JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

J.R.R. Tolkien, who died in 1973, has a new book out. The Children of Hurin was first written in 1919, but Tolkien kept rewriting it, and variations have appeared in his other works. This is the first stand-alone version, edited by Christopher Tolkien (He who jealously guards father’s estate. Well there’s this bar staffed with little people…).

According to the Washington Post book review by Elizabeth Hand (you have to register to read it), the events in The Children of Hurin take place 6,000 years before the Council of Elrond. Men and Elves are at war with the forces of Morgoth (Sauron’s boss). The hero Turin grows up among the Elves after his father is imprisoned by Morgoth.

“The House of Húrin matches that of Atreus in curses coming home to roost upon doomed and sometimes innocent family members. Readers looking for happy endings will find none in this book. Instead, there is grand, epic storytelling and a reminder, if one was needed, of Tolkien’s genius in creating an imaginary world that both reflects and deepens a sense of our own mythic past, the now-forgotten battles and legends that gave birth to the Aeneid, the Old Testament, the Oresteia, the Elder Eddas and the Mabinogion, Beowulf and Paradise Lost.”