The Children of Hurin
A few weeks ago, I logged on to MySpace, and I saw an advertisement for a book that really caught my eye.
Apparently, J.R.R. Tolkien had just published a new book, called the Children of Hurin. An amazing feat, since I was pretty sure he's been dead for almost 40 years.
With this I hurried down to the local bookstore to investigate. Sure enough, there it was. A new narrative story by the great master himself, edited by his son Christopher. I guess, the junior Tolkien compiled this story from his father's manuscripts, and spliced them together nice an literary like.
Well as you can imagine I was giddy with excitement. It is not every day that my favorite author who has been dead since long before I was even born, publishes new original books. So with earnest I bought it, and rushed home.
The Children of Hurin, is an in-depth narrative, that takes place in the First Age of Middle-Earth. Now, The Lord of the Rings, takes place at the end of the Third Age and into the Fourth. This takes place a full 7,000 years before Frodo sets off on the Quest to destroy the Ring.
The story centers on Turin, a man, who is cursed by the dark lord Morgoth, Sauron's old boss, and a god turned evil. A heroic man who just can't shake his fate. Throughout all of his travels, evil follows him, and every one one he cares for perishes. There are huge elvish battles, with blarogs, and dragons, like any Tolkien novel.
But this is probably his darkest story. There is a deep emotional conflict with Turin. He is a good man, that is sprurned by his fate, to do evil things. He becomes the dark lord's instrument to sow strife in the free people's of Middle-Earth. And as much as he tries to avoid his fate he is destroyed by it in the end.
While this tale has been told in Tolkien's larger text, the Silmarillion, here in this edition of the story, we see the inner conflict in detail, and it becomes a much more human story. Can any of us truly escape our fate?
Many on the internet are abuzz with the possibility of this being turned into a screenplay and then maybe a movie, but I would find this the most difficult story to tell on screen.
To understand it best, I would read the Silmarillion first to get you a background on the First Age, just like reading the Hobbit, gives you a primer on reading the Lord of the Rings.
Apparently, J.R.R. Tolkien had just published a new book, called the Children of Hurin. An amazing feat, since I was pretty sure he's been dead for almost 40 years.
With this I hurried down to the local bookstore to investigate. Sure enough, there it was. A new narrative story by the great master himself, edited by his son Christopher. I guess, the junior Tolkien compiled this story from his father's manuscripts, and spliced them together nice an literary like.
Well as you can imagine I was giddy with excitement. It is not every day that my favorite author who has been dead since long before I was even born, publishes new original books. So with earnest I bought it, and rushed home.
The Children of Hurin, is an in-depth narrative, that takes place in the First Age of Middle-Earth. Now, The Lord of the Rings, takes place at the end of the Third Age and into the Fourth. This takes place a full 7,000 years before Frodo sets off on the Quest to destroy the Ring.
The story centers on Turin, a man, who is cursed by the dark lord Morgoth, Sauron's old boss, and a god turned evil. A heroic man who just can't shake his fate. Throughout all of his travels, evil follows him, and every one one he cares for perishes. There are huge elvish battles, with blarogs, and dragons, like any Tolkien novel.
But this is probably his darkest story. There is a deep emotional conflict with Turin. He is a good man, that is sprurned by his fate, to do evil things. He becomes the dark lord's instrument to sow strife in the free people's of Middle-Earth. And as much as he tries to avoid his fate he is destroyed by it in the end.
While this tale has been told in Tolkien's larger text, the Silmarillion, here in this edition of the story, we see the inner conflict in detail, and it becomes a much more human story. Can any of us truly escape our fate?
Many on the internet are abuzz with the possibility of this being turned into a screenplay and then maybe a movie, but I would find this the most difficult story to tell on screen.
To understand it best, I would read the Silmarillion first to get you a background on the First Age, just like reading the Hobbit, gives you a primer on reading the Lord of the Rings.