TITLE:  The Children of Húrin

AUTHOR:  J.R.R. Tolkien

EDITOR:  Christopher Tolkien

ILLUSTRATOR:  Alan Lee

______________________________

DESCRIPTION:

"The Tale of The Children of Húrin (Narn i Chîn Húrin), is set during the legendary time before The Lord of the Rings

Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwells in the vast fortress of Angband in the North; and within the shadow of the fear of Angband, and the war waged by Morgoth against the Elves, the fates of Túrin and his sister Niënor will be tragically entwined.
Their brief and passionate lives are dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bears them as the children of Húrin, the man who dared to defy him to his face. Against them Morgoth sends his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire, in an attempt to fulfil the curse of Morgoth and destroy the children of Húrin."

____________________________

REVIEW:

This is a more complete (more or less) narrative tale of the Children of Hurin from what is found in the Silmarillion, and includes text from Unfinished Tales.  The writing is delightful as always.  Dragons, orcs, elves, dwarves, a grumpy sword, hidden cities, curses, messed up family dynamics and mayhem.  Some one really should have had a little to chat to Turin about his temper.

The illustrations by Alan Lee were a nice bonus.

The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien is a tragic story of The Children of Húrin, one of the unfinished tales in The Silmarillion.

Though The Children of Húrin was a great read, it was a tragic one, but I loved learning of what happened fully to Hurin's children, Túrin and Niënor. It has been years since I've read The Silmarillion, so this was a necessity read, for me.

I highly recommend lovers of Tolkien's work to read this tale.

Well, what the frick??

This book was an emotional nightmare... I mean, I learned a lot of great things, and I absolutely love everything about the Middle-earth universe, but... frick, man!

On the plus side, I am pursing the seven deadly sins/seven virtues in Tolkien's characters. There was a lot of the traditional pride cycle in Turin's character here, and I want to see what I can find when I look at other Tolkien characters in Middle-earth. Then I could argue that Tolkien succeeded in creating his own mythology for England because mythology is usually tied to religion, and this would create a firm tie to religion, etc. 

Wish me luck!

(And bring me some tissues...)

"But upon all whom you love my thought shall weight as a cloud of Doom, and it shall bring them down into darkness and despair. Wherever they go, evil shall arise. Whenever they speak, their words shall bring ill counsel. Whatsoever they do shall turn against them. They shall die without hope, cursing both life and death."

 

HOLY CRAP.

Sometimes, I feel like I know a lot about Lord of the Rings, and in my arrogance, I feel like a little bit like an expert. However, the more I learn about Tolkien's world, the more I realize I know basically nothing. 

Middle-earth's lore and legend is SO DETAILED. It's so precise, so seamless, and I can't even comprehend the depth of Tolkien's genius. Additionally, as someone who is religious, I keep seeing crazy parallels to Christianity that are so perfect. 

I'm still searching for my thesis, but I've been playing with the idea of east vs. west because that has been a consistent theme through both Lord of the Rings and this. East is the direction of danger, fear, and adventure, while safety, protection, and divinity lie in the West. This is a pretty good reflection of orientalism in literature, but I don't know what it means yet. 

Onward!

Hello!!

So I've been gone for a long time, I know, but I am back for a little bit. I'm going to be playing catch up for sure once I graduate college (in October!!!), but until then, I have a senior paper to think about, and a killer thesis to find.

I want desperately to write about Tolkien, so I have been reading a lot of Tolkien. However, on the recommendation of a friend, I am taking a break in my reread of the trilogy (just finished Two Towers) to read The Children of Hurin because he thinks it'll have more connections to classic tragedy that I can follow to form a solid thesis. 

This is the first time in awhile that I've read new Tolkien because 1) I don't have a lot of time to read outside of class, and 2) when I do read Tolkien, I go back to what I know, but I am incredibly excited right now. 

In order to keep more detailed notes on my thoughts, you might see a lot of updates from me as I read this book, which will be a huge difference from the gap of silence there has been from me for the last two years, hahah. But here we go!