] writes in his book ''Tolkien's Worlds'' that the windswept treeless hills of [[Nevrast]], where Tuor reaches the cliffs and becomes the first Man to see the sea in the legendarium, are "perfectly [[Cornwall|Cornish]]". Garth notes that Tuor stands there at sunset with his arms outspread until the sea-[[Valar|Vala]] Ulmo appears from the water to prophesy the birth of Tuor's son Eärendil, who ends up with a [[Silmarils|Silmaril]] in the sky as the Evening Star.<ref name="Garth 2020"/> The German artist [[Jenny Dolfen]] has painted the scene in her 2019 "And His Heart Was Filled With Longing" as a Cornish landscape, with Tuor surrounded by seagulls.<ref name="Garth 2020"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Dolfen |first1=Jenny |author1-link=Jenny Dolfen |title=And His Heart Was Filled With Longing |url=https://twitter.com/jennydolfen/status/1101422542806568960?lang=en-gb |publisher=Twitter<!--work by recognised artist; link gives access to the artwork, cited and illustrated by Garth 2020--> |access-date=10 February 2021 |date=2019}}</ref> Garth states that this means that the Evening Star was not in the western sky that Tuor saw, whereas when Tolkien visited the [[Lizard peninsula]] in Cornwall in 1914, the planet had risen and set "due west", an uncommon sight. A few weeks later, Tolkien wrote the first poem of his legendarium, "The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star".<ref name="Garth 2020">{{cite book |last=Garth |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JMjgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 |title=Tolkien's worlds : the places that inspired the writer's imagination |publisher=White Lion Publishing |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-7112-4127-5 |publication-place=London |page=64 |oclc=1181910875 |author-link=John Garth (author)}}</ref>

=== Idril ===

The Tolkien scholar Melanie Rawls identifies Idril as a female character with agency in Tolkien's works: she is shown to be capable of taking action once she has achieved understanding.<ref name="Rawls 1984"/> Idril counsels her father, Turgon, who "is very masculine and in need of a feminine counterpart", in his rule of Gondolin. Rawls states, too, that Idril is a "well-balanced personality", and that Tuor, who combines masculine (warrior) and feminine (counsellor) qualities, "matches her well".<ref name="Rawls 1984">{{cite book |last=Rawls |first=Melanie |chapter=The Feminine Principle in Tolkien |editor-last=Croft |editor-first=Janet Brennan |editor-link=Janet Brennan Croft |editor2-last=Donovan |editor2-first=Leslie A. |title=Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=[[Mythopoeic Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-887726-01-6 |oclc=903655969 |pages=99–117}}</ref> In ''[[Tor.com]]''{{'}}s series on the people of Middle-earth, Megan N. Fontenot praises the characterisation of Idril's wisdom and forbearance as told in the story of the Fall of Gondolin. In Fontenot's view, Idril's story represents "a significant milestone in Tolkien's storytelling career", as she saw in it many echoes of several other female characters of Middle-earth.<ref name=Idril>{{cite web |last=Fontenot |first=Megan |url=https://www.tor.com/2019/07/25/exploring-the-people-of-middle-earth-idril-the-far-sighted-wisest-of-counsellors|title=Exploring the People of Middle-earth: Idril the Far-Sighted, Wisest of Counsellors|date=25 July 2019 |website=[[Tor.com]] |access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref>

Greenman compares and contrasts Idril's part in the story to [[Cassandra]] and [[Helen of Troy]], two prominent female figures in accounts of the [[Trojan War]]: like the prophetess, Idril had a premonition of impending danger and like Helen, her beauty played a major role in instigating Maeglin's betrayal of Gondolin, which ultimately led to its downfall and ruin. Conversely, Greeman notes that Idril's advice to enact a contingency plan for a secret escape route out of Gondolin was heeded by her people, and that she had always rejected Maeglin's advances and remained faithful to Tuor.<ref name="Greenman 1992"/>

In Tolkien's [[fictional language]] of [[Sindarin]], the name Idril is a form of the [[Quenya]] name ''Itarillë'', ''Itarildë'', or ''Itaril'', meaning "sparkling brilliance".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1996}}, "[[The Shibboleth of Fëanor]]"</ref> The epithet ''Celebrindal'' means "Silverfoot": according to the early ''Sketch of the Mythology'' (the first version of the ''Silmarillion'' from 1926), she was so named "for the whiteness of her foot; and she walked and danced ever unshod in the white ways and green lawns of Gondolin." Tolkien describes her thus in this text: "Very fair and tall was she, well nigh of warrior's stature, and her hair was a fountain of gold." [[Christopher Tolkien]] comments that this description may be the prototype of that of [[Galadriel]].<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1986}}, The Earliest 'Silmarillion'</ref> The account is present in the earliest form of the story ''The Fall of Gondolin'', in which "the people called her Idril of the Silver Feet in that she went ever barefoot and bareheaded, king's daughter as she was, save only at pomps of the [[Ainur in Middle-earth|Ainur]]"; then she is called ''Talceleb'' or ''Taltelepta''.<ref name="Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin" group="T"/>