vefanyar:

psychopompious:

There’s one thing about Gondolin that really, really bothers me. A question I can’t stop thinking about.

Why didn’t Idril tell Turgon about the secret tunnel? Didn’t she trust her own father?

And the thing about this is. How many of Gondolin’s warriors made suicidal last stands because they didn’t know that there was any hope? How many civilians were cornered because they didn’t know where to go? How many parents hid in their houses with their children because they didn’t know how to escape?

I mean holy shit, that’s not how you do an evacuation. An evacuation route only benefits people who know that it exists. If you’re really worried about spies, you don’t just make one route and hide it from everybody, you make multiple routes. Away from likely breach points, with a few secret ones branching off into undisclosed exits. At the very least, people should be trained how to safely escape their houses and get to secure locations. A single secret route isn’t meant to save others. It’s just for you and yours.

Considering how staunchly anti-evacuation Turgon was, and given that Maeglin successfully influenced him against Ulmo’s message into an even more isolationist policy and even the dry river entrance was closed up, I’m not surprised Idril did not trust her father with the idea of the Secret Tunnel; it’s not just a reversal of his policies, it’s also a betrayal and a political statement that most of the Gondolindrim seemed to want to ignore – that Gondolin was no longer safe. I also always assumed Turgon would have closed up the tunnel again if he knew, if Maeglin didn’t get to it first. That’s not to mention that beloved as Idril was, her political power was at the very least limited: Turgon asked Maeglin to be his regent during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad (which Maeglin refused), and when Turgon gave up his regency he made Tuor their leader, not Idril, so it’s anyone’s guess whether her station would have given her any leverage to continue her project in case of her father or Maeglin hearing about it. I find it doubtful.

The possibility of many tunnels and still maintaining secrecry really wasn’t one – it’s not a logistic possibility because a) the more workers would be needed the greater likelihood it would be for someone to let something slip,

deliberately or accidentally, especially if they’d have to reply on people Maeglin hadn’t wronged, and b) the geological makeup of Tumladen doesn’t allow for it. Idril’s tunnel was at least six or seven years in the making and still did not reach all the way into the mountains – plus, what other exits could there be? In case of the betrayal she suspected, the gates and dry river would definitely be guarded as the most logical entry point into the valley, and while I’m not entirely sure whether Bad Uthwen (the Way of Escape) is the same as that or another route from the valley, in the latter case it’d be another good spot for anyone with a shred of tactical knowledge to set up an ambush. In that regard Idril’s choice of going south into the highest mountains was smart, it’s the least likely route and the most protected (the Cirith Thoronath was populated by the eagles, after all, though I suppose not even those would have helped much if not for Glorfindel taking on the Balrog). 

The Lost Tales II also have a take on “just for you and yours” – nope. Just at the foundation of the House of the White Wing that “[i]n secret too [Idril] whispered to folk that if the city came to its last stand or Turgon be slain they rally about Tuor and her son” which is about as much as she could do in case of an emergency without compromising the only possible exit. It’s also worth noting that Tuor did take the survivors that Egalmoth had rescued from the city to the tunnel, and Idril herself went through the city picking up women and children to help them escape. The suicidal last stands of the lords that are described in BoLT II are primarily during the early phase of the fight while Turgon’s order still is to defend and hold the city (nevermind “once discovered Gondolin must fall”, I guess) rather than the turn it takes shortly before Turgon’s death and the order becomes to evacuate, so the pathos there isn’t all that applicable either.

tl;dr, Idril did the best she could given the circumstances, and the route wasn’t just for her and her family.