outside of certain passages of Scripture, no description of events has sent such chills of fright down my spine as the following passage:

but before long there came more reports: that the fires drew ever northward, and that indeed Glaurung himself made them…a day came when two men returned to Ephel Brandir in terror, for they had seen the Great Worm himself. ‘in truth, lord,’ they said, ‘he draws now near to Teiglin, and turns not aside. he lay in the midst of a great burning, and the trees smoked about him. the stench of him is scarce to be endured. and all the long leagues back to Nargothrond his foul swath lies, we deem, in a line that swerves not, but points straight to us. What is to be done?’

this description is of Glaurung, the great dragon and servant of Morgoth who is the antagonist in the latest posthumous work of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Children of Hurin. taking place nearly 6500 years before the events in Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, this book is largely the tale of Turin, son of Hurin, who sets out to free his father after he has learned of his capture by Morgoth. yet the journey is not that easy for young Turin, and he soon finds himself alone, stripped of all that he loves and holds dear. because of this he later takes on the name Turambar, or “Master of Doom.”

this story is much darker than Tolkien’s previous works, and rather reminded me of Hamlet or any of the other great tragedies in literature. the last line of the passage above, in fact, rather suits the overall mood of the story: “what is to be done?” the family of Hurin has been cursed by Morgoth, and Turin is constantly in the shadow of Glaurung, even to the point of being bewitched by the Great Worm. anything Turin does to overcome his past, to find his father, or to make a name for himself eventually turns sour and hurts anyone close to him, and the only positive fame he ever receives is due to the elven blade he carries, Gurthang, one of the strongest swords in all Middle-Earth. even when Turin has found love (the second time; the first, of course, ending in tragedy) and married, he and his bride are soon ruined by the truth of their relationship.

this is one of the few tales in which evil ultimately gets the better of the hero, and the hero’s death is more of a relief than anything as it ends the cycle of woe for all the characters in the book.

personally, this book served as a stark reminder of the depravity of man and the importance of community and love. Turin refused to listen to the advice and counsel of those much wiser than he, and he often resorted to shows of force in order to gain control over the groups he would come to lead. yet even in those groups he would often end up fighting alone, the rest of his troupe having been alienated by the arrogance of Turin. he failed to submit to those older and wiser than he, including his parents, and he failed to take anyone but himself into consideration when deciding his next course of action. it is largely this immaturity that would lead to his destruction. likewise, when he is finally married, the relationship seems to be more of a distraction from his past and his troubles (irony at its finest, come to find out). when it comes down to it, though, he even alienates his wife in blind stubbornness, ultimately leading to her destruction.

even through the darkness, however, the story is rather beautiful. in true Tolkien fashion, the descriptions of the landscapes are magnificent, the battle scenes dramatic, and the overall flow of the story is quite poetic. while certainly not as timeless as The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, The Children of Hurin gives further insight into the genius of J.R.R. Tolkien and further unfolds the intricacies of the overall history of Middle-Earth and its people.