The external story of the name ‘Gondolin’.
Elvish languages are at the foundation of all what Tolkien wrote. A better understanding of Tolkien’s ConLangs helps to understand his stories. Study them without taking into account the ConLangs is like doing physics without knowing math, you won’t go far.
1. “Singing stone”
The word Gondolin was one of the first Gnomish place-name J.R.R. Tolkien invented. It was used in the title of his first major novel The Fall of Gondolin. In his (unfinished) index for that tale he wrote:
“Gondolin meaneth ‘stone of song’ (whereby figuratively the Gnomes meant stone that was carven and wrought to great beauty), and this was the name most usual of the Seven Names they gave to their city of secret refuge from Melko in those days before the release.”
The same meaning is given in the tale itself: “Gondolin, the Stone of Song”. In the ‘Gnomish Lexicon’ the interpretation of Gondolin is slightly different but convey the same meaning: “Gondolin = Q. Ondolin (changed to >>) Ondolinda “Singing Stone,” i.e. Gonn Dolin, hence (not Gonnolin) also Gontholin.”
During the I Conceptual Phase, the Gnomish name Gondolin had a clear and simple etymology: Gnomish gond “stone,” plus dôlin a noun meaning “song”. The shortening of long vowels was a rule in final element of trisyllabic names. Why Tolkien wrote “not Gonnolin”? It is because Gondolin is syllabled gon/dolin, not gond/olin; and Gontholin means that “nnd > nth”.
In Eldarissa, the Quenya language of the I Conceptual Phase, the meaning is a bit less clear. At first it was Ondolin, later changed to Ondolinda by Tolkien.
At that time the city was mostly named Gondolin by its inhabitants the Gnomes, the Elves of the Second Clan, and only Gnomish was their tongue: “in our daily speech we speak and we name it mostly Gondolin.”
Know then that the Gondothlim were that kin of the Noldoli who alone escaped Melko’s power when at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears he slew and enslaved their folk and wove spells about them and caused them to dwell in the Hells of Iron, faring thence at his will and bidding only.
(J.R.R. Tolkien)
Drawing of Gondolin by Tolkien dated September 1928, coloured by H. E. Riddett.
2. “Hidden rock”
For many years the meaning of ‘Gondolin’ did not change. Until during the III Conceptual Phase, Tolkien wrote in The Etymologies: “Gondolind, -inn, -in “heart of hidden rock”. He had conceived a new etymology and explanation: gond “rock” with past participle dolen “hidden, secret,” and inn, ind “inner thought” also “heart”. This meaning was carried out into the IV Conceptual Phase when Tolkien disregarded the Noldorin, a Welsh type language, in favor of the newly created Sindarin.
In his Quenta Silmarillion he translated the name of the city in the chapter Of Turgon and the Building of Gondolin as “the Hidden Rock”. But the final i was a huge problem. It triggered what is called i-affection in Sindarin. In other words, “o” in Gon- had to mutate to y or ö (both = IPA /u/) by i-affection (i-affection did not exist in Gnomish). Tolkien decided to rethink and reshape the etymology of Gondolin during the IV Conceptual Phase, taking into account the new phonological rules of Sindarin.
3. A new story and meaning
We have a note by Tolkien dated "13th Dec. 1962" with a reinterpretation of the meaning and origin of Gondolin conceived in order to explain the unmutated ‘o’ of gon-. Tolkien wrote: “accent retraction in North {Sindarin}: Góndolind, S. Gonnólen. Gondholen, Gondolen.” Tolkien was thinking of making Gondolin(d) a dialectal form. But dissatisfied with this explanation he decided to recast the story. Instead of being named Gondolin(d) by the Sindar of the North, the city name became a Sindarized Quenya name coined by the Exiles who spoke Quenya and who learned Sindarin only later. There was no i-affection in Quenya.
“The Noldor naturally adopted the Sindarin of the regions in which they settled,” wrote Tolkien. “Fingon in North. Finrod in SW. Turgon NW — but Turgon’s house and many of his folk adhered longest to Noldorin {= dialect of Quenya, not the Welsh style tongue} in daily speech, and this language was still in use in Gondolin. Gondolin is in fact only a partially Sindarized form of N. {= Noldorin, dialect of Quenya} Ondolinde (“Singing Stone” or “Stone of Music”). True Sindarin would have *Gondȫ-lindē > Gondolind > Gond-lind > Gonlind (or Gonglind) > late Gönlin (Gönglin).”
The text as printed has Gonlin, Gonglin, without i-affection. Either Tolkien forgot to put the diaeresis or it is a typo; Tolkien also wrote Goenlin and Goenglin which is a different way of writing Gönlin and Gönglin; cf. the German name Göring, also written Goering.
In one of the manuscript which should have formed the fourth complementary volume to The Lord of the Rings Tolkien wrote: “Gondolin. This is obviously neither Sindarin, nor Noldorin {= dialect of Quenya, not the Welsh style tongue}. Since it was founded by Turgon quite early its name was Quenya, and the high or state language of Gondolin remained Quenya, Ondolinde/Ondolin. But the population of Gondolin (being largely drawn from Nivrost) was at least half of Sindarin origin, and the daily language of the city was Sindarin. This differed from the standard (of Doriath): (a) in having western and some northern elements, and (b) in incorporating a good many Noldorin-Quenya words in more or less Sindarized forms. Thus the city was usually called Gondolin < Q. Ondolin(de), with simple replacement of g- (archaic S gond > gonn 'a rock', Q ondo), not **Goenlin or **Goenglin.”
Tolkien added a new explanation in Quenta Silmarillion expanding the brief ‘Hidden Rock’: “Or so its name was afterwards known and interpreted; but its ancient form and meaning are in doubt. It is said that the name was given first in Quenya (for that language was spoken in Turgon's house), and was Ondolinde, the “Rock of the Music of Water”, for there were fountains upon the hill. But the people (who spoke only the Sindarin tongue) altered this name to Gondolin and interpreted it to mean “Hidden Rock”: Gond dolen in their own speech.” The word dolen was carried on from Noldorin(-Welsh) to Sindarin without any change. The meaning “water and music” is repeated almost as in the Book of Lost Tales but with a completely different origin.
In c.1969 Tolkien wrote: “Though for most of its people {Quenya} had become a language of books, and as the other Ñoldor they used Sindarin in daily speech. In this way there arose several blended forms, belonging strictly to neither language. Indeed, the name of the great city of Turgon by which it was best known in legend, Gondolin(d) > is an example. It was given by Turgon in Quenya Ondolindë, but generally its people turned it towards Sindarin, in which Eldarin *gon, *gondō ‘stone, rock’ had retained the g- lost in Quenya”.
The new etymology was now complete and fitted the new internal story of the Eldar and their tongues.
Pr. Edward Kloczko