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Dates
Race
Divisions
Noldor, and Sindar of Nevrast
Culture
Settlements
Our only records associated the festival with Gondolin, but it was apparently also celebrated by other Elves
Meaning
A reference to the celebration of the end of spring and the beginning of summer2
Other names
Said to have been named Tarnin Austa in Elvish
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Gates of SummerA festival celebrated in GondolinA celebration held each year in the city of Gondolin, and perhaps elsewhere,2 to mark the end of spring and the coming of summer. The festival began at midnight, and through the dark hours the people of the city would remain silent until the first summer Sun rose over the eastern mountains of the Echoriath. As the Sun rose, the Gondolindrim would lift their voices in ancient songs of greeting as summer began. The celebration of the Gates of Summer in I 510 marked disaster for the people of Gondolin. As they awaited the red light of the Sun rising in the east, instead they saw a fiery glow coming over the mountains to the north: the approaching armies of Morgoth. Having discovered the city's location by treachery, the Dark Lord had sent a surprise assault against it. Though a few survivors escaped the calamity that followed, the city of Gondolin was destroyed and its King, Turgon, was lost in the city's Fall. The Silmarillion gives us little specific information about the festival, but its history goes back to the Book of Lost Tales, the earliest iteration of Tolkien's stories, and there we're given rather more detail. Its Elvish name is given there as Tarnin Austa, and it was said to be the second of the two spring festivals of Gondolin (with the first being Nost-na-Lothion, the Birth of Flowers). The people of Gondolin would hold silent vigil on the walls of the city, and choirs of Elves would greet the Sun as it rose, heralding the coming of summer. Notes
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