Book Review - The Children of Hurin by J.R.R Tolkien

Being a huge Tolkien fan, (but not a total geek about it), I looked forward to the publication of this book, compiled by Tolkien's son Christopher (now in his eighties) from J.R.R.'s voluminous writings. I was not disappointed. I am going to try my best to avoid any plot spoilers, as I know some of you will read this book as well. Just a bit of background, this book takes place in the First Age, many years before The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. The setting is the land of Beleriand, which is the Northwest of Middle-Earth, but by the time of LOTR, this land has been under the sea for hundreds of years. A handful of the characters from LOTR are present, Galadriel, Glorfindel, Elrond, and Sauron are all mentioned.

The story concerns the children of Hurin obviously, Hurin is a great warrior who is taken captive by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, of whom Sauron is but a servant at this time. Hurin defies Morgoth, so Morgoth puts a curse on his children. The majority of the book tells the tragic tale of Turin, Hurin's son. Turin's first sister dies very young (part of the curse), his other sister, Nienor, makes an appearance in the last few chapters of the book, but her role is significant enough to justify the plural "children" rather than the singular "child" in the title. Turin is probably Tolkien's most fleshed-out character, even more so than Frodo, probably because Turin exhibits the same traits that cause all of us humans grief, and Frodo is not human. Speaking of hobbits, you won't find any here, you will find elves, dwarves, Orcs, and Glaurung, "Father of Dragons".

As with all of Tolkien's other works, people and places have multiple names, Tolkien was a linguist after all. This makes for difficult reading, in fact in looking back on the first 2 times I read LOTR, as a teen, I think this referencing people and places by multiple names is what caused me to have comprehension issues. Kudos to Christopher, however, as he has provided a glossary of names in the back of the book, when you get confused (and you will) you can turn to the glossary and figure out who or what is being referenced. The central character of the book, Turin, son of Hurin, changes his name about 12 times, I turned frequently to the glossary only to find "oh, that's Turin". I would kill to have a reference of this sort for Lord of the Rings, obviously these things are available online, there are hundreds of Tolkien sites, but it's nice to have it handy right there in the book.

Another plus is the inclusion of several beautiful color paintings by Alan Lee, who was involved with the design of the Peter Jackson LOTR movies. The other good news is that the book is short, can be read in 4 hours or so.

This is a very dark book, none of the whimsy found in the Hobbit, or the dry wit found in LOTR are to be found here. I have not read The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales, which both deal with this historical era, so I don't know if the lack of humor is J.R.R.'s or Christopher's. There is already talk of a movie, I'm not sure I would want to see it, the book is VERY violent, as it is set in a time of war between men and elves on the one side vs. Morgoth and his Orcs on the other. Lots and lots of blood and guts, as much or more than LOTR.

I recommend that you read the Introduction and Appendix, particularly if you are familiar with Tolkien's other works. I also highly recommend this website, the Encyclopedia of Arda (Arda is the planet where Middle-Earth is).

All that said, should you read it? Yes. We can all relate to the all-too-human failings of Turin, and Tolkien is one of the greatest writers of all time, this book just reinforces that.