The children of Húrin

The Children of Húrin (original title: English The Children of Húrin ) is a novel based on the unfinished story Narn I Chîn Húrin (German: The story of the children of Hurin ) by the English writer JRR Tolkien . Different versions reconstructed from the fragments were published by his son Christopher Tolkien in several versions and in several books. The story was last published in 2007.

content

The following table of contents is not intended to be a retelling of a single version, but rather to highlight what all versions have in common.

The story, which takes place in the First Age of Middle-earth, is about Túrin Turambar and Nienor , the children of the human being Húrin , who ruled the northern region of Dor-lómin, part of Hithlum, as a liege of the Elven Kings. In the catastrophic battle of the uncounted tears, the "Nirnaeth Arnoediad", Húrin is captured alive and brought before the victorious Morgoth , the dark enemy. Morgoth tries to find out from Húrin where the Elven King Turgon built the hidden city of Gondolin , which was one of the few Elven realms to survive the battle unscathed. Húrin, who is the only living non-gondoliner who knows the location of the city because he has already been there with his brother Huor, refuses to give any information. Morgoth then curses Húrin and his family and puts him in a throne chair on the mountain tops of the Thangorodrim above his underground fortress. From there he gives him the ability to see the fate of his family in all details without being able to intervene.

After the lost battle in Hithlum, Húrin's wife Morwen sees herself and her family at the mercy of Morgoth's henchmen who invaded there. She decides to give her son Túrin (who would be the rightful ruler of Hithlum after the disappearance of his father) for his safety to the Elf King Thingol in Doriath, whose daughter Lúthien is married to her relative Beren. After Túrin's parting, Morwen becomes the mother of a daughter who was conceived shortly before Húrin's parting and whom she calls Nienor, "sorrow". Túrin is brought to Doriath by two followers and taken in by Thingol as a foster son. One of the two guides returns to Hithlum. However, he cannot persuade the proud Morwen to finally give up their home and come to Doriath as well. So he only brings presents from her back there. Thingol's wife Melian the Maia recognizes the bad fate that lies ahead of the family.

Túrin grew up in the forest of Doriath . The Elf Slip Cuthalion, one of Thingol's generals, teaches him everything he needs to know; a close friendship develops between the two. While eating at the Thingols table, Túrin is so provoked by a follower of Thingols, an elf who thinks very little of people, that Túrin causes his death. Thereupon Túrin fled from Thingol's court to avoid conviction. After Thingol has learned all the details, he declares Túrin free of the provocator's death and only accuses him of excessive pride.

Túrin has found shelter with a band of lawless people who have lost their homes and families in the previous wars and are now making their way through raids. Document finds him there after a long search and informs him of his acquittal, but cannot persuade him to return to Doriath. For the sake of Túrin, he also joins the gang and moves them successfully to raid orcs rather than other people. But proof can not intervene, the gang against the will of Mims had taken refuge as Turin by the betrayal of the small dwarf Mîm in whose house the orcs is supplied and is kidnapped by them. Document pursues the gang of orcs, but loses track of them. Instead, he meets an Elf who has recently fled Morgoth's long-term imprisonment. Together they find the orcs again. Túrin is so exhausted that he sleeps deeply and has nightmares about the orcs. When Document tries to cut his fetters, Túrin wakes up, thinks Document is an orc and kills him. The other Elf can tame him and take him to a nearby spring, where Túrin comes to and realizes that he has killed his best friend.

Together they go to Nargothrond , the hidden realm of the elf Finrod Felagund, from which his savior comes. After Finrod's death, the insecure and very cautious Orodreth reigns there, but initially welcomes Túrin. Túrin goes on many forays with the Elves of Nargothrond and earns their respect; he moves the greats of the empire, against the will of Orodreth, to give up their only secret, selective warfare against the orcs after the catastrophe of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and to fight them openly again. To this end, Túrin has a large bridge built in front of the gates of Nargothrond across the Narog River to enable larger armed forces to move out. Túrin develops a love affair with the Elf Finduilas, Orodreth's daughter. The water deity Ulmo warns Orodreth and advises to destroy the bridge, but Túrin prevails and prevents this.

