Tolkien's The Children of Hurin

I just ordered the deluxe limited edition slip-case edition (those things appreciate in value, especially if you have a mint-condition first edition), but I won't see it for a couple of weeks.

So, has anyone read it? I've read the versions of the story in the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, so I know it well and consider it Tolkien's best story, but I'd be interested in anyone's reviews.

Not a big Tolkien fan myself but I've got copies of The Simarillion, Unfinished Tales, and Sir G-something and the Green Knight lying around. Loved the Hobbit, and of course theirs TLOTR(Which, admittedly I never finished.) but I can't say I've ever heard of "The Children of Hurin". When did he write that one?

Originally Posted by the celt

Not a big Tolkien fan myself but I've got copies of The Simarillion, Unfinished Tales, and Sir G-something and the Green Knight lying around.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. That's his rather good translation of a famous medieval English poem. The original is written in a rather thorny north-west Midlands dialect of Middle English, which makes it very difficult for a non-specialist to read; thus the translation. It's an excellent poem though - worth reading.

I can't say I've ever heard of "The Children of Hurin". When did he write that one?

He worked on various versions of the story, including a long (unfinished) poetic version, throughout most of his adult life; from the First World War up till when he died in 1973. Exactly when he wrote this version is not clear - it seems to be something he worked on for several decades. Christopher Tolkien has taken various drafts and versions of his father's work and put them together in one narrative.

Its story, which is focused on Hurin's son the tragic hero (or anti-hero) Turin Turambar, is told in a summary form in Chapter 21 of The Silmarillion, as one of the "three great tales" that form the core of the wider history of the "War of the Jewels". A longer, but fragmentary, version of it - the Narn i Chin Hurin - is one of the longer pieces in the posthumous collection Unfinished Tales.

I'm wondering how many of the fans who have only read The Lord of the Rings or only seen the movies will "get" the new book. It's pretty dark and brooding stuff, complete with a cursed "hero" who indulges in wholesale betrayals, raging murders, some incest and suicide. Not exactly jolly little hobbits quaffing ale by the fireside.

Then again, maybe it will introduce a new audience to Tolkien's darker and more epic legendarium. The publishers are printing 500,000 copies as its first run, so however it's received, they're expecting a lot of people to read it.

And it would make a killer film, if they could ever sort out the rights issues with the Tolkien estate. That might have to wait until Christopher Tolkien dies, since he hated the Peter Jackson movies.

Wasn't it compiled by Christopher Tolkien?

I really enjoyed LOTR and the Hobbit when I was little, my mom read them to me for bedtime.

I've read Unfinished Tales as well, but never the Silmarillion.

Got it sat in my room, ready for reading!
Should be good though I think.

I'll have to check this out. I loved The Simarillion, I really need to re-read it.

^ I agree it would make a killer film ,not that i have read the new book but i have read the silmarallion and the chapter or should i say saga of the children of hrin was on top of my favourite list.

I have to order it and then read it again and again

Im Middle earth lover.

See webpage of Slovenian Tolkein Society http://www.drustvogil-galad.si

Not updated English site, we are working on it.

Entertainment Weekly crushed it. Apparently Christopher didn't add anything to his dad's notes so the narrative is disjointed.