2007 Book Log #39: The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien

[annathepiper]

I promised earlier this year that I'd write about this book, and now I finally can! I'd had to read it in bits and pieces, since I didn't dare take it out of the house or into the bath as part of my usual reading cycle. It's such a lovely volume that I was scared to death of damaging it!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is reason number one that you should have this book. Even completely aside from the words it contains, this book is a work of art. I've long heard people speak of the physical pleasure of reading a book; The Children of Hurin should now become one of the causes for this sentiment. I loved everything about its construction. I loved the paper it was written on. I loved the fold-out map of Beleriand and surrounding territory at the back. Hell, I even loved its fonts. More impressive, though, is the lovely artwork all throughout the book. The full-color plates at regular intervals are stunning, but the smaller black-and-white drawings that appear at the tops of the first page of every new chapter are also gorgeous.

Reason number two to have this book is, of course, the story. Hardcore Tolkien geeks who have read either The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales will already know most of the saga of Turin and his family and all the various flavors of doom that descend upon them, but those are shorter versions. Reading the tale in a complete form from start to finish is wonderful, and at least for me as a reader, the parts edited in by Christopher Tolkien felt seamless. Most of them, in fact, were seamless enough that I couldn't even tell where the father had left off and the son picked up... except at the very end, where there's a coda that I hadn't recognized and which I found poignant indeed. Harder-core Tolkien geeks than I may be able to tell me whether that's something Tolkien wrote, or whether his son added it in.

Make no mistake--the saga of Turin is dark grim darkity dark dark grim with a side order of WTF, slathered over with a generous layer of gloom, doom, and despair. And most if not all of the place names and character names will be unfamilar to anyone who's only looked at the movies or who has read just the best-known works. The time of Turin is the First Age, which by the time of Bilbo and Frodo and company is nothing more than fragments of memory and legend; Sauron isn't even on the radar yet, and Morgoth, the original Big Bad of Middle-Earth, still holds sway. So it's almost literally like reading about an entirely different world... and yet, it is all part of the vast scope of Arda, and you can see the seeds of what will come later being sown here.

Highly, highly recommended. Four stars!

Comments

[annathepiper]

Gods yes, I'd love to have a full-novel-length version of Beren and Luthien. :D

I did waffle about whether to get this--and really, I had the matter settled for me when risu so generously bought it for me as a late birthday present. But now that I do have a copy, the Alan Lee artwork is totally worth having, and really rather added to the pleasure of reading the volume for me.

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

When I saw this on the bookshelf at work, I had to resist the urge to get this because I have a waiting list of bills to pay. As soon as I have enough money to splurge, I will own this book.

[annathepiper]

Yay! Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

[janne.livejournal.com]

While I like Tolkien, I've so run out of mental space for gloom and doom. And shelfspace for anything, really. Then again -- Tolkien! Completist! Argh, these choices...

[annathepiper]

Ordinarily I'd totally hear you, re: gloom and doom.... and yet, I'm oddly okay with Turin's tale. Possibly because I was already long-familiar with it; I read The Silmarillion ages ago. So this was really kind of like coming across an old friend only to discover that he's gone and had quite the workout and makeover. ;)

Plus, it helped me to rather think of the story in Wagneresque operatic terms. 'Cause really, Turin's story would make a fabulous opera. I could almost see Turin and Nienor on stage bellowing out operatic lyrics at the tops of their lungs. In Elvish. Hee!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Is that the standard hardcover edition or the deluxe you have?

[annathepiper]

Probably the standard--I don't think I knew of a deluxe verson!

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

I read this w/some trepidation, as when I first picked it off the shelf someone said to me "didn't Tolkien's son write that?"

I couldn't tell, if he did.

'twas every bit as good as I remember the Silmarillion as being, and a beautiful if awful story.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I thought I would be a bit scared too--I wasn't at all sure how well Christopher Tolkien would put it all together. But it helps a lot that the vast majority of this thing was already written, and that all he had to do was connect all the bits in a coherent fashion.

But yeah. It works, and it works beautifully, and to have the whole thing in one big coherent narrative really does underscore the beauty and awfulness of the events therein. Turin's life really is one big trainwreck, and you know it's just going to end very, very badly... and yet, it's riveting all the same.

[wrog]

The time of Túrin is the First Age, which by the time of Bilbo and Frodo and company is nothing more than fragments of memory and legend

Just for grins, I picked up my copy of LoTR and looked in the index to see just where Tolkien's narrative actually references the tale of Túrin Tarambar. Turns out there are exactly two (2) page references—i.e., if one trusts the index as being complete, which I wouldn't, but never mind that for now:

• Council of Elrond.
  Last page.
  Frodo has just said, "I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way," Elrond is all wow-I-should-have-thought-of-that, and then continues with

  "But it is a heavy burden. So heavy that none could lay it on another. I do not lay it on you. But if you take it freely, I will say that your choice is right. And though all of the mighty elf-friends of old, Hador and Húrin and Túrin and even Beren himself, were assembled together, your seat should be among them."

  
  
• Choices of Master Samwise.
  First page.
  Sam finally finds Frodo again, just as Shelob is wrapping him up; he picks up Frodo's sword and goes into full-blown Batshit Hobbit Berserker Mode, nails Shelob in the eye, and then tries for a slice across the abdomen.
  

  But Shelob was not as dragons are, no softer spot had she save only her eyes. Knobbed and pitted with corruption was her age-old hide, but ever thickened from within with layer on layer of evil growth. The blade scored it with a dreadful gash, but those hideous folds could not be pierced by any strength of men, not though Elf or Dwarf should forge the steel or the hand of Beren or of Túrin wield it.

And that's it.

1069 pages of LoTR and these are the only places Tolkien uses his Túrin backstory. Two throwaway lines that you'd never know had anything behind them. Granted they are two of the most momentous scenes in the book, and there's a weird kind of symmetry here, but yow...

[annathepiper]

And that there is one of the many reasons I adore Tolkien so much. All this lovely backstory that you have no idea about just due to offhand lines in the most famous stuff--but if you scratch the surface, you suddenly find OH HEY LOOK more story! And then you follow that around some and find even more story. And it's good story, tales he wanted to tell on their own merits, and not just stuff he made up as backstory for primary plots.

I love that so much. ^_^

[wrog]

On the other hand, this sort of thing is so annoyingly easy to fake

By Grabthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged

[wrog]

and if there really is backstory behind that one, I do not want to know.

[annathepiper]

Yeah well, this is because many writers don't know how to do it well. ;)

Galaxy Quest, though, did it funny. Hee.