Morgoth sends the dragon Glaurung . This penetrates with the help of Túrin's bridge in Nargothrond and burns it down, whereby Orodreth is killed. Túrin looks Glaurung in the eye and believes the dragon's words that his mother and sister are in danger. He ignores the situation of the refugees from Nargothrond who were kidnapped by the orcs (including Finduilas, to whom he is now engaged to be engaged) and immediately sets off to Dor-lómin, where he still suspects his family to be. So he is responsible for the death of Finduilas.

In the meantime, however, under the increasing pressure of Morgoth's henchmen, Morwen has long since left with Nienor and yet moved to Doriath. Thingol picks them up. When they hear that Túrin lives and is in Nargothrond, they go there against the will of the Thingol, who is concerned for their safety. They only arrive there after the destruction and also meet the dragon Glaurung, who has taken up residence in Nargothrond. Both are separated. Nienor looks the dragon in the eye and wanders around with no memory of her previous life.

In Dor-lómin, Túrin is received by a relative who is now forcibly married to one of Morgoth's followers, but who secretly supports the remnants of Húrin's ancient people. She informs him that his family has left. Túrin realizes that he has been betrayed by the dragon and in anger kills the husband of his relatives. She asks him to flee, then sets her own house on fire and dies in it so as not to fall into the hands of her husband's relatives. Thus Túrin realizes that his actions have brought death to another well-meaning person.

Túrin picks up the trail of Finduilas again, but only finds her grave, which was built at the place of her death under the torture of the orcs by residents of a nearby forest village. Without a goal or purpose in life, he joins the villagers and decides to keep his name a secret from now on and never to fight again; thereby he believes that he can escape his evil fate. He is now called Turambar, "Master of Fate". A little later the confused Nienor also arrives there. She learns to speak again, but does not regain her memory. Túrin, who believes his sister is safe at Thingol, gives Nienor the name Niniel. Unaware of their relatives, the two siblings, who have never met before, begin a love affair and marry shortly afterwards.

Glaurung continues to pursue Túrin and attack the village. Contrary to his decision, Túrin takes over the defense. He ambushes the dragon in a narrow river valley. When Glaurung seals over the gorge, Túrin thrusts his sword into his stomach. Niniel, now heavily pregnant, misses Túrin, goes on a search and finds the almost dead dragon and the unconscious Túrin. Glaurung reveals to Niniel as Túrin dies and her own true identity. Niniel then regains her memory and throws herself to death in recognition of the incest. When Túrin for his part recognizes the incest with Niniel and learns of her death, he throws himself into his sword Gurthang .

After Morgoth has destroyed the Húrin family in this way, he releases Húrin. Húrin wanders through Hithlum and on to the forest village, where he finds Morwen mute at the grave of his children, who dies in his arms. He goes on to Nargothrond, kills the small dwarf Mîm, who now lives there, and comes to Thingol in Doriath. There he throws the Nauglamir from the treasures of Nargothrond at Thingol's feet in senseless anger, as food for his family. Then he plunges into the western sea and dies. The Nauglamir brings the curse of Morgoth over Thingol and later means the downfall of his kingdom Doriath.

Timeline for the First Age of Middle-earth

	Annals of Beleriand I	Annals of Beleriand II	Gray Annals
Battle of the Countless Tears; Capture of Húrin; Túrin is eight years old; Morwen is pregnant	172	272> 472	472
At the beginning of the year Nienor is born; Túrin goes to Doriath	173	273> 473	473
Túrin with receipt on the way	181	281> 481	481
Túrin slays Saeros	184	284> 484	484
Túrin with the wicked	184 - 7	284-7> 484-7
Document emerges from the outlaws	187	287> 487	487
Túrin is captured by orcs; Document follows him; Gwindor shows up; Túrin slays Document	189	289> 489	489
Túrin at the source of Ivrin; with Gwindor to Nargothrond	190	290> 490	490
Stay in Nargothrond	190 - 5	290 - 5> 490 - 5	490 - 5th
Morwen and Nienor leave Hithlum and come to Doriath	194	294> 494	494
Glaurung attacks Nargothrond; in Doriath, Túrin's participation in the battle is known	195	295> 495	495
Túrin goes to Hithlum, but does not find Morwen; he comes to the forest people	195 - 6	295-6> 495-6	495 - 6
Morwen goes to Nargothrond; Nienor follows her; they get lost; Nienor comes to the forest people	196	296> 496	496
Nienor lives with the forest people; Beginning of relationship with Túrin	197-8	297-8> 497-8	497-8
Túrin marries Nienor	198	298> 498	498
Glaurung seeks Túrin and is killed by him; Húrin is released	199	299> 499	499
Húrin comes to Nargothrond and Doriath	200	300> 500	500-502

