Children Of Hurin

Last week, I finished reading the Children Of Hurin, one of a tale written by J.R.R. Tolkien about Middle Earth. The book itself had not been completed By J.R.R. Tolkien and he never published it. Anyway, his son, Cristopher Tolkien, edited it and published it in 2007 as an independent work.

From this book, I knew that J.R.R Tolkien had written a lot of book telling about Middle Earth. So interesting and tempting :D. Actually, I had only read the trilogy of the Lord Of The Rings novel before. And I thought it were amazing books. I perceived that the language used in the book is different than any other novel I had read before. Kind of literature work rather than just novel.

In this case, The Children Of Hurin used less vocabulary compared to The Lord Of The Rings. Nonetheless, the language used in the books is nearly same. Hmm.. I don't know how to say, but could say it used 'higher' level language :P. I can distinguish it with other novel by another authors. Though it's unlike The Lord Of The Rings which is embellished by poems and poetries in whole part of the books.

The Children Of Hurin takes a setting in the First Age of Middle Earth, long time before The Lord Of The Rings take place. As Usual, Tolkien used so many characters his novel. Sometimes, this confused me @_@. Moreover, he gave so many name for place on the Middle Earth World. Aargh.. I thought it would be better if I read and conceive the map used in the book first. It would be useful on determining the direction of the place on the map itself.

In my opinion, The Children Of Hurin just tell some part of the whole stories. There are many part of the book which left untold, especially in the beginning of the book. Hmm.. Dunno whether the missing part would be told in the other books or not.

The tale begins with the coming of Hurin and Huor to hidden city of Gondolin. After dwelling for a year, they swore not to reveal its location to anybody and permitted to depart to Dor-lomin. Here, Hurin dwelt and married Morwen Edhelwen and two children were born to them.

The story tells about the upraising of Turin's (first child of Hurin) and early death of Lalaith (Turin's sister). Later, there is a disastrous war which in this book it called Battle of Unnumbered Tears. In this battle, Huor was defeated and captured alive while his brother Huor was slew down by the army of Morgoth (the antagonist character on the book).

Morgoth tormented Hurin, trying to force him to reveal the location of Gondolin. Anyway, Hurin stayed to his conviction for he had sworn before not to reveal it and even defied and scorned Morgoth. For this, Morgoth put a curse upon him and his family. And from this point, I concluded that the main plot of the whole stories is caused and began by the curse of Morgoth to Hurin and his Family.

So later, the remain part of the book tells about Turin and his wanderings from Dor-Lomin to another places in the Middle Earth. Aargh... too many things to tell the whole stories on this blog. Better read the book or the summary through Wikipedia :P.

This book is great. But it ends tragically because of the curse itself. Though Turin on the stories depicted as a hero, but his life was filled by darkness, grief, doom, and woe. Not only hisself, her sister Nienor also died tragically, by cast herself to the river of Teglin after she knew that Turin was dead (whereas he was yet live). Moreover, in the story, Nienor was cursed and enchanted by Glaurung so she forgot everything. Then she finally met her brother Turin. Both of them didn't realize that they are the children of Hurin. Finally they got married without knowing the truth. Hhh... so tragic :(

After Turin defeated Glaurung he learned that Nienor was his sister but it was too late because she probably died swallowed by the rapid current of Teiglin river. His life was finally end by his suicide against his Black Sword. I supposed the sword was a cursed sword for he had killed some people in the tale unjustly or coincidently.

After the death of Glaurung, Morgoth released Hurin. Because during he had been held captive by Morgoth, he had a power and ability to see through the Beleriand, he know all the stories of his children. Unfortunately, The book don't explain how Morgoth released Hurin.

The tale ends with the burial of Turin. Finally Hurin came to the mound of his children. There he found Morwen who had also managed to find the place, but she died with the following of the sunset in the arms of her husband. Thus, this is the last part of the book.

Great and remarkable book, and it is so tempting to buy another Tolkien's books. Let see.. Can't wait till buying The Silmarillion, my next target :P