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The Children of Hurin
by J.R.R. Tolkien


8.9

based on 12 reviews
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This prequel to the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy was abandoned by the author before his death, with the materials eventually culled together into a novel by his son Christopher Tolkien after a 30-year effort. Parts of this story were originally published as the notoriously difficult read "The Silmarillion."

Houghton Mifflin, 320 pages
04/17/2007
$26.00

ISBN: 0618894640

Fiction
Science Fiction & Fantasy

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Chicago Sun-Times Dan Miller

Stunning in its scope, writing and story-telling, it's vintage Tolkien -- old vintage, with Homeric similes and lyric prose...[A] monumental achievement of imagination.

Washington Post Elizabeth Hand

A bleak, darkly beautiful tale played out against the background of the First Age of Tolkien's Middle Earth, The Children of Húrin possesses the mythic resonance and grim sense of inexorable fate found in Greek tragedy.

Daily Telegraph Philip Hensher

The Children of Húrin has been rammed together without a lot of scholarly explanation; it provides, however, along with a great deal of absurdity, a glimpse of the sheer mythical power that is turning him into a long-term object of interest.

Daily Telegraph John Garth

The Children of Húrin is no academic exercise, partly because it also breathes the dank air of the 20th century, with its muddied motives, its oppression and slaughter. Cruelty and brutality are explicit. Bitterness ousts charity and hope.

PopMatters Tish Wells

A book that even casual readers of Middle Earth can enjoy.

Salon 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.

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Kelly McManus

An excellent, nuanced tale...A far more mature and sinister saga than the tales of Frodo and company. Here be tales of incest, gore and tragic doom; the fighting pales in comparison to greater psychological and sexual dangers.

The Independent Murrough O'Brien

Tolkien derives a remarkably original tale of tragic fall. The children of Hurin do not, like the parents of Oedipus, rush to avoid their destiny: they defy it.

The Guardian Nicholas Lezard

The First Age here seems a pretty miserable place to be; Orcs everywhere, people being hunted into outlawhood or beggary, and with no relief, light or otherwise, from a grumpy, pipe-smoking wizard. But it does have a strange atmosphere all of its own. Maybe it does work.

Boston Globe Ethan Gilsdorf

Húrin is like "Grimm's Fairy Tales" on steroids, dark, and sincere almost to a fault...Those who found "Rings" tough going may find Húrin tedious. But the dedicated Tolkien fan, or the reader undaunted by "Beowulf," will find much to delight in.

The Economist

Its aim is to tell a good story, and it does so, without wandering into its wider implications. It is well crafted: Christopher Tolkien has skilfully pieced the fragments together to form a “continuous narrative without gaps or interruptions”. The question is whether, given the vast extent of Tolkien's published work, this new spinning of fragments was really necessary.

Entertainment Weekly Jeff Giles

Húrin is so awkward and immature a piece of writing that you ultimately feel a pang of compassion — not for Túrin, who proves to be an impetuous jerk, but for Tolkien himself. This is hardly the return of a king.

The average user rating for this book is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chris B gave it a9:
Not as good as LOTR or The Hobbit, but a beautifully written, tragic tale.

James T gave it a10:
Spectacular. This tragic masterpiece easily outshines the childishness of the Hobbit, the plodding length of Lord of the Rings, and the piecemeal history lesson of the Silmarillion. Certainly, this is Tolkien's finest hour, and sets a new standard for fantasy all over again. A character study on the level of Hamlet, with a scope limited only by the twentieth century's most fascinating imagination.

Edmond D gave it a10:
A beautifully written tragic masterpiece. This novel is a work of art, although not as good as lord of the rings, nonetheless much better then most of the other fantasy stuff out now.

Tony S gave it an8:
I enjoyed this book. Its classic Tolkien (imaginative). I would recommend it to any fan!

Judy T. gave it a6:
Not great and not terrible, but LOTR or the HOBBIT this is not. As those books were hard to read and yet fascinating because of the detail to the texture of the land and the characters, this book tell us little about The Children of Hurin, their parents and the others that encounter them. Their motives are laid plain and superficial, but with language that seems more an attempt to show how intelligent a scholar the author was than true literary prose. It's really a simple tale, a Middle Earth greek tragedy that with each subsequent chapter (and by the way the chapter names give away exactly what is going to happen) seems dull by the end.

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The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Children of Hurin
by J.R.R. Tolkien