Favorite Part/Thing About The Children of Hurin?

[Sihtric]

I recently finished re-reading The Children of Hurin recently and was just thinking about it!

While Turin’s story is really quite saddening- while Tolkien often writes of wars, deaths, and tragedies, I feel that The Children of Hurin was a bit different. While The Fall of Gondolin is also quite sad (still beautiful) and does focus on individual characters, it seems to focus more on a people with outcomes of the individuals. The Children of Hurin, while focused on many peoples and kingdoms, seems to highlight a family (and well namely Turin’s descent-if you can call a “descent” maybe a different word) and their own time in Middle Earth. I thought the story was a tragic- yet wondrous (and sometimes a lot of the time we may groan and go “TURIN NOOOO WHY??”but) way to incorporate a more dark tale into the lore of Middle Earth.
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What are your thoughts? Either on favorite parts or just about the book in general 😁

 

[Elbereth Vala Varda]

I loved the Children of Hurin, thoroughly and entirely. Turin Turambar's story is so tragic, fraught with love and passion, as well as anger and sorrow. It's a devastating tale that many times brought me to tears, for good reason. But I agree with you. There's a lot there. It's a wonderous story that follows the journey of Turin and his family, showing the tragic things in his life that brought him to such a difficult place. As much as Turin has many flaws, as it has often been said and I can't disagree, Turin has many good things about him too. For one, he is a fighter. Even after accidentally killing his closing friend, believing that he brought his own mother and sister to death, losing his father at a young age, he still keeps fighting. That's a tribute to just how impassioned and strong of a man he was. That even after his father's descendants were cursed, he still stood with them, and fought alongside them.

And even in the end, the horribly tragic, very solemn end, he doesn't die until he has first slain the dragon. His care is always above himself it seems, as much as that has led him to peril.

One of my personal favorite characters was Nienor Niniel, for her incredible story, and just hardiness against danger, and loyalty as a friend, sister, and eventually wife.

It's good to honor Narn i Chin Hurin. 'Tis a wonderful tale.