betraying Gondolin

[Galin]

I always just thought that Hurin may have inadvertently tipped Morgoth off to the location of Gondolin, but Morgoth would not have been able to find a way through the mountains without Maeglin.

OK, but how have you arrived at this interpretation? In the notes to The Wanderings of Húrin, it appears, at least, that Maeglin reveals nothing about location that Morgoth did not already know.

CJRT appears to realize that the reader of The Fall of Gondolin will already naturally think that Húrin has revealed the whereabouts of Gondolin, so if Maeglin is also to do so (if QN is retained), it must be the very location (the word very added by CJRT) -- the reader naturally comes to the conclusion then that Húrin's part was too general -- a conclusion I agree with, based on an interpretation of the 1977 Silmarillion however.


The challenge is: mentally take out QN here (treat it as if it was not used in the 1977 Silmarillion), replace it with the WH notes -- combined with the WH text, what is the interpretation of the story now?