313 pages
English language
Published Aug. 7, 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
The ‘Great Tale’ of The Children of Húrin, 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 Turin and his sister Nienor will be tragically entwined. Their brief and passionate lives are dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bears them as the children of Hurin, 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. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulates the fates of Turin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, in an attempt to fulfil the curse of Morgoth.
Read this one many years ago, reread it this year. - Still, "Tolkien's best", in my mind.
I read the English version, but did not see it on site yet. Very interesting and tragic history of the children of Hurin. A much easier read than the Silmarillion but more condensed than the LOTR. if you have an interest in JRRT's worldbuilding and character histories than this is the book for you, more casual fans might get bored of these ancient hero's.
Holy shit this was a depressing book. However, it was a good tale that filled in some details on the First Age of Tolkien's legandarium.
The story of Hurin's children was already thorougly covered in The Silmarillion, but this is the more elaborated version. Mine was an audio production narrated by Christopher Lee, whom I have to admit I at first had to get a bit used to, but now at the end as I look back, I'll say that actually he did an excellent job on it. His deep voice really sort of fits the mood and feel of the piece, and indeed the Tolkien verse in general.
The writing in this one is the same sort of style as The Silmarillion, which always feel a bit to me like a sort of a text book. I felt like I was reading a historical account with that one. This one has more detail with dialogue and such, but it still doesn't reach the level of readability that the LotR trilogy has, which I actually …
The story of Hurin's children was already thorougly covered in The Silmarillion, but this is the more elaborated version. Mine was an audio production narrated by Christopher Lee, whom I have to admit I at first had to get a bit used to, but now at the end as I look back, I'll say that actually he did an excellent job on it. His deep voice really sort of fits the mood and feel of the piece, and indeed the Tolkien verse in general.
The writing in this one is the same sort of style as The Silmarillion, which always feel a bit to me like a sort of a text book. I felt like I was reading a historical account with that one. This one has more detail with dialogue and such, but it still doesn't reach the level of readability that the LotR trilogy has, which I actually also find a bit dry in places. I'm not even going to mention The Hobbit in this connection because that one is very much more 'younger readers' in comparison with Children of Hurin. (Obviously it's not only for younger readers in and off itself). This one is a complicated text to follow, although not too complicated for the audio book format. (I tried The Silmarillion as an audiobook once. I wouldn't recommend it, really. Very difficult to follow that way)
This story is pretty much tragedy from cover to cover. I wonder if Tolkien was actually conducting some sort of experiment as to how many angsty things he could put into one book. We've got everything here from death from illness, over accidental murder and to incestual relationships. I honestly can't think of anything tragic that hasn't been somehow woven into the tale. And yet, I wouldn't say that I was particularly affected by all these really sad things that happened to the characters, and to Turin in particular. Part of that was the rather formal writing stile, but I think, to be honest, a large part was also the fact that I just didn't tend to find Turin a very likable fellow. A lot of the awful things (though not all) that happen to him seem to me to stem directly or indirectly from his own arrogance.
And maybe that arrogance was in fact that very thing which, in Turin, Morgoth's curse exploited.
I don't really know if I'm making myself clear with this thought or not, but I know what I mean. That must be good enough.
I enjoyed reading Children of Hurin out loud in bed, all the names put my girlfriend right to sleep!
I think even more so than LotR, reading CoH feels like reading myths out of a collection. It's in that mythic register rather than the sort of heroic register of LotR.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I'd only read the part in the Silmarillion previously. Looking forward to rereading that and picking up Beren and Luthien later this year.
I quite enjoyed this story. It's heroic and tragic in all the right ways, and it is more accessible, I think, than many of Tolkien's other "lost tales" and mythologies in his legendarium. It succeeds in being a well-structured story with a set of boundaries, and although there might be a few too many names to remember (and that's just referring to the names Túrin gives himself!), it is well worth the read.
1)'''You shall see and you shall confess that I do not lie,' said Morgoth. And taking Húrin back to Angband he set him in a chair of stone upon a high place of Thangorodrim, from which he could see afar the land of Hithlum in the west and the lands of Beleriand in the south. There he was bound by the power of Morgoth; and Morgoth standing beside him cursed him again and set his power upon him, so that he could not move from that place, nor die, until Morgoth should release him.
'Sit now there,' said Morgoth, 'and look out upon the lands where evil and despair shall come upon those whom you have delivered to me. For you have dared to mock me, and have questioned the power of Melkor, Master of the fates of Arda. Therefore with my eyes you shall see, and with my ears …
1)'''You shall see and you shall confess that I do not lie,' said Morgoth. And taking Húrin back to Angband he set him in a chair of stone upon a high place of Thangorodrim, from which he could see afar the land of Hithlum in the west and the lands of Beleriand in the south. There he was bound by the power of Morgoth; and Morgoth standing beside him cursed him again and set his power upon him, so that he could not move from that place, nor die, until Morgoth should release him.
'Sit now there,' said Morgoth, 'and look out upon the lands where evil and despair shall come upon those whom you have delivered to me. For you have dared to mock me, and have questioned the power of Melkor, Master of the fates of Arda. Therefore with my eyes you shall see, and with my ears you shall hear, and nothing shall be hidden from you.'''
2) ''Thereupon he went into the hall, and cast back his hood, and thrusting aside all in his path he strode towards the board where sat the master of the house and his wife, and other Easterling lords. Then some rose to seize him, but he flung them to the ground, and cried: 'Does no one rule this house, or is it an Orc-hold rather? Where is the master?'
Then Brodda rose in wrath. 'I rule this house,' said he. But before he could say more, Túrin said: 'Then you have not yet learned the courtesy that was in this land before you. Is it now the manner of men to let lackeys mishandle the kinsmen of their wives? Such am I, and I have an errand to the Lady Aerin. Shall I come freely, or shall I come as I will?'''
