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J.R.R. Tolkien: The Children Of Hurin

phil_t

phil_t

New Member
Dont all look confused now, I know he's been dead for quite a long time, but Tolkien is bringing out a new book :eek:

The Children of Hurin

From Amazon's synopsis:
Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Hurin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien. There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World. In that remote time Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Turin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves. Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Hurin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Turin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled. The earliest versions of this story by J.R.R. Tolkien go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed; but long afterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexities of motive and character: it became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.
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Well, I dont know how anybody else feels about this, but I will wait to see how this matches up to his other writings. I have to say I am looking forward to it quite a lot.

Phil
 
when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexities of motive and character: it became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth.
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I suppose the writing style will be similar to The Silmarillion in the epic/myth tradition, but a rewrite closer in style to LOTR would be interesting.
 
It does seem to be presented more as a novel rather than as the histories that he wrote up from his father's notes. If it is then it will be very interesting to see his style of writing and how close it matches up to the tone of Lord of the Rings.

Phil
 
Has Christopher Tolkien released anything of his own? If so, has anyone read it? Because
In this book Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention
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does sound like he's done more than just publish a finished text... and I mean, I wouldn't buy an album of unreleased John Lennon songs remixed and overdubbed by Julian Lennon just because they share a last name.
 
Christopher Tolkien has previously released an exhaustive 12-book (I think thats right) history of Middle Earth based on his father's notes, but I believe that they were histories and tales, certainly nothing like a fully-fledged novel. I havnt ever read any of them, so I cant account for what they are like.

History of Middle Earth

Phil
 
I'm looking forward to The Children of Hurin, it sounds like a really good novel and Tolkien's universe is always fascinating even if it is Christopher Tolkien who has asembled this story from his fathers notes.

I have faith that we will be granted even more to the Tolkien universe and that we maybe will undestand it a little better after we have read this book.
 
Read the Introduction. Christopher Tolkien does a wonderful job preparing the reader who hasn't read The Silmarillion for what is to follow.
 
I just finished The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien/Christopher Tolkien.....at first I thought it was boring.But after finishing several chapters the story began to unfold and became interesting.I recommend reading this book.Marycathie
 
I also recently finished The Children of Hurin. Having read both The Silmarillion and unfinished Tales, I already knew Turin's story pretty well. But, the book was very well thought out, and being in the form of a novel made the story more cohesive. I was only diappointed that there was no mention of the rumored battle between Morgoth and Turin during the last days. Maybe that was an earlier, discarded idea. I quite liked it, though.
 
I have never read the The Silmarillion so I had no sense of the story coming into it. Although I felt the middle bogged down a bit I enjoyed it overall. The writing style was very close to that of LOTR.
 
I received 'The Children of Hurin' for Christmas. Might be a little while before I get to it, but I'm excited to have it in my collection! :D
 
I also got the Children of Hurin for Christmas. I've read the Silmarillion several times, so the story line, names, places and geneologies were familiar to me. It made the book very enjoyable and I was able to finish it on one day. The illustrations were amazing. I'd love a larger version of the one with Hurin on the mountain for my wall.
 
I had this book put on pre-order and got it before they had even put the pre-order books on the shelf behind the counter at Borders. I read it in about 4 days. It was a most excellent read.

I've read more Tolkien than is probably healthy for an individual. I liked the interplay between Tolkien's words and Chris Tolkien's words. The parts that Chris edited or cobbled together from old notes have a different rhythm and style - but they do not detract at all from the story.

I also read a rumor somewhere that within a week of publication Chris Tolkien was contacted about a movie deal for "Children Of Húrin". Apparently he declined on the grounds that he wanted it to exist as a book for a time before it was turned into a movie.

I would love to see this turned into a movie, but somehow doubt that it would be pulled off properly as it deals with some issues that would be completely lost. This story is the most Shakespearian of all the tales in the Silmarillion and would be quite hard to translate into movie format keeping the younger audiences in mind.
 
I got this one for my birthday, but I would’ve bought it anyway. I’m a sucker for anything Tolkien. I liked it and would read anything that adds to the depth of Tolkien’s vision. I’m going to have to read it again though.
 
I thought that this book was OK, but not only was it in my opinion not as good as the other ME books, (it is a supposed to be tragic tale after all), there is not much in the book that is not in the Silmarillion. I mean I was hoping for some new stuff but even the end was basically the same as what was told in the Silmarillion it's just slightly more detailed. If you have read the Silmarillion you have basically read this story.
 
Yes I agree if you collect these books it's totally a must have, I have several copies of the Silmarillion but the most beautiful illustrations in the Ted Nasmith version make a must even though I've obviously read it already.
 
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