The Fall of Gondolin is the first completed story in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth mythology, according to Tolkien’s own account.
Tolkien wrote an early version of The Fall of Gondolin in 1917, while recovering from illness during the First World War. The story concerns the hidden Elven city of Gondolin and its destruction by the forces of Morgoth, the first Dark Lord of Tolkien’s mythology.
The tale belongs to the legends later associated with the First Age and was one of the foundational narratives behind Tolkien’s developing mythology. It features Tuor, Idril, Turgon, Maeglin, and the heroic but doomed city of Gondolin. Tolkien continued revising the story across his lifetime.
The Fall of Gondolin should not be confused with The Silmarillion, which is a later editorial compilation published after Tolkien’s death. Christopher Tolkien assembled and edited surviving materials for that 1977 volume. A standalone edition titled The Fall of Gondolin was published in 2018, edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee.