The Children of Hurin — book review

The Silmarillion, while a detailed background to the events in The Lord of the Rings, has been regarded by most readers as obscure and dense, with too many names and not enough action to interest. However, the recent publication of The Children of Hurin may spark new interest in the vast prehistory of JRR Tolkien’s famous trilogy. The Children of Hurin is a story that was never published in JRR Tolkien’s lifetime, but was gathered and edited by his son, and is the expanded version of a tale from The Silmarillion. While written in an epic style, it is more novel-like than the Silmarillion version of the tale, and is a gripping read. Though the book seems to drop you in the middle of the events of The Silmarillion, a simple knowledge of LOTR will carry you through this almost stand-alone tale, and there is a helpful introduction and index of names.

As the title suggests, the story centers around the two children of Hurin, a human hero who was captured by Morgoth, the villain of the book (and, interestingly, the master of Sauron, who is the villain of LOTR). Because of Hurin's brave defiance, Morgoth curses his offspring, and sets Hurin upon a high place where he can watch what befalls them afterwards. After no news is heard of his father, Turin, the eldest and only son of Hurin, is sent to be fostered by the Elven king in the woods of Doriath. He grows to manhood among them, but an unfortunate act leads him on a long journey upon which he encounters outlaws, elves in hidden realms, dwarves, a dragon, and even his sister whom he does not recognize. Despite the curse upon him, Turin achieves much for good, but The Children of Hurin is a dark and intensely tragic tale in the end, and is not suitable for younger readers.

There is one thing that makes this tale brilliant, however, and that is the handling of the idea of the curse. The story at first reminded me of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and in a way The Children of Hurin could be seen as an anti-Macbeth. While Macbeth hears the prophecies about him and attempts to bring them to pass, which makes the reader wonder if they would have come to pass had he done nothing, Turin is entirely unaware of the curse upon him, and yet the reader must wonder if that which seems to fulfill the curse would have happened had there been no curse at all.

Many terrible accidents befall Turin throughout the story, but though he is a good man and means well, he is not entirely an innocent victim. Though quick to pity and often to apologize, Turin is also a man of great pride and is impulsive and quick to flare up in anger. When you look closely at the events in The Children of Hurin, nearly every piece of the tragedy that surrounds Turin could easily have been caused by no more than his own dangerous character.

But Tolkien is very subtle in his work, and in the end it is not clear how much power was actually in Morgoth’s curse, and how much of the tragedy could be guessed by examining Turin’s character. Let us examine if the curse had no power. If Morgoth, Dark Lord though he was, had no power over the fate of Turin, what was his motive in casting a curse that would have no effect? I think Tolkien makes it clear in the story that Morgoth, like most evil characters, enjoys power, but even more so enjoys when people are afraid of him. As a supernatural being, he could perhaps have more foresight when it came to people, and if he saw the nasty end that Turin was naturally headed toward, he could easily turn it to his purpose by claiming that it was by his power that Turin was surrounded by so many dark events.

And it would be clever plan indeed, as shown by the reactions of the other characters in The Children of Hurin. While some of his companions are inclined to think that Turin solely is responsible for his actions, most of the people he encounters are inclined to sense a “doom” about him, one that he cannot escape, and they seem to accept the explanation of the curse when they hear of it. All this, of course, makes Morgoth seem very powerful and undefeatable, an opinion that the Dark Lord would certainly not discount.

And then there is Hurin, who finally escapes from Morgoth weary and beaten. If Morgoth wished to stop all defiance against him, he certainly succeeded here, and Hurin, once valiant and sure that good could overcome, is convinced that Morgoth is too powerful to be defeated.

Of course, Tolkien never says anything on this subject, and all this is merely my speculation. But if one accepts the idea of a curse being nonexistent, the story becomes more than just a tragedy and takes on such themes as how humans are prone to blame everyone but themselves when bad things happen, and how even the best of intentions can be thwarted by a fault so simple as a quick temper. And that makes it a story both interesting and important.

All in all, a definite read for older Tolkien fans, and something that perhaps would be interesting to other readers as well, as long as they are not put off by epic style and a tale with no happy ending.