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The Children of Húrin

The full, unremitting tragedy of Túrin Turambar, set against Morgoth’s curse on the house of Húrin.

Supplementary writingsFrom posthumously published works, notes, drafts or appendices.
Author
J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
Published
2007
Format
Novel

Synopsis

Where The Silmarillion compresses, this book expands: Christopher Tolkien assembled and completed a continuous narrative of Húrin’s doomed children, Túrin and Nienor, first sketched by his father and reshaped across many drafts. Captured by Morgoth, Húrin taunts him, and the Dark Lord lays a curse on his wife and children. The story follows Túrin through fosterage in Doriath, exile, his friendship with Beleg the archer, his life in Nargothrond under the dragon Glaurung, and the long sequence of misunderstandings and false names that lead to the ruin of everyone he loves. It is the bleakest and most tightly plotted of Tolkien’s tales, its menace closer to Norse saga than to the hobbits’ adventure.

Setting

Beleriand in the First Age: Doriath, Nargothrond, the marches of Brethil and the halls of the Elves.

Themes

  • fate and free will
  • the destructive power of pride
  • kinship and grief
  • the cruelty of Morgoth’s curse

Where to go next

Publication note

Publication note

Published posthumously in 2007 by Christopher Tolkien, with illustrations by Alan Lee. The tale had been told, in compressed and fragmentary forms, in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales; this edition is the closest thing to a complete, self-contained version.

Sources

  • The Children of Húrin · 2007

    A continuous narrative assembled from earlier drafts.