The Children of Húrin

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:45 pm

When you think about it, it really is an important new addition (and edition!) in the Tolkien world! Thanks for inviting us to the celebration, Beren.

Beren · Post by **Beren** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:02 pm

it is going on right now... hope you all come and enjoy it!

marbretherese · Post by **marbretherese** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:34 pm

I can't seem to connect to the party, Beren, but I have some consolation: my copy of The Children of Hurin has arrived . . .

I hadn't expected to get it so soon and I'm absolutely thrilled - it was an Easter present from Jonick! Alan Lee's pictures are wonderful and there's a proper fold-out map, and appendices (a novelty to me -I really need to get the three-volume hardcover edition of LOTR with fold-out maps and appendices, especially now my beloved paperback is falling apart).

I'm so grateful that Christopher Tolkien has done this!

Beren · Post by **Beren** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:00 pm

the pary is kind of busy
try one of these links:

http://tolkiengateway.net/java
http://tolkiengateway.net/java2
http://tolkiengateway.net/java3

Airwin · Post by **Airwin** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:01 am

I found this article on Stuff.co.nz through www.wizardnews.com:

Tolkien novel published 34 years after death

LONDON: More than 30 years after his death, a "new" book by JRR Tolkien has gone on sale which may well be the author's last complete work to be published posthumously.

© Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2007

Read the whole article here.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:48 am

Thanks Airwin! My copy arrived this morning $\:D/$ , but it's been damaged

. Not in transit - but in production when the blue cover was glued down. As there is a big blue chunk of blue paper sticking out the top of the book you think someone would have spotted it. Just my luck

. Perhaps I can do a bit of chopping and sticking, I can't face sending it back.

I love Alan Lee's Glaurung - not at all what I expected and infinitely more sinister. Will be burbling on about the pictures on the art thread very soon!

marbretherese · Post by **marbretherese** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:09 pm

What a shame, Iolanthe! maybe you should complain, you know what happened last time

Thanks for the NZ article, Airwin. Here's a link to a BBC piece about the release of the book, which includes a video clip of last night's BBC2 Newsnight interview with Adam Tolkien. There's some previously unreleased footage of the great man himself , too:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6562757.stm

Beren, thanks for the links to the party - never did manage to connect but hope it went well anyway!

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:56 am

Thanks mabreterese! The video is an excellent find - well worth everyone watching

. How wonderful to hear Tolkien in 1968 talking about what his children liked in literature. I read in Humphrey Carpenter's biography that it was often hard to understand what he was saying and it's true....I had to listen to it twice to pick up all his words.

And we have Alan Lee at the end as an extra treat!

So, is Adam Tolkien the inheritor of Christopher's editorial mantle?

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:09 am

TheOneRing.net has put up links to several reviews:

LibraryJournal.com

Salon.com

CNN.com

I expect there will be many more to come.

marbretherese · Post by **marbretherese** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 1:03 pm

Iolanthe wrote: So, is Adam Tolkien the inheritor of Christopher's editorial mantle?

It would be lovely to think so, wouldn't it? it's good that he was prepared to be interviewed by Newsnight.

I also found it hard to understand what Tolkien was saying in the video clip but it's well worth it, isn't it!! he obviously encouraged his children to be forthright in their opinions, and respected what they had to say.

The reviews on the links you have posted are interesting, too!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:32 pm

I read a review on CNN's website last night that had high praise--can't wait for my edition to arrive!

Merry · Post by **Merry** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:35 am

It came today! I've just had time to look at the pictures--fantastic Lee style, but rather dark, of course.

Riv Res · Post by **Riv Res** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 4:37 am

Got mine today too Merry! Can't wait to dive in.

ETA: The Lee illustrations are masterful!

Riv Res · Post by **Riv Res** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:28 pm

With many of us are just now receiving our copies of The Children of Hurin, it looks to be a very special treat...and...not just for us Tolkien geeks...

From salon.com...

Lord of the ruins

J.R.R. Tolkien's son Christopher spent more than 30 years piecing together fragments his father left behind. Now readers can learn what happened 6,000 years before Bilbo Baggins found the One Ring.

By Andrew O'Hehir

"The Children of Húrin" will thrill some readers and dismay others, but will surprise almost everyone. If you're looking for the accessibility, lyrical sweep and above all the optimism of "Lord of the Rings," well, you'd better go back and read it again. There are no hobbits here, no Tom Bombadil, no cozy roadside inns and precious little fireside cheer of any variety found here. This is a tale whose hero is guilty of repeated treachery and murder, a story of rape and pillage and incest and greed and famous battles that ought never to have been fought. If "Lord of the Rings" is a story where good conquers evil, this one moves inexorably in the other direction.

While casual readers of "Lord of the Rings" may be put off, "The Children of Húrin" does not require "Silmarillion"-grade geekery. Any midlevel Tolkien fans with an appetite for the stranger, darker corners of his realm will rapidly be caught up in the fiery saga of Húrin, who defies the dreaded Morgoth and is mercilessly tortured, and Túrin, the legendary warrior whose great deeds drag everything and everyone he loves toward total disaster. At least, they'll get swept up in it if they can plow through the first few pages.

Read the entire review HERE.

Iolanthe · Post by **Iolanthe** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:50 am

Most of what I've read has been very positive but I read a review in a newspaper that made me incandescent with rage. It was by a highly respected reviewer who clearly lives in the 'All Tolkien is bunkum and trash' camp. It was filled with ignorance from beginning to end

. And he didn't mention the illustrations once

.

I think Lee's illustration style is perfect for this tale and the one of Húrin before Morgoth is outstanding. It's a scene that lives in the imagination long after you've read it and it's great to see Lee's take on it. One of my favourite passages is where Húrin confronts Morgoth before the scene in the illustration:

Blind you are, Morgoth Bauglir, and blind shall ever be, seeing only the dark. You know not what rules the hearts of Men, and if you knew you could not give it.