Narn I Chin Hurin: The Tale of the Children of Hurin
by J.R.R. Tolkien
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.50 You Save: $21.50 (83%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Narn I Chin Hurin: The Tale of the Children of Hurin
Book Review: Tolkien's Missing Link between the Hobbit Cycle and The Silmarillion tradition
Summary: 5 Stars
When the Tolkien Estate announced a new Tolkien novel to be published in April, 2007, the world was shocked. After all, Tolkien died 34 years before THE CHLDREN OF HURIN was published. Reactions varied from trepidation and fear, to charges that the Estate is trying to milk the pubic for more money, to sheer excitement that, beyond all odds, we're getting another Tolkien story. We all know Hollywood is eying it greedily, though the Estate has made it quite clear that it is not interested in selling the film rights any time soon.
Naturally, an event such as a publication of a new novel by a long deceased major author is bound to excite different reactions from different quarters. Depending on where you stand in Tolkien fandom will largely define your reactions to the story.
First, just a few quick facts about the novel.
*CoH can be read independently of Tolkien's other works, due largely in part to C. Tolkien's excellent introduction, explaining the background and context in which these events occur in Tolkien's imagined cosmos. Having an overall general knowledge of Tolkien's legendarium is certainly helpful, but fortunately it is not a pre-requisite as the story is strong enough to stand independently.
*CoH is much darker than the Hobbit cycle. It is a very tragic story on a Shakespearian level, and altogether not suitable for children, featuring incest and murder as prominent plot features.
*The plot revolves around the Dark Lord Morgoth's curse on Turin and Nienor, who are the Children of Hurin, for Hurin's defiance against Morgoth. Morgoth is Tolkien's equivalent of Satan, and who Sauron is but a servant too.
*CoH is easier to read than THE SILMARILLION, though CoH still employs in places the archaic style found in that book. In style and content, it bears similarities to both LOTR and THE SILMARILLION, mingling the archaic style of the later with the more conventional novel style of the former.
*Although the novel has been "reconstructed" by Christopher Tolkien, unlike certain elements of the published SILMARILLION, there has been no editorial interpolation or invention. Other than minor grammatical errors and some brief transitional passages, the text is entirely as Tolkien conceived it.
*Approx 25% of the text has never been published before. The remaining 75% has been published in THE SILMARILLION and UNFINISHED TALES, though Christopher Tolkien notes there are several changes to the text that do not appear in UNFINISHED TALES
*Though the press has made much of the fact that Tolkien began this in 1918, almost all the text used in the book was written AFTER LOTR was written
*There is a swift narrative urgency. While THE SILMARILLION stands as a broad overview of Tolkien's mythology with hundreds of characters vying for the readers' attention, CoH keeps its focus on a well-defined cast of main characters.
There are three primary readerships that will be approaching THE CHILDREN OF HURIN. Depending on what group you belong to will largely define your reaction to the work.
The first group is that portion of Tolkien's fanbase who has read the Hobbit Cycle, and most if not all the posthumous publications regarding his legendarium (THE SILMARILLION, UNFINISHED TALES, and the HISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH series). These are the hardcore Tolkien fans, who are known to debate the rather arcane finder points of the mythology and are very much into the "lore" of it all. This reviewer belongs in this group.
This group will overall be quite pleased with the work. Tolkien left much of his work unfinished, and it is nice at long last to have a completed version of one of the central legends of the First Age. Much of the actual text will not be new to them, as the much of the novel largely has already appeared in UNFINISHED TALES and THE SILMARILLION, though there are several stretches that have not been published before, or the material is handled differently than in previous publications. Naturally, the story is already well known to this group, and there are no plot surprises. I will say, however, even though I knew how the story ended, when I finished reading CoH, I was moved by the sheer pathos of the tragedy, moreso than when I read the other, compressed versions.
The second group are those who largely have read only the Hobbit Cycle, and found THE SILMARILLION and other books very dry and difficult to get through. It is for this group, and the third group, that C. Tolkien primarily did this project for. Due to the arid, remote style of THE SILMARILLION, and the diffuse, contradictory, and unfinished nature of most of HoME, as well as the heavy editorial content, much of Tolkien's mythology remains unknown to the casual reader. This book was meant to address that, and to make the legends of the First Age more accessible to the general reader. The style is a successful blend of both the Silmarillion and LOTR. For those of this group unfamiliar with the story, many will probably be surprised at how dark and altogether depressing. Undoubtedly, there will be readers who find the pathos and tragedy of Turin rather offputting, but on the same token there will be readers who find it riveting.