As can be clearly seen, Tolkien changed little in the internal chronology; the shift results from changes that precede this story.

Fictional origin story

As with all stories from the First Age, Tolkien not only presented the Túrin saga as such, but provided it with a fictional story. In the Tales , Eriol is told by an elf. The Narn has an introduction in which it is explained that a person named Dirhaval (first: Dirhavel) collected the traditions about Túrin shortly before the end of the First Age and wrote it down in a specially developed stanza form . Dirhaval disappears when the Feanor descendants attack the ports at the Sirion estuary. This poem was read to Aelfwine (who later replaced the Eriol figure). The poem form reminded him of a form he knew from people's poems. It can only be the Germanic alliance rhymes. He himself then translated the text into human language in prose. All other great poems were read to Ælfwine by the elf Pengolodh of Gondolin, who collected and annotated all the poems at the ports on Sirion. Although he is not explicitly mentioned in the Narn, it is to be assumed that here too he should be thought of as a mediator. After Tolkien's abandonment of the Eriol / Aelfwine figure, the text has to end up in Bilbo's translations from Elvish , which now serve as a fictional source for the stories of the first age. Tolkien considered two options for this. Either Pengolodh takes his books with him to Tol Eressëa and later reads them to Elendil, who takes copies of them with him to Gondor. Or Pengolodh stays with Elrond after the end of the First Age, where he can pass the stories on directly to Bilbo.

History of origin

The Children of Húrin is one of the first Tolkien stories to be based on his fictional mythology about Middle-earth. In the course of his life he wrote several versions, most of which, however, remained unfinished or incomplete. His son and literary estate administrator Christopher Tolkien published some of these versions in various books after his father's death.

Valley

During the First World War, Tolkien wrote an entire cycle containing the first versions of his myths. The entire cycle is embedded in a frame narrative in which a certain Eriol is told the story. One of them is Turin and the Foalókë . This version was written down between late 1918 and mid-1919, first in pencil, then over it in ink, with Tolkien's wife Edith often writing the final version.

Lay

After moving to Leeds , Tolkien tried between 1920 and 1925 to rewrite the material into an all-in- all poem: The Lay of the Children of Húrin . A lay isn't just a song , Tolkien could have called it a song . Rather, it is a special form that in the Middle Ages was known in French as Lai and in German as Laich. The cycle of Lais from Marie de France , which dealt with themes from the Arthurian legend, to which Tolkien was certainly familiar, was particularly well known. Two versions of this lay have survived, each of which has a manuscript and a typescript. Tolkien changed the title from version to version: The Golden Dragon > Túrin Son of Húrin & Glórund the Dragon > Túrin > The Children of Húrin . The first version tells the story up to the stay in Nargothrond in 2276 lines or 56 printed pages. The second version tells the story up to the escape from Doriath in 817 lines or 20 printed pages.

Quenta

On his return to Oxford , Tolkien wrote a summary of all of his epics to help the reader understand the context. The Túrin saga takes up a large part of it. This summary became the Quenta Noldorinwa, which also includes the Túrin story. Finally the Quenta Silmarillion emerged from this, but it breaks off in the chapter about Túrin.

Narn

After the release of The Lord of the Rings , Tolkien revised his old epics again. He expanded the Túrin saga into the almost completed Narn I Chîn Húrin . A Narn is a word from Tolkien's fictional languages, which he uses to designate a poem that is written in verse, but is told and not sung. This explanation can only be found in the introduction to the Narn.

