The children of Húrin

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 | Personal

As a christmas gift, I got Tolkien’s The children of Húrin, since my parents have by now realised that I am partial to fantasy novels. Mostly what I enjoy is to read about unlikely heroes who seek the good in themselves and try to persevere in the face of overwhelming foes. This is what true heroes would do, the ones of epic proportions. However, The children of Húrin is not like this at all.

The most positive surprise about the book is its physical quality. The paper is not thin and cheap like in most works of fiction, but dense with good texture. The story, however, is a whole other matter. It is a story of the two children of Húrin, Niënor and Túrin, whom the evil Valar, Morgoth, have set his evil will upon, and perhaps their fates can be explained by this, but there is no striving for a greater goodness in them. They are haughty, vain, and egotistical, and hardly once do they do what one would think to be right.

Perhaps these negative tales need to be spun from time to time so that the tales of goodness may shine the brighter, but I must admit that I am somewhat dismayed by the bleakness of the story, at least it is not what I like to seek in a novel.

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