What has Ecbatana to do with Gondolin?

 

Ecbatana: the inspiration for Gondolin?

There are many cities in the ancient world whose names are still well-known today. Babylon is perhaps the most famous, thanks in large part to the Bible. The writers of the bible had a bit of a downer on Babylon, which was hardly surprising, since they had ended up there against their will. Anyway, Babylon has become a bit of a synonym for the worst aspects of city life; decadent display, immoral living and the pursuit of money. Another city whose name has survived is Ur. As one of the first great examples of a Metropolis Ur has become a prefix denoting first; an Ur-text is one that contains the first version of something.

The City of the Medes

You may not be familiar with the name Ecbatana however. Let me tell you about this place, which played a significant role in history. In the eighth century B.C. the big superpower in the Fertile Crescent was Assyria. Militaristic conquerors who ruled with an iron fist, the Assyrians liked nothing better than a good impaling after sacking a city. But eventually even the Assyrians had to learn the same lesson that the Romans did centuries later; out beyond your borders somewhere there are a bunch of wild men who don’t give a damn about your reputation and love a good dust-up even more than you do. In the Assyrians case these turned out to the Medes, nomads from the Zagros Mountains who got tired of constantly having to give up their best horses to the Assyrian tax-collectors. Rising up in revolt they perhaps surprised even themselves by sacking Nineveh, the Assyrian capital.

 The centre of power then shifted to the Median Capital. This was Ecbatana, a City nestling in the mountains. The Medes themselves, as natural nomads, took a while to get used to urban living, but eventually got the hang of using architecture as a display of power. They themselves were superseded as top dogs by another nomadic people, the Persians, who, under Cyrus the Great, conquered not only Media but Babylon itself. But the Medes survived as partners in the Persian rise to greatness and Ecbatana thrived accordingly. Under the successors of Cyrus the Persians built a great Empire, with a great city to match; Paarsa, known to us by its Greek name as Persepolis- the City of the Persians. But Persepolis had a drawback; it could be stifling hot and uncomfortable in the summer. The Persian kings took to spending their summers in Ecbatana, whose location in the northern hills made it much more amenable in the summertime, much as the British in India retired to Simla in the foothills of the Himalayas to escape the summer heat. 

What was Ecbatana like?

Our descriptions of Ecbatana come not from a Persian but a Greek; Herodotus, one of the first great historians. Herodotus was born in Halicarnassus in Anatolia, then part of the Persian Empire. He had access to Persian sources of information and has left us a vivid description of Ecbatana;

“He (Dioeces, the traditional founder of the Median dynasty) built large and strong walls, those which are now called Ecbatana, standing in circles one within the other. And this wall is so contrived that one circle is higher than the next by the height of the battlements alone. And to some extent, I suppose, the nature of the ground, seeing that it is on a hill, assists towards this end; but much more was it produced by art, since the circles are in all seven in number. And within the last circle are the Royal Palace and the treasure-houses. The largest of these walls is in size about equal to the circuit of the wall around Athens; and of the first circle the battlements are white, of the second black, of the third crimson, of the fourth blue, of the fifth red, thus are the battlements of all the circles coloured with various tints, and the two last have their battlements one of them overlaid with silver and the other with gold….”

Approaching the gates of Ecbatana must have been an impressive site, with the polychrome walls appearing from a distance as a solid barrier. The city was famous for centuries and its successor is the modern city of Hamadan. A real place then with a real history. Keep the description of Herodotus in mind as we consider our second city; Gondolin. 

Middle-Earth, a place quite like our own world. 

Middle-Earth, the creation of the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien, an Oxford Philology Professor, has inspired many people to try their hand at what he himself called, in his Lecture on Fairy stories delivered at St Andrews University in 1936, ‘sub-creation’. Tolkien believed that the urge to tell stories in an imaginative way has been with humans for as long as we have existed. He also felt that such stories needed to take reality as a starting point, even if they introduced the fantastical. Middle-earth follows this blueprint with both its geography and its history grounded in reality. The landscape of Ithilien in Gondor, for instance, contains recognisable plants such as Thyme and Sage. The story of how the Riders of Rohan (basically Anglo-Saxons with cavalry) came to live in their land has clear parallels with the barbarian settlements in Western Europe in the fifth century A.D.

The most obvious reference culturally is the story of Numenor, which is Tolkien’s retelling of the Atlantis myth, whilst the plot device of a magic ring is self-evidently taken from Norse Sagas, along with elements of the character of both Sauron and Gandalf, who both mirror aspects of Odin. All these have been remarked on by reviewers, commentators and writers of books on Tolkien long before me (take a bow Paul Kocher). One possible source of inspiration for somewhere in Middle-earth had passed me by until recently however; the inspiration for the Elven City of Gondolin. Mentioned in the Hobbit as the place from which the swords Glamdring and Orcrist originated, it is also referenced in the Lord of the Rings.

