jordanabina
“Then Túrins heart stood still, hearing the feet of doom that would pursue him to the end…”
It’s confession time. I first came into contact with The Lord of the Rings and the universe of Middle Earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien through the first movie made by Peter Jackson. I had never seen anything like that in my life. I continued on to see all of Peter Jackson’s trilogy and that film series has a permanent spot in the Top 5category in my heart. After I saw those movies I read the books, at least I read Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, Return of the King, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. And I read them in that order. Although the movies were amazing, they could never touch the brilliance of the books, and I’m fine with that.
I then turned to Tolkien as a man and became interested in who he was as a person. But by some weird fork in the road, I ended up running into C.S. Lewis, whom I knew and had already read as a child. I fell into a book about Lewis writing and broadcasting during World War II and all the amazingness of his relationship with Tolkien and the Inklings.But I never made it back to middle earth.
Then by the will of the Valar, I came across 3 books that looked like Tolkien, had his name on it, and even seemed to be a part of the larger story. But because I had never heard of these and saw that it was editedby Christopher Tolkien, I didn’t trust that it was really Tolkien.
Speaking of that, a google search on the name Christopher Tolkien will give you at least a full day of entertainment. There is some serious controversy surrounding this guy and from what the internet says (which is the equivalent of a hungry teenager), this guy doesn’t share much.
Anyways, after some time I missed Middle Earth bad enough to buy a copy of The Children of Húrin as I had already read The Silmarillionand needed some solid fantasy genre in my life. I’m so glad I did.
First of all, I appreciated the tragedy of all of it. It didn’t end like a movie would, it ended like the story needed to. Who was the villain? Who has the hero? Was there one? I don’t know and I don’t need to know. I was back, back in Middle Earth, but an older and simpler Middle Earth. These were the unsaid things between Elrond and Gandalf, these were the ruins of the journey of the fellowship rebuilt.
The anger of the dwarves, the reputation of men. The beauty of the elves and the source of Sauron’s true power, Morgoth. It was so great to have many kingdoms of Elves and hear the dialogue and disagreements between them, it brought a clearer picture to the later story. When you think the story is going to turn around it doesn’t, it marches towards doom. If you’ve read The Silmarillionthen you know this story but even with prior knowledge to the ending I still was hoping it would change. It doesn’t.
Now I’m back on the chase of Tolkien and completing the Middle Earth collection as well as a biography or two on J.R.R. Tolkien himself. So happy I read this book, it worked for me. Added bonus was the Alan Lee illustrations, that guy is amazing. If you’ve read this far into this review than you’re my hero.
I leave you with this question, was Túrin a hero?
Bye for now. Off to The Fall of Gondolin.
