Idril

Lineage and childhood

Idril was the daughter and only child of Turgon, second son of Fingolfin, and of Elenwë of the Vanyar. She was born in Tirion in the Years of the Trees, and had the golden hair of her mother's people. When the Noldor went into exile, Turgon's family crossed the Helcaraxë with Fingolfin's host, and on the ice Elenwë was lost; Idril was saved, but Turgon never forgave the house of Fëanor for the desertion that sent his people over the ice. She was called Celebrindal, Silverfoot, because she went barefoot, and she grew up first in Nevrast at Vinyamar and then in the hidden city of Gondolin, which Turgon completed and peopled in F.A. 116.

In Gondolin

Idril was the king's heir and the most honoured woman of the city, and she was wise beyond most of the Eldar, with a foresight that saw farther than her father's. When Aredhel, her aunt, came back to Gondolin with her son Maeglin, Idril welcomed her cousin, but she came to dislike and mistrust him. Maeglin loved her, a passion forbidden among the Eldar between such close kin, and the more she avoided him the darker his desire grew. Idril alone perceived the shadow in him, though she could not name it.

Tuor

In F.A. 495 Tuor, son of Huor, came to Gondolin in the armour of Vinyamar bearing the warning of Ulmo. Turgon would not abandon his city, but he welcomed Tuor, and Idril and Tuor loved each other. In F.A. 502 Turgon gave his consent to their marriage, the second union of Elves and Men after that of Beren and Lúthien, and in the following spring Idril bore their son Eärendil. Maeglin's hatred of Tuor grew in secret. Idril, foreseeing evil, had a hidden passage delved beneath the plain, running from her house north under the walls and out toward the Encircling Mountains, and she told no one of it but Tuor and a few trusted workers. She also warned Tuor to be wary of Maeglin.

The fall of Gondolin

Maeglin was captured beyond the mountains and bought his life by betraying the city to Morgoth. In F.A. 510, at midsummer, the hosts of Angband came over the northern heights. While Tuor fought in the streets, Maeglin came to Idril's house to seize her and the child, meaning to throw Eärendil from the walls; Idril fought him until Tuor came, and Tuor hurled Maeglin from the battlements to the death his father Eöl had foretold for him. Idril then led the women and children and such warriors as could be spared into her secret passage, and Tuor brought the survivors of the fighting after. They came out under the fume and smoke of the burning city and climbed into the mountains by the pass of Cirith Thoronath, where Glorfindel died holding the rearguard against a Balrog. Idril's foresight and her tunnel were all that saved a remnant of the greatest city of the Noldor.

Sirion and the Sea

The survivors came down at last to the Mouths of Sirion and joined the refugees of Doriath under Elwing. Eärendil grew up there and married Elwing, and Idril was the grandmother of Elrond and Elros. When age came on Tuor, he built the ship Eärrámë, and he and Idril sailed into the West together and were never seen again in Middle-earth. The Silmarillion says that the Elves believed Tuor alone of mortal Men was counted among the Eldar in Valinor, and Idril with him; their end is not otherwise told.

Legacy

Idril is the quietest of the three great Elf-women who married mortals, without Lúthien's power or Arwen's long story, but the survival of Gondolin's people and the birth of Eärendil were her work, and every king of Númenor and every Half-elven of the later Ages descended from her.

Sailed West with Tuor in the ship Eärrámë around F.A. 525; the Elves held that she and Tuor came to Valinor, but their end is not told.