Book Review: The Children of Hurin

For graduation, my parents got me a set of bookends shaped like the knight and rook chess pieces. They're great, because I often times have 6 books going at once; you can never know what you might be in the mood for, right? So on my end table, between my favorite spot on the couch and my armchair, there are several books within reaching distance, all of which have a random sliver of parchment sticking out the top marking the moment I had to get ready for work or remembered my rice was done cooking. And as I've nothing else really going on this summer, I thought I might make use of my time by periodically providing a literature review.

I'll begin, then, with one of those books that didn't last long between the bookends, The Children of Hurin (pronounced "Hoo-ren"). And before you discount the possibility you might actually like this book based solely on the Tolkien authorship, allow me to point out the best thing about it: Unlike Tolkien's other works, with myriads of Valar and Feanor's offspring, or cousins and sire lineages going back ages, The Children of Hurin is surprisingly readable with a limited assortment of key players or names to recall with every passing mention. There is an appendix of names (both places and people), but in addition the short cast, the editing his son did resulting in a surprising flow of characters coming into the story and staying in the forefront of the text and your mind till their role in the overall myth comes to a close. As such, I never had to refer to the appendix and only very, very rarely caught myself trying to recall who a person was (mainly because Turin, who's the main protagonist, changes his name from time to time). But I'd say that was no more than reading any well-written work of fiction.

And I used 'myth' in describing this work for a purpose. One of Tolkien's original aims was to create both a cosmologically complete and yet personally relevant system of myths for the island nation of Britain. Those who've undertaking the Lord of the Rings know just how personal and detailed Tolkien gets, and those who've read his Simarillion know he backs up those personal stories with an overarching, coherent mythological system. But that's I think the greatest asset to the Children of Hurin -- it provides a level of myth more easily digested than the tombs of LOTR yet with the artistry and depth of characters, environment, and meaning which made Tolkien's other works so powerful.

In sum, I highly recommend this book, even as a primer/introduction to Tolkien's works. And honestly, seeing the movies is sufficient background for this read; you know there are men and elves who are good, orcs and Easterlings (savage men) who are bad, and anything else you need, if at all, is found in a brief introduction by Tolkien's son. Of course, this is before the time of Suromon, so Morgoth Bauglir, who was Suromon's original master and is the incarnate form of the evil Valar (or Demi-God) Melkor, is the main antagonist. The book is a complete story, in and of itself, and is everything a myth should be. It's rare for me to get but 50 or 60 pages read in any one book at one sitting. However, the first night I read 200 pages of this book and then finished the remaining 60 or so up the next chance I got.

I highly, highly recommend it.