The third group is those who know Tolkien primarily through the Peter Jackson films. This group will probably have the most far ranging variety of reactions of the three main groups, from sheer delight at the story to utter bewilderment and confusion. Those looking for a story along the lines of the Hobbit cycle will be invariably disappointed, and this group may be the most surprised at the darkness of the story.
A fan once wrote to Tolkien, saying that he only read THE LORD OF THE RINGS during the Lent season, because the novel is so hard and bitter. For those unfamiliar with the storyline of THE CHILDREN OF HURIN, many will be surprised at how dark the "new novel" actually is. CoH is much bitterer than its famous predecessor
Overall, I think that CoH is a fine novel in its own right, and I also think that it is a perfect bridging link between his most famous work (LOTR) and, as Tom Shippey says, the work of his heart (the Silmarillion). I also feel that CoH, in terms of style, is, to put it in vulgar terms, Silmarillion light and LOTR heavy, and serves as a primer for what to expect within the Silmarillion. While CoH certainly shares several main hallmarks of the Silmarillion style, especially the beginning chapters, the book reads quite well, and bridges (successfully, in my opinion), the remote style and wide focus of the Silmarillion with the more conventional novel approach of the Hobbit cycle. CoH also has the benefit of being a product of long study of the manuscripts to produce the most accurate version to Tolkien's intentions, something that cannot, unfortunately, be said of the 1977 SILMARILLION.
Will it stand the test of time? That, only time can answer. But if I was a betting man, I think time will be very gracious to this last novel from the father of fantasy.
Book Review: return of THE king
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, the long wait is over. I have anticipated reading this book for more than a year and a half. Since the first time that I read on the Internet that our beloved Christopher was working on this project. Counting off the days to its release, (which also happened to be my wife's birthday,) I realized that I probably would not be able to afford the book for some time. It felt kind of lame trying to justify buying it for my wife's birthday, as it would obviously be for me, (although she is almost as big a fan as I am). So I waited. But not to worry, my own birthday was only a short three and a half months away, and I could usually count on at least one or two books. Well the birthday left me with many books about Tolkien, various commentaries on his works that were part of the general explosion of all things Tolkien a few years back, but not the one that is the subject of this review. So with much new reading awaiting me, my desire to read the Children was temporarily sated and put in the back of my mind. After all I reasoned, I already know the story, having read all the various and shorter published versions. So I could wait.
Enter Christmas 2007. I was excited that I had finally received a copy, but the excitement was somewhat overshadowed by also receiving a copy of an "almost" final draft of my best friend's book. Now that I had a copy in my possession, I started reading it almost at once. Feeling like a child with one of those large candy cane sticks pulled from a stocking, I decided to take my time, savor it, make it last. Well, I did pretty good. I made it go for about two weeks. And let me tell you. It was worth all the anticipation. I enjoyed every word of it.
Now that I have went on long enough about me and my relationship to this book, I shall proceed to write about the book itself, and the history of its creation.
To start, I must say this. This is a tragic tale. While most of his works on Beleriand (the land where this takes place) are tragic in nature, this one is the most so. It is very personal, following the life of Hurin and his sister Nienor, whereas the other tragic works of Tolkien tend to follow more along the lines of a race, a people or nation, battle or series of battles.
The first writings of this tale can be found in The Book of Lost Tales Vol II pg69. The title of this early version is called Turambar and the Foaloke. Here we see that most of the events in the Children are present in Tolkien's mind, although the order in which things take place have changed quite a lot. Another major difference is the names of people and places. Very few of the names that become familiar to the reader of the Children are the same here. Some have minor changes in structure and pronunciation, but others are totally different. To Tolkien the evolution of his languages was as if not more important to him as the evolution of his stories.
The next major development can be found in The Lays of Beleriand, the third book in the Histories of Middle Earth. This is called the Lay of the Children of Hurin, and it begins on page 3. This version is my personal favorite. It is an excellent tale put into the format of a long poem or lay. Sadly it is only about two-thirds completed. For me this portrayal is the most visual, leaving in the mind many details that are not to be found in his prose.
Throughout the rest of the Histories there are references to slight and minor changes that were made to the text and storyline. But it is not until we encounter Unfinished Tales that we find the next major step in the evolutionary history of the Children. This can be found on page 57 and is titled Narn I Hin Hurin. Though far from finished, this contains the narrative that Tolkien was working on before his untimely death. This is the rendering that was meant to be the "final" version, and is what we would be reading right now instead of the book that I am now reviewing. There are many elements missing here, but they are from all over the story, as he was rewriting portions here and there. In fact the most complete section is probably the ending.
