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.

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