The Children of Hurin

(2007)
J.R.R. Tolkien

Finished Reading: 07.2009

Tolkien began writing what would become The Children of Hurin many years before he wrote the epic Lord of the Rings. However, he never finished this bleak story set in the First Age of Middle-Earth, though he apparently worked on it from time to time. His son Christopher Tolkien has published the story from various gathered fragments and drafts discovered over the years to bring us the story of Turin son of Hurin, with the best intentions towards maintaining the original voice of his father.

While yet a boy, Turin is separated from his family and grows up in a royal household of elves. But darkness reaches across the land, and evil destroys all that was once good, near and far from home. When Turin becomes a man he leaves his adopted home and wanders Middle-Earth to seek his family, joining with outlaws, elvish folk, and dwarves along the way. He valiantly slays orcs and dragons with his mighty sword Anglachel, but it is at the eventual reunion with one of his family that he finally pulls the darkness down upon himself. We discover Turin's fatal blunder long before he does, and we can't help but watch the tragedy unfold with anticipation. There are no hobbits to misdirect our attentions.

Beginning rather slowly with histories and long narrations, the story finally gets underway with vivid description of epic battles and bloody deaths. Dragon slaying is particularly exciting, as are the romantic implications discovered in a wrongful love, downwind to the unraveling of tragedy. The Children of Hurin is a much shorter story than The Lord of the Rings, containing less detail, and relying on story movement and action without tangential chapters devoted to further develop characters. Particularly in the last few chapters, the the characters are very convincing, and the writing is superbly crafted. Though not directly linked to one another, the two stories are a complement, as they share the same fictional universe.

Joyfully, an index of names is provided at the end of the book. Turin, Morwen, Mablung, Glaurung, and Finduilas are some of the many names thrown at us, if you can remember who belongs to which.