gondolin

place name. Hidden Rock, (originally) Singing Stone

The hidden city of the Noldor in Beleriand, translated “Hidden Rock”, an adaptation of its Quenya name Ondolindë “Rock of the Music of Water” (S/125). Tolkien stated that the name Gondolin was properly “neither Sindarin or Noldorin [Quenya]” (PE17/29), but the Sindarized name was reinterpretated as a combination of gond “stone” and dolen “hidden” (WJ/201).

Conceptual Development: The name G. Gondolin appeared in the earliest Lost Tales, but at this stage it was translated “Stone of Song” (LT2/158). This was the same meaning as its early Qenya name Ondolinda, with the second element being G. dólin “song” (GL/29, 41; LT1A/Gondolin). In The Etymologies from the 1930s, Tolkien revised the meaning of N. Gondolin to “heart of hidden rock” (Ety/DUL), setting the stage for the later derivation described above.

Cognates

• Q. Ondolindë “Rock of the Music of Water, (lit.) Singing Stone” ✧ PE17/133; PM/374; PMI/Gondolin; SA/gond; SI/Gondolin; WJI/Gondolin; S/125; WJI/Ondolindë

Derivations

• Q. Ondolindë “Rock of the Music of Water, (lit.) Singing Stone” ✧ PE17/029; PE17/133; WJ/201
  • ✶Gondō̆-lindē ✧ PE17/133

Element in

• S. Gondolindrim “People of Gondolin” ✧ SI/Gondolin; UTI/Gondolin
• S. Narn e·Dant Gondolin ar Orthad en·Êl “*Tale of the Fall of Gondolin and the Raising of the Star” ✧ MR/373

Elements

Word	Gloss
gond	“stone, rock, stone, rock, [N.] stone (as a material), [G.] great stone”
dolen	“hidden, hidden, [N.] secret”

Variations

• Gondolin(d) ✧ PM/374