The Children of Hurin is a relatively short book.

Tolkien and edited by Christopher Tolkien, the son of Tolkien. The Children of Hurin is one of the three Great Tales of Middle-Earth written by J.R.R. With that knowledge in mind, until I do a reread, this review will be shorter and less detailed than my usual reviews a lot of readers have done a better job than me in explaining the importance of The Children of Hurin and its connections to the larger story of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. Picture: The Land of Bow and Helm by Alan Lee I should note, though, that I’ve now finished reading The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, and I enjoyed them both, but this review is written with the knowledge and experience when I haven’t read the two. I finished The Children of Hurin without reading The Silmarillion or The Lord of the Rings trilogy first, and I totally loved it. Well, guess what? I’m going to offend them more. Of course, some weren’t keen-some even felt offended, only Morgoth knows why-on the idea that I’m reading The Silmarillion, or attempted this, without actually reading The Lord of the Rings first. Some even said it’s better to not read The Silmarillion first to get the maximum surprise experience of going into the story as blind as possible. Some answered as long that I’ve watched the movies and I have the basic knowledge from the first half of The Silmarillion or thorough Wikipedia research (which I did on both accounts), they should be enough. Twice I almost made it halfway-the first time was more than ten years ago, the second time was just a few days ago-through the book, and twice I gave up.įor the past few years, I have asked some fans of Tolkien whether it’s necessary to read (not watch) the main trilogy and The Silmarillion first or not before attempting the three Great Tales of Middle-Earth. I also failed to finish The Silmarillion. It’s most likely because the movie has tainted me with its fast pacing I have no idea why but the book was so boring that it drowsed me to sleep several times, not even halfway. During the time of writing this review, despite the fact that I’ve watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy more than ten times, I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t able to finish reading The Fellowship of the Rings because I was extremely bored with it. I never expected Tolkien to write a story as dark and tragic as the one portrayed in The Children of Hurin.įirst, a full disclosure that might anger Tolkien fanatics.

Lord of the rings hurin