It will be quite a while before anyone leaves Gondolin, so we are stuck with the antics of the Lords of Gondolin courtesy of our future loremaster.

The King's Emblem

First Age 150, Gondolin

Praise be to Manwe and His Lady! The city still stands after yesterday's impromptu chariot race courtesy of Egalmoth, Ecthelion, Aredhel, and Glorfindel. Turgon has been inundated with claims and complaints from his good subjects over property damages suffered. There is talk about confiscating their horses. Good luck to whoever has to impound Glorfindel's prize stallion. Idril has scheduled a visit to the local House of Healing to call on those unfortunates who could not get out of the way of the horses fast enough. We of the household have been roped in to prepare goodwill baskets. I did not spend hours practising my calligraphy to pack oranges and flowers.

If Turgon had any sense (or perhaps the backbone to stand up to the High King), he would not have taken his sister with him to be shut up in his city. Better still, he should have packed her off to her Feanorion cousin's. Yes, the same blond bad boy she was rumoured to be indecently close to. I know this will fly in the face of all Eldar norms, but I think only that Feanorion will be able to keep her in line, likely with his fists if needed. My Lord Turgon has always bemoaned that his courtiers were a bad influence on his sister, but one would think it runs the other way. Never thought Lord Ecthelion was one for reckless driving, but I suppose a pitcher of strong wine from Turgon's own cellars made the difference. Poor ellon was quite apologetic about running over an elfling, he sold his fancy chariot and horses to Salgant and sent the money to the elfling's parents. The kid survived, but she will not be running about for a long while.

Pengolodh, junior royal scribe

First Age 155, Gondolin

The emblems of the noble Houses of Gondolin are a literal work of art. The House of the Heavenly Arch's multicoloured disc literally shimmers in the sunlight. The finesse and clean lines of the House of the Tree's and the House of the Harp's silhouettes. They say Ecthelion rejected his original crescent moon design in favour of diamonds on silver in the outline of a fountain. Even Lord Rog managed to come up with a fitting device for his House. King Turgon agonized for quite a while concerning his royal device. He never could quite settle on one emblem.

We finally had the heraldic shield for our House of the King decided upon. It is sadly staid next to the others. I mean, I can understand the Sun and Moon but shouldn't we include a crown or something? The Sun in the emblem is also rather pallid compared to the brilliance of the House of the Golden Flower's… Oh, it was decided by Lady Aredhel. Ah well, I suppose she just grabbed the castoff designs from the other Houses and did a little mix-and-match. I do believe she wanted to include an arrowhead but that was already taken by Duilin's House, and she still owes Lord Duilin an apology for using his servants as living targets for her arrows (even if they were blunted).

His Majesty did promise Aredhel she will get to decide the design of his House's device after he turned her request to start a separate House down. Lady Idril took one look at the design and now it is her turn to plague her father about starting a separate House. That is a crazy notion. I mean, everyone knows ellyth are not up to managing a noble house. They just do not lead, so my Ada always said (and then my Nana would smack him over the head).

Pengolodh, junior royal scribe

Author's Notes:

Just out of curiosity – which House of Gondolin do you think has the best designed heraldic emblem? Going by the illustrations on Tolkien Gateway, the House of the Harp has echoes of Guinness. Quite a number of them are straight to the point – a pillar, a stricken anvil.

A version has the scarlet heart on the King's House device as Fingolfin's, cut out from his body after his duel with Morgoth. Another version has it as Fingon's, cut out by orcs in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. Since both are still alive at this point, I have excluded it from Aredhel's design.