Predestined to become the hope
Of all in the drear time
The time when feast changed into tears
And grandness into slime
He went to the forbidden gate
Of Gondolin the great
To warn the king against the doom
Brought forth by pride and hate
Stranger from the Great Sea
From a far-off shore
Where the rocks have voices
And the waves are hoar
An obscure enigma
He will come at last
Speaking the deep language
Of a buried past
The vigour of the human race
Is gathered in his form
And he sounds like the symphony
Of waves after the storm
Stranger from the Great Sea
From a far-off shore
Where the rocks have voices
And the waves are hoar
An obscure enigma
He will come at last
Speaking the deep language
Of a buried past
Nobody knows
What road will lead you there
Tales of something
That seems to be nowhere
A cherished secret
That the mountains screen
A guarded treasure
Never to be seen
In the valley the rivers sing
Light-winged legend carried by the wind
Fleeing flicker, immaterial sound
Hidden city, when will you be found
The dazzling brightness
Of marble and of gold
Marvel of marvels
So hard to behold
End of the rainbow
Dreamed of from afar
Vanishing image
Of a falling star
Hopeless memory of a long-loved thing
Song of dead leaves floating in the wind
Apparition of a haunting ghost
Hidden city, found and lost
Attacking the unconscious city
Invading it unawares
They came over hills and ramparts
They went up the vast, white stairs
And that was a night of shrieking
And summer changed into death
A welter of black confusion
The fierce blast of dragons' breath
Gondolin, Gondolin, proud and wondrous
Treason has woken within your walls
No weapon could stop the slaughter
No hand could avert the stroke
The ruin of falling bulwarks
The spirals of strangling smoke
Distraction and desperation
Enfolding the happy plain
The jealously guarded kingdom
Brought down by the ruthless bane
The end of the long illusion
Catastrophe of the land
Where centuries of seclusion
Were useless against Hell's band
The city beyond the mountains
Collapsed like a tower of glass
And ceased like the short-lived echo
Of beautiful things that pass
And greedy ivy is all that grows now
Among the rubble of tumbling halls
The lives of Elves and Men
Entwined are in his destiny
And in his eyes the wistful gaze
Into infinity
The lives of Elves and Men
Entwined are in his destiny
And in his eyes the wistful gaze
Into infinity
And in the end the city fell.
Its streets were filled with the might of Morgoth's monstrous
creatures: wolves, Orcs and Balrogs wandered around,
spreading fire and death. And in the very square of the King,
Ecthelion of the Fountain engaged a deadly battle with Gothmog lord
of Balrogs, where each killed the other. Then,
by the pass called the Eagles' Cleft,
the fugitives from Gondolin were ambushed by Orcs;
and a Balrog was with them.
They were only saved by the courage of Glorfindel
the golden-haired, whose valour lives on in Elfish songs

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