Hidden Rock

Among the mountains that bordered Beleriand to the north, there had once been a round lake with a rocky island at its centre. That lake drained away in ancient times, leaving a wide plain surrounded by high crags. The central island became a rocky hill, Amon Gwareth, rising from the mountain-circled plain of Tumladen.

The Vala Ulmo led Turgon to this secret place, and seeing the rock of Amon Gwareth rising from the plain, the Elf-lord chose that place to build a city for his people. In secret, he brought craftsmen and builders from Nevrast, the seaward land where he had formerly dwelt, and they raised a shining city on the rock. When it was completed in the year I 116, all of the people of Nevrast departed from that land, and settled instead in Turgon's gleaming new city.

Turgon chose a name for his city based on the rock on which it stood, and the many springs and fountains on that hill, calling it in Quenya Ondolindë, the 'Rock of the Music of Water'. In the Sindarin tongue, the original Ondolindë was changed, and the city acquired the name by which it was much better known to history: Gondolin, the 'Hidden Rock'.

Gondolin was concealed from all eyes, those of friend of foe alike, behind its Encircling Mountains, for nearly four centuries. It was in the year I 510 that its long-concealed location was finally revealed to Morgoth through treachery, and he sent a force over the Encircling Mountains to the north of the city. Gondolin was destroyed, and many of its people slain, including Turgon himself. The ruined Hidden Rock still remained for some decades after this, but in the War of Wrath, the Great Sea rushed in over the lands of Beleriand, and the Hidden Rock was consumed forever beneath the waters.