Its full story can be found in the Silmarillion, which describes the pre-history of Middle-earth. Here is a brief First age History lesson. The Valar, Tolkien’s version of the Olympian Gods, encourage the Elves to travel to the far west, to Valinor, their home, in order to be safe. Valinor is lit by the light of two trees, Laurelin and Telperion, one golden, one silver. Three kindred’s of Elves make the journey, the Vanyar, the Teleri and the Noldor. The last of these, the Noldor, become great craftsmen and artists. The greatest of these craftsmen is Feanor, son of Finwe, the Chieftain of the Noldor. Feanor traps light from the two trees into three jewels, the Silmarils.

Here the story takes a dark turn. Morgoth, the greatest of the Valar, who has a share in the gifts of all of them, tires of the constraints of collective governance. He makes a bid for power and poisons the trees. The Valar beg Feanor to break open the jewels in order to heal the trees. He refuses but then learns that Morgoth has murdered his father, stolen the Jewels and fled to Middle-earth. Wild with grief Feanor stirs up the Noldor to follow him and seize back the jewels. The Valar attempt to ban departure but the Noldor leave anyway. This act of defiance is compounded by a further crime. The Noldor need the ships of the Teleri to leave but the Teleri tell Feanor their ships are as valuable to them as his jewels are valuable to him. Feanor gives the order to take them by force and many Teleri are slain.

This kinslaying takes away the moral high ground from the Noldor and dooms their enterprise. The war against Morgoth cannot be won. One of the few Noldor leaders to appreciate this is Turgon, nephew of Feanor. Turgon is a worrier- the one standing at the back saying “I have a bad feeling about this”. This is partly because he is close to Ulmo, Tolkien’s version of Poseidon, who is big on future foretellings. On the advice of Ulmo Turgon looks to found a refuge against the day that things go wrong.

He is guided to a secret valley encircled by mountains where he founds his refuge, the City of Gondolin. This city endures for many years, away from the prying eyes of Morgoth, but Turgon cannot escape the fate of the Noldor. What he can do is mitigate it. He is told by Ulmo to leave armour and weapons in a cavern by the sea and to accept the wearer when he comes to Gondolin. The wearer turns out to be Tuor, a member of one of the ruling houses of men. Tuor’s father and Uncle are Huor and Hurin. Hurin acts as rear-guard when Turgon, having led an army to the aid of his brother Fingon, retreats,allowing him to escape back to Gondolin. Tuor is guided to Gondolin by one of its people and is allowed entrance because of the armour. Here he has to pass seven gates; the first of wood, the second of stone, the third of bronze, the fourth of writhen iron, the fifth of silver, the sixth of gold and the seventh of steel. This is described in the Book of Unfinished tales, published by Christopher Tolkien after his fathers’ death, in a chapter entitled ‘Of Tuor and his coming to Gondolin’.  

Another posthumous publication, the Fall of Gondolin, contains the story of Gondolin as originally written by Tolkien. In that version, when he arrives at the gates of Gondolin Tuor is told that Gondolin has seven names. Seven is a significant number in Tolkien’s world. Feanor has seven sons; the crown of Durin, the Dwarf king, is represented by seven stars.

So let us go back to where we started; Ecbatana, the City built on seven levels with seven circuit walls of different colours. It is tempting to conclude that Tolkien, a widely read Oxford Professor of language, may well have read Herodotus’ description of Ecbatana and that he may have used it for the germ of the idea of Gondolin, the city of seven names with its seven gates made of different materials. Gondolin is built on a hill, Tumladen, surrounded by mountains, much as Ecbatana is.

There is a further connection. Tuor settles in Gondolin and marries Idril, the daughter of the King. Their son is Earendil, who has twin sons, Elrond (yes, THAT Elrond) and Elros. Because their mother is Elwing, an Elf, the twins, (echoes of Castor and Pollux here) are allowed to choose to be Mortal man or Immortal Elf. Elrond chooses to be of Elf kind. Elros chooses to be Mortal and becomes the first king of Numenor. When Numenor falls a descendent of his, Elendil, escapes to Middle-Earth (like Aeneas from the sack of Troy. His sons are Isildur and Anarion). Anarion founds the city of Minas Tirith. Now this City IS made up of seven levels, built up against Mount Mindolluin. I always felt that Minas Tirith was meant to be an echo of, or inspired by Gondolin.

This is all conjecture of course.But I like the idea that Ecbatana of the Medes somehow found its way into Middle-earth. What do you think?