After the Glorious Battle (Dagor Aglareb), Turgon felt unease in his heart and returned to the secret vale that Ulmo had shown him, taking with him the strongest and most skillful of his people. After two hundred and fifty years of secret toil, the city that was known in the Sindarin tongue as Gondolin was finished. In the nearby waters of the Sirion, Ulmo set his protection so that none should find Gondolin against the will of Turgon. Turgon summoned his people, along with some of his father Fingolfin’s people and many of the Sindar, from Nevrast and moved them to the hidden city. There, they seemed to disappear, and none knew where they had gone.
Ulmo also warned Turgon not to love too much the work of his own hands and not to forget that he also came under the Doom of Mandos and so should fear that treason would awake within the secret walls of Gondolin. Ulmo promised to send someone to warn Turgon, should this betrayal come to pass, and bade Turgon to leave armor and sword in Nevrast for the messenger to find so that Turgon would know him when he arrived.
Gondolin thrived, sequestered within the mountains, until it became nearly as fair as Tirion in Valinor. Fairest of all was Turgon’s golden-haired daughter Idril.
At the same time, Galadriel dwelt in Doriath and spoke often to Melian, though she would not speak of what had come to pass after the Trees were darkened. Melian sensed woe about her, but sight of the West had been shut to all in Middle-earth, even her. Galadriel told her of the Silmarils and Finwë’s murder, but would not speak of the Oath of the Fëanorians, the Kinslaying, or the burning of the ships at Losgar. Melian told Thingol what she knew, and Thingol took heart that he should be able to better trust that the Noldor would never ally with Morgoth, since their arrival in Middle-earth had been for the purpose of exacting revenge upon the Dark Lord. Still, Melian cautioned him to beware the sons of Fëanor, for a shadow of evil deeds lay about them and—though they may prove to be Doriath’s greatest defense—also they might prove to be treacherous.
Not long after, Morgoth set rumors amid the Sindar, who were more trusting of what they heard, of what had befallen the Noldor prior to their arrival in Beleriand. Círdan carried the news then to Thingol, with whom the sons of Finarfin were staying to visit their sister Galadriel. Thingol approached Finrod in anger, that he should come to Doriath with the blood of his mother’s people upon his hands, and Finrod did not deny the false accusation, not wanting to speak ill of the other Noldorin princes. Angrod, who had been rebuked by Caranthir long before and was still bitter, then told the truth: The people of Finarfin were guiltless in the Kinslaying and had indeed been betrayed by the Fëanorians and forced to cross the grinding ice. He excused their silence on the Kinslaying as a wish not to betray the other princes—a decision that had earned them, in turn, Thingol’s anger. But Angrod would hold the silence no more, and told of all that had transpired.
In his anger, Thingol sent forth the sons of Finarfin but agreed not to shut his doors against them or the people of Fingolfin, who had bitterly atoned for their deeds upon the grinding ice. But he banned the speaking of Quenya within his borders, and the Sindar refused to speak it, and it became a language spoken only by the lords of the Noldor, amongst themselves.
The sons of Finarfin were heavy-hearted after, knowing that the people of Fëanor should never escape the shadow that lay upon his house and that fear of treachery would indeed be their undoing. In the darkness of his thoughts, also, Finrod Felagund perceived that he too must be free to fulfill an oath—unbound by marriage—and that nothing of his kingdom would remain for a son to inherit, even if he should desire marriage: but she whom he had loved was a woman of the Vanyar, and she went not with him into exile.
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