Cover revealed for Tolkien's The Children of Hurin

[1st Border Red Devil]

Well,

a little over 2 months (IIRC) and this latest 'book' of Tolkien's comes out: The Children of Hurin. Personally, I loved the Narn i Hîn Húrin from The Unfinished Tales. I'm looking forward to this book alot, with the exception that I think (once again) the person they got to illustrate doesn't know diddily about Middle-Earth. Alan Lee may be a good artist, but his work simply does not feel like Middle-Earth, this piece especially in my opinion.

I would dearly love to see an artist that actually made their pieces resemble something from the Dark Ages/Migration Period/Conquest Era, the 'basis' for Tolkien's work. There was a reason why Tolkien loved the 'Heroic Sagas' like Beowulf and The Volsung Saga. I suppose I should be grateful. At least Alan Lee doesn't have Turin wearing articulated plate armour, but instead Crusader-era mail.

[The Shade]

Being a Tolkien fan (not a die hard though) what is this book going to be about?

[1st Border Red Devil]

Being a Tolkien fan (not a die hard though) what is this book going to be about?

The best way to understand The Children of Húrin is to realise that, unlike The Lord of the Rings, it is a very grim tale. Stylistically, its been compared to The Nibelung Saga. Here is a blurb from the wiki:

The Children of Húrin takes the reader back to a time long before The Lord of the Rings, in an area of Middle-earth that was to be drowned before ever Hobbits appeared, and when the great enemy was still the fallen Vala, Morgoth, and Sauron only his lieutenant. This heroic romance is the tale of the Man, Húrin, who dared to defy Morgoth's force of evil, and his family's tragic destiny, as it follows his son Túrin Turambar's travails through the lost world of Beleriand.

-- The Tolkien Estate

Essentially, poor Húrin (called the greatest warrior of men) gets captured in The Battle of Unnumbered Tears, tortured, but refuses to yield to Morgoth (specifically, the location of the Hidden Kingdom of Gondolin ruled by Turgon). As such, Morgoth pronounces a curse upon Húrin's family that actually does some REALLY f'd up stuff to his son Túrin, kills his first daughter Lalaith (she dies of a plague sent out from Morgoth's realm of Angband) and does a real doozie on his second daughter Nienor. The tale mostly follows Túrin and the bad fates that befall him and all who shelter/love him. Like I said, I REALLY loved the Narn i Hîn Húrin (an unfinished version of this tale) and think its probably as good, if not better than, The Lord of the Rings.

[JELEINEN]

I'm really looking forward to this. I thought Chris did a pretty good job with the Simarillion. While I prefer Beren and Luthien to Turin, it's still a really great story. Tuor's story would be another good one to see expanded on.

I would dearly love to see an artist that actually made their pieces resemble something from the Dark Ages/Migration Period/Conquest Era, the 'basis' for Tolkien's work. There was a reason why Tolkien loved the 'Heroic Sagas' like Beowulf and The Volsung Saga. I suppose I should be grateful. At least Alan Lee doesn't have Turin wearing articulated plate armour, but instead Crusader-era mail.

I was always partial to the helmet illustration on the ofiginal cover of Unfinished Tales Nesmith is probably my favorite Tolkien illustrator.

Edited February 13, 2007 by JELEINEN

[Graham]

Eh, Tolkien? I was under the impression that Hurin was a child of Agent ONE!

Confused......!?

Graham

[eugimon]

uhm... so alan lee is the guy who illustrated the centenary edition of the lord of the rings and the hobbit and has pretty much created the visual look of middle earth for the past 20 years... he's pretty well regarded... he was approved by the Tolkein estate before they let him illustrate the novels... so maybe he knows a little bit about middle earth.

[Uxi]

Turin's tale is such a bummer tragedy, though the transformation of his character in his various personifications is great.. Shows that he COULD have had a fate with Finduilas similar to that of Beren & Luthien. The mightiest line of the humans ends with him and was not represented in Numenor or beyond.

[JELEINEN]

uhm... so alan lee is the guy who illustrated the centenary edition of the lord of the rings and the hobbit and has pretty much created the visual look of middle earth for the past 20 years... he's pretty well regarded... he was approved by the Tolkein estate before they let him illustrate the novels... so maybe he knows a little bit about middle earth.

I can't say I care much for this picture either. Honestly, I think Lee's landscapes and such are great, but his character depictions aren't so good.

