The Children of Húrin

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of violence, unintended incest, and of death by suicide during a period of grief.

The book’s editor, Christopher Tolkien, explains his motivations for publishing The Children of Húrin. Seeing that the vast readership of The Lord of the Rings had yet to encounter a vivid, extended narrative set in the First Age of Middle-earth (a period also referred to as the Elder Days), Tolkien determined that the story of Húrin’s children was substantial enough to provide a glimpse into a world that The Lord of the Rings only references in exposition and dialogue.

Tolkien explains that his father, author J. R. R. Tolkien, originally conceived of the material for this novel as “Turambar and the Foalókë,” one of three “Great Tales” included in an early collection called The Book of Lost Tales. Written sometime toward the end of World War I, “Turambar” was seen by J. R. R. Tolkien as complete enough to be told in expanded form outside of the summarized events of the legendarium known as The Silmarillion. J. R. R. Tolkien likewise felt that The Children of Húrin was an essential piece of history in Elf-Men relations, providing