I wanted to return to this general discussion thread, which is useful for focusing specifically on this work. Although I did read and finished a couple weeks ago The Children of Hurin, I read it in the context of the larger Silmarillion body of work. I read it in parallel with The Silmarillion chapter, for comparison's sake. Before I wasn't sure about the assertion that it can be read as a replacement of the Turin chapter in S, but now I can conceive of a slightly convoluted way of weaving and threading a future reading of The Children of Hurin within S with more precision.
I remember vaguely about 20 years ago some disparaging reviews of The Children of Hurin, to the effect that it's messy and stitched together, like a Frankenstein's monster of a "novel". And I kept an eye out for unevenness of narrative progression, but felt like for the most part it is coherent. I haven't read the version of the Narn that is in The Unfinished Tales, mind, so I wonder if experiencing that version first effects a reader view of this standalone "novel" presentation. I think I mention above that I did dip into UT's Narn to include two small passages that were excised from TCoH, one about the family history of The Dragon Helm, and another passage about the lineage of a rival Elf that Turin quarrels with in Doriath. I really wish Christopher Tolkien had just left those passages in.
The upshot of looking in on UT's Narn in order to incorporate those passages back in, admittedly artificially, I glimpsed a section where the narrative seems to get messy and is just moved to after the main narrative is over, to function as an appendix to the Narn. I'll have to re-visit that to see how messy it is. Yet I'm puzzled, it seems like Christopher Tolkien cleaned up the narrative pretty effectively in order to present the form of the book The Children of Hurin.
I was interested to see some follow up with one or more returning characters from The Children of Hurin into The Wanderings of Hurin. Yet, Children gave me the sense that Wanderings could have been cleaned up and functioned fairly well as an appendix to The Children of Hurin book.
Can anyone comment further about The Children of Hurin, versus the Narn in UT? Why did Christopher not think it could be cleaned up at first, so that a large chunk gets shifted to function as an appendix for a short-story/novella; given that later he seems to have successfully managed it later for Children?
I've also played a thought experiment with how it could have alternatively been done. Mostly with the Narn, I feel like the presentation of The Silmarillion with a separate book for the expanded narrative of Turin (The Children of Hurin that we have now) is the right way to go. If I had to advocate for presentation, I might have directed Christopher Tolkien away from including the Narn in UT and skipped forward to doing The Children of Hurin book as it is now, without the intermediary version of the Narn in UT.
Additionally, I would have suggested to Christopher Tolkien that he replace the Narn in UT with a more cleaned up version of The Wanderings of Hurin in place of the Narn. Wanderings is kind of an episodic narrative that is complete and incomplete at the same time, if that makes any sense. Hindsight and all, I know.
I remember vaguely about 20 years ago some disparaging reviews of The Children of Hurin, to the effect that it's messy and stitched together, like a Frankenstein's monster of a "novel". And I kept an eye out for unevenness of narrative progression, but felt like for the most part it is coherent. I haven't read the version of the Narn that is in The Unfinished Tales, mind, so I wonder if experiencing that version first effects a reader view of this standalone "novel" presentation. I think I mention above that I did dip into UT's Narn to include two small passages that were excised from TCoH, one about the family history of The Dragon Helm, and another passage about the lineage of a rival Elf that Turin quarrels with in Doriath. I really wish Christopher Tolkien had just left those passages in.
The upshot of looking in on UT's Narn in order to incorporate those passages back in, admittedly artificially, I glimpsed a section where the narrative seems to get messy and is just moved to after the main narrative is over, to function as an appendix to the Narn. I'll have to re-visit that to see how messy it is. Yet I'm puzzled, it seems like Christopher Tolkien cleaned up the narrative pretty effectively in order to present the form of the book The Children of Hurin.
I was interested to see some follow up with one or more returning characters from The Children of Hurin into The Wanderings of Hurin. Yet, Children gave me the sense that Wanderings could have been cleaned up and functioned fairly well as an appendix to The Children of Hurin book.
Can anyone comment further about The Children of Hurin, versus the Narn in UT? Why did Christopher not think it could be cleaned up at first, so that a large chunk gets shifted to function as an appendix for a short-story/novella; given that later he seems to have successfully managed it later for Children?
I've also played a thought experiment with how it could have alternatively been done. Mostly with the Narn, I feel like the presentation of The Silmarillion with a separate book for the expanded narrative of Turin (The Children of Hurin that we have now) is the right way to go. If I had to advocate for presentation, I might have directed Christopher Tolkien away from including the Narn in UT and skipped forward to doing The Children of Hurin book as it is now, without the intermediary version of the Narn in UT.
Additionally, I would have suggested to Christopher Tolkien that he replace the Narn in UT with a more cleaned up version of The Wanderings of Hurin in place of the Narn. Wanderings is kind of an episodic narrative that is complete and incomplete at the same time, if that makes any sense. Hindsight and all, I know.
