34. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Children of Hurin

Tolkien wrote the manuscript for this book in 1910 and never finished it. His son, who calls himself the literary executor of his father's estate, completed the manuscript and made it fit for publication. To me it really didn't feel like it deserved to be a book which, in turn, made it feel like a rather distasteful cash grab. After subtracting the 29 page introduction, the dozen or so page glossary and the random full color pictures (I am not even counting the double spaced type) you get to a book that is no more than about 100 pages long. In my view that's just too short for a self standing novel.

Setting that aside, this is the story of Turin, his mother Morwen and her newly born daughter. Hurin, Morwen's husband, is alive but captured very early in the book. The story is set in the first age of Middle Earth. At the beginning of the book Hurin joins an alliance of other men and elves to fight against the evil Morgoth in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. Hurin and his allies are slaughtered and Morgoth captures Hurin alive and takes him back to his castle. When Hurin does not give Morgoth the information that he is seeking he chains Hurin to a giant stone chair and curses him with the ability to see and hear what Morgoth hears.

Morgoth's henchmen take over different parts of the earth including Hurin's home which forces Turin, Hurin's son, to flee. His mother cannot join them as she is pregnant with her third child. Turin, who is about nine years old, flees to a hidden town of elves where he grows up never forgetting his mother and father. The balance of the story relates Turin's deeds as head of a lawless band, his attacks on Morgoth and his search for his mother.

The book was reasonably good but it is more like a short story than a novel. I felt a little ripped off by the Tolkien family which left a bad taste in my mouth.