The parts of the Narn and their publication

Valley	Lay I	Lay II	Narn
is missing	is missing	is missing	Introduction (in: War of the Jewels)
is missing	is missing	is missing	Túrin's childhood (in: News from ME & The Children of Hurin)
Úrin & Melko	Húrin & Morgoth	Húrin & Morgoth	Húrin & Morgoth (in: News from ME & The Children of Hurin)
Túrin in Doriath	Túrin in Doriath	Túrin in Doriath	Túrin in Doriath (in: News from ME & The Children of Hurin)
receipt	receipt	is missing	Among the outlaws (in: News from ME & The Children of Hurin)
Failivrin	Failivrin	is missing	In Nargothrond (in: Silmarillion & The Children of Hurins)
In Brethil	is missing	is missing	In Brethil (in: News from ME & The Children of Hurin)
Úrin's walks	is missing	is missing	Húrin's walks (in: War of the Jewels)

Creation times of the parts

The following table shows which texts were written when and to what extent they should be read next to each other.

Frame narration	Long version	short version	annals	Time of origin
Eriol	Valley	is missing	is missing	1918-1919
	Lay	is missing	is missing	1920-1925
		sketch	is missing	1926-1929
		Quenta Noldorinwa	Annals of Beleriand I	1930
Aelfwine		Quenta Silmarillion	Annals of Beleriand II	1931-1937
	Narn	Quenta Silmarillion	Gray Annals	circa 1950–1960

Publication history and reception

Illustrator Alan Lee signing The Children of Húrin in the 2007 edition

During Tolkien's lifetime, except for brief allusions in The Lord of the Rings, nothing of the Túrin saga was published.

It was only after his death that his son Christopher Tolkien began to publish the estate. At first he was faced with the problem of having many independent and unfinished long narratives and a short summary (the Quenta Silmarillion) in front of him. Either he could have published all the texts as they were, or he could have done nothing at all. The existing readership, used to texts like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings , would not have been able to enjoy one and understand the other. So he decided to take the summary as a basis and to expand the chapters, of which long versions were available, with their help. The result was the Silmarillion of 1977. Chapters XX (Nirnaeth Arnoediad) and XXI (Túrin Turambar), which are important for Túrin, were expanded with pieces from the Narn . In this form, the resulting book did not meet Tolkien's ideas. Christopher Tolkien was aware of this, but the readership would not have liked another form at the time. However, even this publication was considered a difficult book.

A few years later, in 1980, Christopher Tolkien took the most elaborate narratives (Tuor and Túrin) and published them in a volume, with additional texts, the Unfinished Tales . In it he used the Narn almost literally, but left out the passages that he had already used in the Silmarillion . Here and in the previous Silmarillion, he changed the title from Narn I Chîn Húrin to Narn I Hîn Húrin , because he feared that the English reader would pronounce the Chîn as chin . He later withdrew this. Reading these texts was already considerably more difficult because they were presented in fragments and with interim commentary by Christopher Tolkien. This book was translated into German under the title News from Middle Earth .

After these two volumes, Christopher Tolkien began to submit all (or at least almost all) of the material. He did this in the thirteen volume series The History of Middle-earth . In the second volume, Lost Tales Part II (1984), he published the oldest version, the Tale of Turambar . Of the 13 volumes in the English edition, only the first two were published in German under the title The Book of Lost Stories (1986/87).

In the third volume, the Lays of Beleriand (1985), he published the various versions of the unfinished all-round poem. In volumes four and five, The Shaping of Middle-Earth and The Lost Road, and finally in the eleventh volume, The War of the Jewels , he published various versions of the chapter from the original Quenta Silmarillion , which he prepared for publication in 1977 through pieces from the Narn had replaced. In the latter, he finally printed the introduction to the Narn , which he had already mentioned in the Unfinished Tales , and the final chapter on Húrin's wanderings . Thus, piece by piece, the entire text of the Narn and all preliminary stages was available, albeit scattered over different volumes. Except for the two volumes of the Lost Tales , this series has not been translated into German. Because of this and because of the complex structure and presentation of the texts, these volumes have found only a few readers.