From here we move on to the Silmarillion, the sourcebook if you will, of all things elvish. This book contains all the short, condensed versions of stories from the First Age. In this version of Turin, Christopher had to delve through all the different versions to come up with a quick cohesive narrative, showing little more than the highlights of the story. Nonetheless it is well done. Reading even just this short version conveys almost as much tragedy as the novel version does. And as this was the first published version, it was all the public knew about Turin for a number of years.
Now Christopher, who has worked very hard to have most everything his father wrote published, has taken from all these various sources, and created a new and comprehensive work. Editorially this was a huge task. Trying to pick through them all to find the right word, sentence, paragraph, or passage and put them all into a flowing readable narrative could be nothing more than a labor of love that is usually reserves for the author. So I am sure he made some choices about narrative that his father might frown upon, but we are also given a novel that offers us a full look at one of Tolkien's most important stories from the Eldar Days when Men where much more than the men we see in The Lord of the Rings, (excepting Aragorn of course, who was modeled after the great Men from before).
All that I can really say is that if you are a fan of Tolkien then you should buy this, read it, and hopefully love and enjoy it as much as I have.
Book Review: The Children of Húrin
Summary: 4 Stars
When J.R.R. Tolkien passed away in 1973, it might reasonably have been assumed that his literary career was over. But Tolkien left behind voluminous papers and manuscripts: a snippet of a poem here, a half-completed story there; and many nearly-completed pieces which nevertheless were not formed to their master's satisfaction.
Tolkien's son and literary executor Christopher has made it his life's work to organize and publish as much of his father's work as possible. Most of the material concerns Tolkien's work on "the First Age" of Middle Earth, the other-world he invented and devoted his life's imagination to. It may be said that the First Age, or Elder Days, stories consumed the first and last part of Tolkien's literary life, with the far better known "Lord of the Rings" period in the middle. He first conceived and worked on these stories from the end of the Great War until the mid-to-late 1930's, when he published The Hobbit, a book so successful a sequel was commissioned.
"The Lord of the Rings", the massive three-part story of Frodo the hobbit and his friends' quest to save the world by destroying the evil ring of power, has given Tolkien his lasting fame. There are numerous references, however, to Tolkien's earlier work in "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings": a mention of a famous sword, a great kingdom, a love poem, and the glory of lost civilizations upon whose ruins the late Third Age civilizations of "Lord of the Rings" are built. When his masterpiece was completed, Tolkien turned again to the long-abandoned manuscripts of the Elder Days, always hoping to perfect the stories he loved most and find a publisher for them. But for whatever reason, Tolkien's work never caught up with his vision. He never brought the stories to what he considered a satisfactory completion. He died thinking his artistic vision a failure.
Christopher Tolkien has done his best to remedy that by publishing volume upon volume of the stories his father left behind. First came "The Silmarillion", meant to be as comprehensive a history of the Elder Days as possible, from the creation of Middle Earth to the fall of the great enemy Morgoth. The twelve volumes of "The History of Middle Earth" series followed, documenting the evolution of the Elder Days tales as well as early versions of what became "The Lord of the Rings". And now, for the first time since "The Silmarillion" was published in 1977, Christopher Tolkien has put out a book in novel form: "The Children of Húrin".
Húrin was a hero of men in the Elder Days. The mightiest warrior of his time, taken captive in battle against Morgoth's forces, Húrin was brought for his torment before Morgoth himself. Incensed when Húrin resists him and mocks his power, Morgoth lays a curse on Húrin and his children, so that all they do will be turned to Morgoth's evil purposes. The novel is mainly concerned with the exploits and fate of Húrin's son, Túrin Turambar. Túrin is a cursed man indeed: he is driven from his childhood foster-home by a jealous rival; he becomes leader of a band of outlaws which is destroyed by treachery; he accidentally kills his greatest friend; he comes to Nargothrond, one of the last free kingdoms resisting Morgoth, and causes its downfall; he strives against the dragon Glaurung, Morgoth's servant, and though he vanquishes the dragon in the end, his victory is robbed of joy by the revelation of his sister's fate. That sister, Nienor, is also cursed and trapped by Glaurung, finally becoming entangled in her brother's fortunes before learning the awful truth of the dragon's deceptions at last.
The novel is an expanded version of a chapter from "The Silmarillion", fleshing out the details of Túrin's life into a book-length narrative. Its style is something between "The Silmarillion" and "The Lord of the Rings": the former is a broad overview, not too focused on the individual lives of its characters, while the latter has a well-defined quest and clear depictions of good and evil. "The Children of Húrin" is more like a biography of Túrin, and you're never quite sure if he's even meant to be a sympathetic character. For while he is cursed with evil times and always has evil choices, you sense that he might escape his fate if only he would choose wiser. He is always led astray by his own pride, his anger, or his yearning for glory. Had he been less selfish and more prudent he may well have avoided his fate, as the story hints once or twice that he might.
