A half-century after J.R.R. Tolkien published The Lord of the Rings, a superb addition to the Tolkien cannon debuted this week.
April 25, 2007 (Press Release) --
Stunning in its scope, writing and story-telling, it's vintage Tolkien -- old vintage, with Homeric similes and lyric prose.
Initially written around 1920, and although polished and expanded decades later, the darkly tragic story of the children of a royal family succeeds on the soaring rhetoric of Tolkien, the myth-maker long before Lord of the Rings made its debut in 1954. Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher, has gathered the remnants and stories from his father's other books into their own integrated narrative that is deeper and more satisfying than The Hobbit, and far more approachable and understandable than The Silmarillion in recounting events long before the Third Age of Middle-earth.
The story of the children of Hurin is set in Middle-earth some 8,000 years before the events recounted in Lord of the Rings. At the story's center are two children of Hurin, a king and warrior whose valor earned him the hatred of the first Dark Lord of Middle-earth, called Morgoth.
Morgoth's curse on Hurin's family is brilliantly played out against the personality traits of Hurin's son, Turin. Rash, brave, stubborn and vain, Turin was, as one character describes him, "treacherous to foes, faithless to friends and a curse unto his kin." Just a twist of fate or a change in timing would have transformed Turin from a wretched outcast into a beloved hero.
Instead, Turin's impetuosity and vanity corrupt his quest to liberate his father from Morgoth's fortress, and he departs his homeland as an exile and criminal, leaving behind his mother and sister, Nineil.
Turin's quest, and his sister's parallel search to find him in an increasingly hostile and violent Middle-earth, drive the narrative. What makes the story so readable, besides Tolkien's elegant writing, is the way Turin's benign and heroic decisions bring misery and destruction to those around him. Each of his positive traits is offset by compulsions that lead inevitably to tragedy as Morgoth's curse is fulfilled. Turin's military prowess turns blood-thirsty, his righteousness becomes intolerance, and his steadfastness hardens into deadly stubbornness.
Although much of the story was written before Lord of the Rings, close readers will recognize foreshadowings of the epic trilogy in Children of Turin. But the story stands by itself as an monumental achievement of imagination.
Source: http://www.msn.com
Initially written around 1920, and although polished and expanded decades later, the darkly tragic story of the children of a royal family succeeds on the soaring rhetoric of Tolkien, the myth-maker long before Lord of the Rings made its debut in 1954. Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher, has gathered the remnants and stories from his father's other books into their own integrated narrative that is deeper and more satisfying than The Hobbit, and far more approachable and understandable than The Silmarillion in recounting events long before the Third Age of Middle-earth.
The story of the children of Hurin is set in Middle-earth some 8,000 years before the events recounted in Lord of the Rings. At the story's center are two children of Hurin, a king and warrior whose valor earned him the hatred of the first Dark Lord of Middle-earth, called Morgoth.
Morgoth's curse on Hurin's family is brilliantly played out against the personality traits of Hurin's son, Turin. Rash, brave, stubborn and vain, Turin was, as one character describes him, "treacherous to foes, faithless to friends and a curse unto his kin." Just a twist of fate or a change in timing would have transformed Turin from a wretched outcast into a beloved hero.
Instead, Turin's impetuosity and vanity corrupt his quest to liberate his father from Morgoth's fortress, and he departs his homeland as an exile and criminal, leaving behind his mother and sister, Nineil.
Turin's quest, and his sister's parallel search to find him in an increasingly hostile and violent Middle-earth, drive the narrative. What makes the story so readable, besides Tolkien's elegant writing, is the way Turin's benign and heroic decisions bring misery and destruction to those around him. Each of his positive traits is offset by compulsions that lead inevitably to tragedy as Morgoth's curse is fulfilled. Turin's military prowess turns blood-thirsty, his righteousness becomes intolerance, and his steadfastness hardens into deadly stubbornness.
Although much of the story was written before Lord of the Rings, close readers will recognize foreshadowings of the epic trilogy in Children of Turin. But the story stands by itself as an monumental achievement of imagination.
Source: http://www.msn.com
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