Edited February 13, 2007 by JELEINEN

[1st Border Red Devil]

Turin's tale is such a bummer tragedy, though the transformation of his character in his various personifications is great.. Shows that he COULD have had a fate with Finduilas similar to that of Beren & Luthien. The mightiest line of the humans ends with him and was not represented in Numenor or beyond.

Well, technically, it does live on in the personification of Tuor (his cousin) and his son, Earendil as well as his sons, Elrond and Elros. But yes, there was the fact that Finduilas probably would have tried to give up her life much as Luthien and/or Idril (though its never said for certain if Tuor and Idril actually made it to Tol Eressea, much less that Tuor was counted as one of the First Born or Idril as one of the Second).

[Hurin]

Well, others have covered the "what's this about" aspect pretty darn well. Though I'd point out that the entire Silmarillion is a bit of a tragedy. Not just the Children of Hurin.

Perhaps my favorite part of Unfinished Tales is where we listen in on Hurin's conversation with Morgoth.

Regarding Hurin's bloodline dying out. While no children of Hurin and Morwen (his wife) pass on, the line of his father (Hador) does so in Hurin's brother Huor. . . through Huor's son Tuor. Tuor sires Earendil. . . who sires Elros. . . first king of Numenor.

Others had said that. . . but I wanted to say it too!

[Uxi]

Of course I know that Hador's younger child lived on as did his people (which IIRC were the bulk of the population of at least a portion of Numenor, given that the House of Beor was near annihilated). I referred to the proper decent of the eldest of the line. I know I didn't word that quite right, though.

Huor was obviously the lesser son and Tuor would obviously be the pale cousin to Turin Turambar!

I forgot to mention that I'm a bit disapointed, though, since the Similarillion goes into far more detail on Turin especially compared with Tuor. I want to see TUOR fleshed out more since everything is rather rushed.

No detail on Echthelion of the Fountain versus the Balrog? The final fate of Turgon? So many good chapters are there!

[JELEINEN]

Picked up the book today. So far I'm reading through the introduction, which is a nice re-cap of the Silmarillion. I like that the illustrations are of the landscapes rather than of characters or scenes. I'm really looking forward to getting into this one.

[Sdf-1]

Interesting thing is that The children of Hurin is inspired by the story of Kullervo from Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.

The tale has echoes of the Finnish Kalevala story, with which Tolkien was very familiar.[3] In Tolkien's work, however, The Children of Húrin forms part of a set, along with the tales of Beren and of Túrin's cousin Tuor. Tuor and Túrin have separate fates that oddly complement each other. It seems likely that Tolkien meant something significant when he had Tuor see Túrin during their joint wanderings.[4] Morgoth directs much of his malice against Túrin and seems to overlook Tuor, the indirect cause of his eventual fall.

The relationship between the siblings Túrin and Nienor has a few elements similar to that of Siegmund and Sieglinde in the story of Die Walküre. This relationship is closely related to the Kullervo story of the Kalevala, as Kullervo rapes his sister unawares and later commits suicide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_of_H%C3%BArin

The most famous example of the Kalevala's influence upon another author is most likely with J.R.R. Tolkien. He claimed the Kalevala as one of his sources for the writings which became the Silmarillion. For example, the story of Kullervo has been extensively used in the Silmarillion (including the sword that speaks when the anti-hero uses it for a suicide) as the basis of Túrin Turambar in Narn i Chîn Húrin. Echoes of the Kalevala's characters, Väinämöinen in particular, can also be found in the wizards of The Lord of the Rings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala

Tolkien also based some Elven language(s?) on Finnish language.

[JELEINEN]

The names of the Dwarves in The Hobbit were taken directly from the Elder Eddas. Tolkien was specifically trying to create a sort of meta-mythology.

Looks like the literature nazis are already panning the book: http://wormtalk.blogspot.com/2007/04/child...n-scholars.html

[eugimon]

The names of the Dwarves in The Hobbit were taken directly from the Elder Eddas. Tolkien was specifically trying to create a sort of meta-mythology.

Looks like the literature nazis are already panning the book: http://wormtalk.blogspot.com/2007/04/child...n-scholars.html

people with small windowless minds, always try to force others to fit their narrow ideology.

[1st Border Red Devil]

Got it a few days ago, read it and loved it. Great tale. Just the kind of thing to get me wanting to play The Lord of the Rings RPG again, though Decipher is sitting on its ass.

As for the critics, piss on them. They wouldn't know good literature if it jumped off the page and shot them in face.