It is in this sense one might say this is the most fully realized of Tolkien's novels. Although Tolkien despised allegory, and was critical of his friend C.S. Lewis's work on that account, he sought to create "new myths" in keeping with the Christian worldview. The constant presence of evil, the temptation of the quick and easy path, the perils of pride and the misery a man can create for himself show the misery of the fall. This is not an uplifting tale but a saga of damnation.
Leaving aside those heavy themes, any Tolkien geek will want to read this book. How could you resist a new epic in the canon of Middle Earth? I also wonder if Christopher Tolkien might not have more books planned...perhaps a treatment of Beren and Lúthien, the love story of which the tale of Aragorn and Arwen in The Lord of the Rings is an echo? I hope so.
Book Review: Kind Words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim. (Prov 15:4, the Message)
Summary: 4 Stars
The Children of Hurin live in the first age of Middle Earth - a time where the orcs and their allies have the upperhand. The orcs are slowly taking over. The elves live a long time, but often live with pieces missing, that the orcs have removed. They tend to live in mysterious towns that are hidden in the mountains or underground. They build wonderful structures - such as a stone bridge, that turn into liability, because they cannot be blown up when the orcs are coming (illustr. p .97). This book is about heroic vision, but heroic vision that doesn't pan out, misunderstanding and suicide. It is a tragedy.
There is a good but mainly absent dad - Hurin. He has information that the bad guys want about the location of Gondolin - a special city only for elves (spectacularly illustrated by Alan Lee on p.32 ). He refuses to divulge even under torture. Hurin tells Morgoth - the evil Lord - "You are not the Lord of Men ... Beyond the Circles of the World you shall not pursue those who refuse you." (p. 65) To which Morgoth replies: "Beyond the circles of the World there is nothing. But within them, they will not escape me, until they enter into nothing."
"You lie" says Hurin.
"You shall see and you shall confess that I do not lie" said Morgoth.
At this point, Hurin is chained to a chair of stone on a high place, where he is condemned to watch the rest of the book (illustrated on p 65) in time out. Mordor curses him "with my eyes you shall see, and with my ears you shall hear, and nothing will be hidden from you."
Hurin has three children -two daughters and a son. Turin is the oldest - and most of this book concerns Turin. But unlike Bilbo and Frodo who have wonderful adventures - Turin is going to have a bogus journey. The next born is a girl. Her name is Urwen, but she is called Lalaith, which means laughter because she laughs all the time (exact opposite of Turin). She does not make it past chapter one. She dies of a horrible childhood disease. Hurin and Morwen have one more girl - Nienor. She becomes a main character at the end of the book.
Hurin is a POW of Mordor, Turin is nine years old, and his mom is pregnant. Turin's mom, Morwen, decides that it would be safer if Turin was raised by King Thingol, overlord of the grey-elves - but she, against Hurin's counsel to "Go Swiftly! Do not wait for me!" decides to stay put because she expected her husband to soon return. She "would not yet humble her pride to be an alms-guest, not even of a king. Therefore the voice of Hurin, or the memory of his voice, was denied, and the first strand of the fate of Turin was woven."
The next bad thing happens to Turin when he is 20, and Saeros, an elf that is racist against humans, says something very mean to Turin. He critiques Turin's long hair - something you don't do in Tolkien books- He says "...there is no need to leave your head untended as a thicket of brambles. And maybe if your ears were uncovered you could heed better what is said to you", and to make matters worse, Saeros says"If the Men of Hithlum are so wild and fell, of what sort are the women of that land? do they run like the deer clad only in hair?" At this point things get ugly. Saeros ends up dead, after trying to run away from Turin who is sticking a sword in his buttocks and yelling "Run, Run, mocker of women!...And unless you go swift as the deer I shall prick you on from the behind"
(p.89). Saeros attempts and fails a jump over some high rocks, and falls to his death. Turin feels like he will be tried for murder, even though Saeros's death is not his fault, so he runs away from Doriath, and becomes the leader of a bunch of outlaws.
The journeys of Turin take him all over Middle Earth, and his mother and sister eventually decide to look for him. His sister does eventually finds Turin, who is then calling himself Turumbar - but they don't recognize each other - and against advice they end up getting married. The book ends in tragedy.
