Venturing deeper than The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings into JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth is to enter into one of the greatest literary achievements ever: a fully complete world with history, mythology, scholarship, languages and legend. It is utterly breathtaking to read the great tales of the first age in The Silmarillion – stories of ancient battles and great heroes that were thousands of years old when Lord of the Rings begins. Indeed it is this vast work of myth hiding underneath Lord of the Rings that creates the illusion of depth and history that makes Tolkien’s world feel so much richer than most other fantasy worlds.
The rabbit hole goes deeper for those inclined to read the verse versions of some of the tales in The Lays of Beleriand or the earliest imaginings in The Book of Lost Tales. I have those two, but haven’t yet gotten to them. I’m working on Unfinished Tales now, but it’s the most finished of those unfinished tales that has recently gotten me interested in going deeper than The Silmarillion with The Children of Húrin, until now known only as one of the unfinished “great tales.”
Apparently after many years of studying his father’s papers and unfinished and unpublished manuscripts, Christopher Tolkien has managed to put together a complete version of this great tale of the First Age without having to do any editorial invention or interventions save for the occasional transition.
The Children of Húrin takes place in the First Age of Middle-earth, nearly 6500 years before Lord of the Rings and recounts the tragedy of the great warrior Húrin, who after being defeated in battle by the Dark Lord Morgoth is forced to watch as his children- primarily his son, Túrin Turambar – live their lives and battle against the curse of Morgoth that has been placed upon them.
Tolkien’s Túrin, son of a great man, raised by Elves and filled with both wrath and pity, reminds me of a darker version of Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. Unlike Aragorn, though, Túrin’s life is cursed. He leaves the Elves after a misunderstanding leads to violence and lives among outlaws where his adventures bring him heartbreak in increasing measure until he must finally face the dragon Glaurung whose torments have fallen heavily on Túrin.
The cool thing about The Children of Húrin is its accessibility. It’s intended as much for the hard core fan who already knows the story (from its peicemeal presentations in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Lays of Beleriand and The Book of Lost Tales) as for the casual reader who has read Lord of the Rings but nothing else of Tolkien’s work. Despite the fact that the story has been around for decades and that many people are already familiar with the saga of Túrin Turambar, it is nice to have the work presented as a consistent whole and makes a wonderful addition to the Tolkien canon.
As interesting as the story is, I found myself equally enjoying the appendices in which Christopher Tolkien explains the process of putting the story together as well as how this completed version differs from the other unfinished versions.
The book itself is a handsome hardback with black-and-white illustrations by Alan Lee with occasionaly full-page glossy color paintings of key scenes. Reading it made me wish more books were so beautifully presented, but then Tolkien books are special.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
[…] their unfinished state. Of course, “Narn I Hîn Húrin” aka The Children of Húrin (see my post on The Children of Húrin) was recently published as a stand alone novel after the discovery of the rest of the […]