The Children of Húrin

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Gwindor then led Túrin to Nargothrond, where once he had lived. In Nargothrond, Túrin hid his name, calling himself by the alias Agarwaen son of Úmarth ( Sindarin for " Bloodstained son of Ill-fate"), while hoping to hide his identity and escape Morgoth's curse upon his kin. He had Anglachel re-forged and named it Gurthang, " Iron of Death". Finduilas, daughter of Orodreth, fell in love with him, but he avoided her because she had previously been the beloved of his friend Gwindor. Túrin declined to tell her his name, so that she called him Thurin ( the secret). He was also called Adanedhel ( Man-Elf) because he was so like an elf, though he was human. Gwindor later revealed Túrin's true identity to Finduilas when anger and sadness over took him and it eventually reached Finduilas' father, King Orodreth. Unfinished Tales, Part One: The First Age, II: " Narn i Chîn Húrin" (The Tale of the Children of Húrin)

The main narrative ends with Túrin's burial. Appended to this is an extract from The Wanderings of Húrin, which recounts how Húrin is at last released by Morgoth and comes to his children's grave. There he finds Morwen, who dies in her husband's arms. The release party will take place online at irc.tolkiengateway.net for three days in a row on April 15th, 16th and 17th 2007, and is being organized by TolkienLibrary.com and TolkienGateway.net. There will be an after party on April 18th. Outside the publication of The Children of Húrin, many scenes from the tale of Túrin have been illustrated by the independent artist Anke Eissmann. [1] Translations [ ] Foreign Language The Bad Guy Wins: Even though Túrin takes down Glaurung, the dragon gets the last laugh while Morgoth succeeds in ruining Húrin's family, destroys most of his enemies and in part, thanks to Túrin, ends the novel stronger than before and very much alive. Oh, and now Doriath and Gondolin are doomed, too. Evil have been all thy ways, son of Húrin. Thankless fosterling, outlaw, slayer of thy friend, thief of love, usurper of Nargothrond, captain foolhardy, and deserter of thy kin." — The dragon Glaurung to Túrin [6]

As Adam Tolkien elaborated in a recent interview: ‘ This is a more difficult question than it seems: As you know, versions and pieces of the story of Húrin and his descendants have been published in various works (The Silmarillion , Unfinished Tales , The Book of Lost Tales , The Lays of Beleriand , etc). The text of The Children of Húrin is in part compiled from these extant texts, and particularly that which appears in Unfinished Tales .

See also: Túrin Turambar Sketch map of Beleriand. Dor-Lomin is at top left. Doriath is the forest in the centre. Nargothrond is centre left. The Forest of Brethil (centre left) is just to the west of Doriath. Morgoth's underground fortress of Angband is in the Thangorodrim mountains (top centre). The story of the Narn continues in the Later Narn (which you can read in the Unfinished Tales). The last part of the story (published as "the Wanderings of Húrin"), a text which was found to be too different in style from the rest of the Silmarillion, but which continues the Narn past Túrin's death and ends with Húrin's eventual release and the bad deeds which come from that (read in The War of the Jewels, part 11 of the History of Middle-earth series).This story is very much classic Tolkien at his finest, it has all of the traits that he excels at in his works. He pays attention to the smallest of details, ones that don’t even need to be to get a point across but it expands the whole scene none the less. Tolkien doesn’t just tell a story, he takes it a step further and builds an entire world around his subjects. He gives such a level of depth and immersion, adding layers of history and lore to support his narrative that the world feels countless generations old. It is weathered by time and conflicts past, and vast beyond just the characters who travel through it. The unknown isn’t just the unseen, it bears a dark and foreboding presence beyond the comfortable settings of the little lives we are introduced to, making it feel all the more daunting when they are forced to venture forth and face it. It is a world that feels lived in. Something that you can picture in your mind, even believe that it could of existed in some point in time.

The Determinator: Húrin the Steadfast never yields. After the army had been defeated and routed and his troops massacred he kept fighting. His enemies needed to use their own corpses to just stop him. Then Morgoth kept Húrin tied to a chair for decades, forcing him to watch as he turned his family's lives into Hell, and Húrin never gave in. Finally, Morgoth let him go because he realized that he would never get anything from Húrin willingly. Physical God: Melian and Morgoth are angelic, god-like beings who take physical form in Middle-Earth. Empathic Weapon: Gurthang is a talking sword unless Túrin was hallucinating that. It is confirmed to "mourn" for its previous owner, Beleg. Christopher Tolkien has painstakingly edited together the complete work from his father’s many drafts, and this book is the culmination of a tireless thirty-year endeavour by him to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s vast body of unpublished work to a wide audience. Túrin is portrayed as a man of great and terrible potential, a warrior that has no equal amongst men or even elves in many cases. His cause is a just one, he is swift and unyielding in the face of the enemy, gaining him so much infamy that the orcs and goblins flee from the slightest mention of him. He builds a reputation that brings him praise and rises him in the ranks with his allies. He is everything that a hero should be on the surface, yet under it he is also impatient, prideful, stubborn and hot tempered. The man is a stranger to humility, he has some of the worse flaws of men who carry great power. Time after time again, Túrin builds himself up from nothing to stand as a leader amongst people, and every time some great tragedy befalls him, as well as the people around him. Many times due to his own arrogance and pride, he loses everything and finds himself alone once more. Every time afterwards he flees, takes up a new name and begins all over again.Yank the Dog's Chain: Túrin finally finds some measure of peace living in Brethil with his wife Niënor, thinking that all of his misfortune and woe is finally behind him. Turns out his treasured happiness is a lie — his wife is actually his sister. Húrin] was shorter in stature than other men of his kin; in this he took after his mother's people, but in all else he was like Hador his grandfather, fair of face and golden-haired, strong in body and fiery of mood. But the fire in him burned steadily, and he had great endurance of will. Of all Men of the North he knew most of the counsels of the Noldor. [T 1] Sketch map of Beleriand. Dor-lómin is at top left, Gondolin top centre, Doriath centre with the Forest of Brethil to its left and the river Sirion running southwards, centre. Angband is in the Thangorodrim mountains, top.

The Heavy: Glaurung. Morgoth is the Big Bad, but Glaurung is a much more visible villain who is more directly involved with Túrin and Niënor's story. It is the expanded account of the story of the wanderings and deeds of Túrin Turambar, son of Húrin, and his sister Niënor, in their struggle against fate (and the curse cast upon Húrin's kin). It is considered to be among the darkest examples of any of Tolkien's works, as well as the foremost substantiation of any argument against disregarding the High Fantasy genre as colorless or "holier than thou". The hero is doomed yet strives toward goodness in spite of inadvertently murdering friends and becoming his sister's lover. Túrin fights against self-loathing as well as sorrow throughout, until the culmination of the novel's events.The second prophecy of Mandos (later removed from The Silmarillion by Christopher Tolkien) states that at the End of Time, Morgoth would wage a final battle against the Valar, the Final Battle, and that Túrin Turambar reincarnated would plunge Gurthang into Morgoth's heart and defeat him once and for all, exterminating evil forever, and avenging the Children of Húrin. Evil Overlord: Morgoth rules Angband and, by the time this book starts, has conquered a big chunk of Beleriand too. He's the source of all evil in the universe; basically, he's Satan. Also called "The Tale of Grief", "Narn i Chîn Húrin", commonly called "The Narn", tells of the tragic fates of the children of Húrin, his son Turin (Turambar) and his daughter Nienor.