All of this happens 6500 years before the Council of Rivendell. This book is not as consistantly as good as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, but it is much better than most other fantasy books, and takes place in the same fantasy world of good and evil. Essentially this is a book of scraps of stories that Tolkien wrote over the years. His son, Christopher Tolkien, has cleverly put together these scraps of stories into a novel - and it works! It is 99% father Tolkien, and only 1% son Tolkien. It is quite a good book for a dead author. The magic of Middle Earth happens one more time - but in this one the bad guys win, and the heroic vision is not realized. This middle earth is more like our earth earth. There is a beautiful map and list of names, which I referred to constantly as I read the book. This book takes more effort to read than fiction written by living authors. I think it is appropriate reading for teenagers, but it is not a children's story.
It would not make a very good movie - but it might make a very good game. There is a strong sense of place, and the battle between good and evil gives evil a slight edge. One of the reasons Frodo succeeds while Turin fails is that Frodo travels in a fellowship of good friends and takes advice, while Turin allows himself to be overcome by evil.
Book Review: A surprising 'new' Tolkien treasure
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit that I was initially skeptical when I first heard that a `new' work was being published by J.R.R. Tolkien. I envisioned a book written containing a minimal influence of the master, cobbled together in order to make a buck. Thankfully my cynicism was short lived. It only took a bit of thought to dismiss that as ludicrous.
Christopher Tolkien has been nothing but a devoted son to his father in the years since his death, working tirelessly to bring forth the massive works of his father that would otherwise not have seen the light of day. I merely had to think back to how easily I lost myself in The Silmarillion to recall just how much Christopher Tolkien has influenced my love of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
In the introduction to The Children of Húrin Christopher Tolkien quotes a passage from a letter his father wrote in 1951 stating, "once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story - the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths...I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched." Despite leaving many works unfinished, over the course of a long life of writing I believe J.R.R. Tolkien went a long way towards accomplishing that very goal.
In the earliest days of his writing career, in the trenches of WWI, J.R.R. Tolkien began many of the tales of the Elder days that would eventually make up the stories of the First Age of Middle-earth told in The Silmarillion. One such tale was that of Húrin, the man who dared to defy the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, to his face. The lives of Húrin, his wife Morwen, his son Túrin and his daughter Nienor are touched on in The Silmarillion. This then, The Children of Húrin, is the more detailed unfolding of the curse of Morgoth upon the lives of the offspring of Húrin.
By now it should be evident that The Children of Húrin is no tale of happiness and triumph, like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. No, The Children of Húrin is a tragedy in the grandest sense, no doubt influenced (as were all of J.R.R. Tolkien's works) by the epic poems and stories that fueled Tolkien's love of language from an early age. As a piece of the rich history that is Middle-earth, this story is deliciously tragic. The whole of the stories of Middle-earth, from the creation of the world up through the defeat of the Dark Lord Sauron, is really one of both triumph and tragedy. Like our own true history, victories both great and small often come from those who are less than perfect...those whose very lives are tragedies despite moments of heroic glory. Such is the case of Túrin Turambar. It is this common bond that we share with the characters of Middle-earth that makes this sad tale such an enjoyable read. All along the way Túrin Turambar and others of the house of Húrin have opportunities to apparantely cast aside the doom that overshadows them from the curse of Morgoth. But like any good tragedy, they simply cannot escape their fate. In the end The Children of Húrin is a welcome addition to the lore of Middle-earth.
It is evident upon picking up a copy of The Children of Húrin that this book was a labor of love. It is beautiful in every way. The art of Alan Lee included in the book is amazing. In addition the glorious cover, there are 8 color plates of new watercolor paintings that Alan Lee created especially for this book as well as 25 pencil illustrations. As much as I love the painted works of Alan Lee, it is his pencil illustrations that always make me stare in wonder. His is an unmatched talent and the the illustrations beginning each chapter of The Children of Húrin simply must be seen. In addition to the main tale, there is a preface in which Christopher Tolkien gives a very interesting history of the story, an introduction in which an overview of the First Age of the world is given, notes on pronunciation, 3 genealogies, two appendices (The Evolution of the Great Tales and The Composition of the Text), a list of names, and a new, fold-out map of the world of this age. It is a Lord of the Rings geek's dream.
Will everyone like The Children of Húrin? I don't think so. If you are not a fan of melancholy tragedies or a lover of all the minutiae of Middle-earth then this probably is not the book for you. If, however, The Silmarillion filled you with a profound sense of wonder, as it did me, then I highly recommend this book. It was such a joy to `hear' the voice of J.R.R. Tolkien once again. It only took the first few pages of the story itself to bring a satisfying smile to my face, for here was the master at work again. I am so thankful for the dedication of Christopher Tolkien (who, I discoverd, I share a birthday with) to bring us this work. It is indeed tragic, but richly so.