The Children of Húrin
by J.R.R. Tolkien · first published 2001
33% recommend57% neutral10% critical
Why HN recommends it
Expanded, novel-style retelling of the tragic Húrin story from The Silmarillion, with a tighter narrative than the source; suits readers who enjoy Tolkien's prose and a tragic Greek-like arc.
Common criticism: Largely retells material already in The Silmarillion, so familiar readers may find it repetitive.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The ‘Great Tale’ of The Children of Húrin, set during the legendary time before The Lord of the Rings. Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwells in the vast fortress of Angband in the North; and within the shadow of the fear of Angband, and the war waged by Morgoth against the Elves, the fates of Turin and his sister Nienor will be tragically entwined. Their brief and passionate lives are dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bears them as the children of Hurin, the man who dared to defy him to his face. Against them Morgoth sends his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in
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Fiction - Three Body-trilogy, Cixin Liu - The Children of Húrin, Tolkien - The Silmarillion, Tolkien - The Hobbit, Tolkien - Lord Of The Rings-trilogy, Tolkien - The Green Mile, Stephen King Non-fiction - Practical Vim 2nd ed., Drew Neil - Pestens år: döden i Stockholm 1710, Magnus Västerbro
on “Ask HN: What book(s) did you love reading this year?” ↗I realize this is subjective, but I didn't get that feel at all from The Children of Hurin. I thought it did a pretty good job of capturing Tolkien's style (and, of course, significant passages were taken verbatim, or nearly so, from the shorter versions in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales).
on “My Father's "Eviscerated" work - Son of J.R.R. Tolkien finally speaks out” ↗…elephant riding painted Haradrim, the literally subhuman orcs. Those counseling peace are perfidious fools, cowards or traitors. This won't keep me from rereading The Simirilian, The Hobbit, LOTR and the Children of Hurin. But Tolkien was a man of his time and place and we should appreciate his virtues without ignoring his vices. Calling Tolkien himself a fascist is quite a few bridges too far for me. {commenter at http://lorenrosson.blogspot.com/2006/06/tolkien-fascist.html}
on “Interview with Michael Moorcock” ↗…Warning to the Global Middle Class by Joel Kotkin and I share many of its worries. On a more light hearted side The Diary Of A Bookseller (Shaun Bythell) A Factotum in the Book Trade (Shaun Bythell) Children of Hurin (Tolkien)
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗It can certainly be an acquired (or reacquired) taste. If you want a different type of Tolkien story - the children of Hurin is tragic as anything the Greeks wrote.
on “W. H. Auden’s 1954 review of The Fellowship of the Ring” ↗I have obsessively read the Silmarillion and the Children of Hurin, and they are overarchingly the same, just in different formats. The Silmarillion is written like a history book; the Children of Hurin is written like a novel. I never got through the poem of Beren…
on “Third Tolkien Trilogy, THE FALL OF GONDOLIN to Publish on August 30” ↗Yup, The Children of Hurin is an extended telling of the story from The Silmarillion. They're basically the same, but I enjoyed the longer read.
on “Third Tolkien Trilogy, THE FALL OF GONDOLIN to Publish on August 30” ↗…those who don't know, Christopher Tolkien played a key role of editing and compiling his father's drafts and notes into several complete books published after his death, including The Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin, and Unfinished Tales. Basically everything that came after The Lord of the Rings.
on “Christopher Tolkien has died” ↗This is a misunderstanding. Firstly, Christopher published tons of material after the Silmarillion: the whole History of Middle Earth series, plus Unfinished Tales, Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, The fall of Gondolin, and some other books. But more importantly, JRR Tolkien intended to publish the Silmarillion as an actual book with a canon narrative, just like Lord of the Rings, but he die
on “New Tolkien book, The Fall of Númenor, to be published” ↗I take it you haven't read The Children of Hurin. It really has no comparison to the rest of Tolkien's work. Compared to the other books and collections, it feels like a John Grisham novel.
on “My Father's "Eviscerated" work - Son of J.R.R. Tolkien finally speaks out” ↗…as the worldbuilding goes, it's exceptionally consistent. Considering the bulk of all work put out was done by JRR, with Christopher Tolkien doing editing passes during compilation. For instance, the Children of Hurin and The Lay of Beren and Luthien were described in LOTR and the Silmarillion, but were not included largely due to length and incompleteness (the Silmarillion is really just a Cliff's Notes version of…
on “Third Tolkien Trilogy, THE FALL OF GONDOLIN to Publish on August 30” ↗…of Middle-Earth was never really meant to be read cover to cover. It's a collection of the elder Tolkien's unpublished works and rough drafts, some of which was later adapted into The Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin, and other more recent books.
on “New Tolkien book, The Fall of Númenor, to be published” ↗> they decided to write their own lore in. They had to. They didn't have the rights to Children of Hurin, or the Silmarillion. And they're never going to get them, because the Tolkien estate is never going to sell those. (And I'm frankly surprised that they let the LotR rights get so far out of their control…
on “Why the Rings of Power Show Is Not Good (Part #7934)” ↗Tolkien's writings have been one of my chief hobbies for years (http://tolkien.slimy.com/), so I've been really curious about what this new book would be and how it would be received. Having read a fair bit about it and skimmed through the 30-ish pages available for preview on Amazon... I'm still not sure. To explain that, I'll start with some background. The previously available books by Tolkien
on “JRR Tolkien book Beren and Lúthien published after 100 years” ↗Going to finish Crime and Punishment, Year of the Monkey (Patti Smith), The Children of Húrin (along with many cross references and letters) (Tolkien), re-reading A Game of Thrones for fun... as for 2020 I might read Slaughterhouse 5 again and work through George Sand. Technical things I am working through are the: - https://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/a... along with the
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