Apostrophe S

I’m no Tolkien completist. I haven’t cracked any of the Unfinished Tales tomes or read any of the Histories of Middle-Earth series. But I have read the LOTR trilogy, “The Hobbit,” and “The Silmarillion.” And now I can add “The Children of Hurin,” an extended version of a tale that appears in “The Silmarillion,” to the list.

Having read now all of the “canon” Tolkien writings, it is interesting to note the differences in tone between, say, “The Hobbit” and “The Children of Húrin;” The former being without a doubt a children’s book with children’s themes (akin the the first Harry Potter book), the latter being anything but appropriate for a child. Not that this books should be rated R or anything. It’s just that the themes are quite dark, the violence more meaningful and the evil curses more fulfilled. No one escapes their doom in this book. There is no last-minute rescue courtesy of the eagles.

That being said, I enjoyed every page, save the slowness of the first few chapters. The book follows the misadventures of Turin, son of Hurin, upon whose children Morgoth (Sauron’s old boss) set an exceptionally evil curse. To top it off, Hurin is chained to a rock in Angband (the Mordor of the First Age) and forced to watch Morgoth’s wicked curse play out. The bitch of the whole deal is that Turin’s fate follows him due to very little actual evil “magic” on the part of the enemy. Lies, treachery and Turin’s own hot-headedness pretty much bring ruin to every land and house that he sets foot in. He strives to defeat the enemy at every step of the way, but always ends up playing into Morgoth’s hands.

I won’t go into any more detail. I will say that if you’re a sucker for brilliantly written sad stories that read like ancient mythology, pick this one up. If you’re looking for a hopeful adventure about a band of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and Men, you should probably just go read the trilogy again.

One last thing: The presentation of this Tolkien book, at least with the first printing, is exceptional. The typesetting is beautiful (ligatures and all!), and original color and black and white illustrations by Alan Lee readily draw you back into the realms of Middle-Earth.

This entry is part of the Open Books project I’m doing.