Editing Tuor and Idril (section)

=== 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"/>