In "The Fall of Gondolin", which details the conquest of the Elven city Gondolin by the Dark Lord Morgoth, Tolkien writes that Glorfindel's name "meaneth Goldtress for his hair was golden". It was the first part of "The Book of Lost Tales" to be written, circa 1916–17, and the story was read aloud by Tolkien to the Exeter College Essay Club in the spring of 1920. "The Fall of Gondolin" appears in compressed form in "The Silmarillion", where the character is called "yellow-haired Glorfindel". According to Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien, "this was from the beginning the meaning of his name". An Elf of the same name appears in "The Lord of the Rings", written many years after the original draft of "The Fall of Gondolin": in "The Fellowship of the Ring", he appears to assist the hobbit Frodo Baggins in his attempt to escape the servants of the Dark Lord Sauron, Morgoth's successor.