Editing Tuor and Idril (section)

=== 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>