The 1995 Tolkien Calendar |
Illustrated by John Howe |
| PART 2 OF 2 |
'For partly in the primeval shaping of the hill, partly
by the mighty craft and labour of old, there stood
up from the rear of the wide court behind the Gate
a towering bastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-
keel facing east. Up it rose, ever to the level of the
topmost circle, and there was crowned by a
battlement; so that those in the Citadel might, like
mariners in a mountainous ship, look from its peak
sheer down upon the Gate seven hundred feet below.'
| The Return of the King. |
'At last, in the year when Earendil was seven years
old, Morgoth was ready, and he loosed upon
Gondolin his Balrogs, and his Orcs, and his wolves;
and with them came the dragons of the brood of
Glaurung, and they were become now many and
terrible The host of Morgoth came over the
northern hills where the height was greatest and the
watch least vigilant, and it came at night upon a
time of festival, when all the people of Gondolin
were upon the walls to await the rising sun, and sing
their songs at its uplifting; for the morrow was the
great feast that they named the Gates of Summer.'
| The Silmarillion. |
'Then Tuor bowed in reverence, for it seemed to
him that he beheld a mighty king. A tall crown he
wore like silver, from which his long hair fell down
as foam glimmering in the dusk; and as he cast back
the grey mantle that hung about him like a mist,
behold! he was clad in a gleaming coat, close-fitted
as the mail of a mighty fish, and in a kirtle of deep
green that flashed and flickered with sea-fire as he
strode slowly towards the land.'
| Unfinished Tales. |
'It is said that even as Feanor and Fingolfin stood
before Manwe, and it was the Mingling of the
Lights and both Trees were shining and the silent
city of Valmar was filled with radiance as of silver
and gold, in that hour Melkor and Ungoliante came
over the plain and stood before the Green Mound.'
| Morgoth's Ring. |
'In that vast shadow once of yore
Fingolfin stood: his shield he bore
with field of heaven's blue and star
of crystal shining pale afar.
In overmastering wrath and hate
desperate he smote upon that gate,
the Gnomish king, there standing lone,
while endless fortresses of stone
engulfed the thin clear ringing keen
of silver horn on baldric green.'
| The Lays of Beleriand. |
'And afterward they laid the Siege of Angband
which lasted more than two hundred years; and
Fingolfin boasted that Morgoth could never burst
from his leaguer, though neither could they take
Angband nor recover the Silmarils. But war never
ceased utterly in all this time, for Morgoth was
secretly arming, and ever and anon would try the
strength and watchfulness of his foes.'
| The Shaping of Middle-earth. |
