Tolkiens Middle-earth stories is that they never really seem to end.
Christopher warned in that books foreword that it might be his last edition of his fathers unpublished writings.
He threw himself straight intoFall of Gondolin.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
We didnt actually know about it until this time last year there was a potential other one.
Im sure hell be happy to have those books in his hand.
This particular journey is completed.
Only the hidden Elvish city of Gondolin remains free from Morgoths iron grip.
Unfortunately, Tolkien never perfected the Gondolin story.
Instead, Tolkien left behind several versions of the Gondolin story, written over the course of decades.
The Fall of Gondolinis a different kind of read fromThe HobbitorThe Lord of the Rings.
On top of the incompleteness, one particular scene is unlike anything in the earlier books.
Morgoth was one, before rebelling against Iluvatars plan to conquer the mortal realm for himself.
Still, burning bush style divine intervention is on a different level.
Lee says he had to work to make his illustration of this scene not look out of place.
Its very tricky, trying to draw something thats so unexpected and magical, Lee says.
What is Ulmo actually made of?
That makes it easier to bring those intangible qualities into play.
I started one version where I was a lot closer to him.
He filled the page, and it just didnt work.
I abandoned that and pulled back, and made him an embodiment of the environment.
It makes the whole thing richer and more satisfying and more dense.
Tolkien once described it as the first real story of this imaginary world.
For now, it is the last.