In 2007 Christopher Tolkien published another book on the Túrin saga: The Children of Húrin (German: Die Kinder Húrins ). The basis of the new text is the Narn . However, the introduction and the walks of Húrin , which have already been published in War of the Jewels , are missing . The names of the people also do not correspond to the state of the art from what Christopher Tolkien himself writes. The illustrations for the book were provided by the British artist Alan Lee .

templates

Völsunga saga : To kill the dragon Fáfnir, Sigurd digs a pit to hit the unprotected underside of the dragon. The incest motif also appears in the Völsungen saga.
Kalevala : There seem to be parallels to Kullervo ( The Story of Kullervo ). Túrin kills his comrade Voucher, marries his sister Nienor and all of this while fleeing from fate. When the two realize that they are siblings, Nienor throws himself into a river and Túrin with his sword. Your father Húrin has to watch everything and cannot intervene.
The story of Sinuhe : In the story handed down from the 12th Dynasty of Egypt, the hero Sinuhe flees because he fears he will be convicted. After spending several years among the Bedouins of Syria, a messenger from King Sesostris I reached him , telling him that he could return to the court in honor. Tolkien may have known the story through his Egyptologist colleague Alan Gardiner in Oxford .
King Oedipus of Sophocles : Oedipus killshis father Laios and marries his mother Iocaste , but these parallels are not so convincing, since Tolkien hardly received Greek mythology, and the similarities to the Kalevala, which Tolkien demonstrably drew on in other ways, are much greater (Sister not mother).

More epics from the First Age

Tolkien himself names three of the stories of his fictional world as the central ones among the tales of the First Age. In fact, parts of it (e.g. names and individual elements of the stories) can be traced back to his earliest records from the 1910s. In addition to the Turin legend, these are:

Tolkien reworked these three stories intensively and over and over and left them in very different stages of completion. In the 2007 publication of the History of Turin, Christopher Tolkien points out that the state of the other two epics is far more fragmentary and that reconstructing publications (as with Turin) are therefore out of the question.

literature

English editions

JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion. George Allen & Unwin, London 1977, ISBN 0-04-823139-8 .
JRR Tolkien: Unfinished Tales. George Allen & Unwin, London 1980, ISBN missing.
JRR Tolkien: The Book of Lost Tales Part I. George Allen & Unwin (HarperCollins), London 1983, ISBN 0-261-10222-2 , (= History of Middle-Earth. Volume I).
JRR Tolkien: The Book of Lost Tales Part II. George Allen & Unwin (HarperCollins), London 1983, ISBN 0-261-10214-1 , (= History of Middle-Earth. Volume II).
JRR Tolkien: The Lays of Beleriand. George Allen & Unwin (HarperCollins), London 1985, ISBN 0-04-823277-7 , (= History of Middle-Earth. Volume III).
JRR Tolkien: The Shaping of Middle-Earth. George Allen & Unwin (HarperCollins), London 1986, ISBN 0-261-10218-4 , (= History of Middle-Earth. Volume IV).
JRR Tolkien: The Lost Road and Other Writings . George Allen & Unwin (HarperCollins), London 1987, ISBN 0-261-10225-7 , (= History of Middle-Earth. Volume V).
JRR Tolkien: Morgoth's Ring. HarperCollins, London 1993, ISBN 0-395-68092-1 , (= History of Middle-Earth. Volume X).
JRR Tolkien: The War of the Jewels. HarperCollins, London 1994, ISBN 0-261-10324-5 , (= History of Middle-Earth. Volume XI).
JRR Tolkien: The Children of Húrin. HarperCollins, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-00-724622-9 ( archive.org ).

German editions

JRR Tolkien: News from Middle-earth. Klett-Cotta Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-423-59079-3 , (translated by Hans J. Schütz).
JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion. Klett-Cotta Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-93245-4 , (translated by Wolfgang Krege ).
JRR Tolkien: The Book of Lost Stories Part 1. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-93061-0 , (translated by Hans J. Schütz).
JRR Tolkien: The Book of Lost Stories Part 2. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-93062-7 , (translated by Hans J. Schütz).
JRR Tolkien: The Children of Húrin. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 3-608-93603-3 .

Web links

Side of the Tolkien Estate on The Children of Hurin (English)
Nothing for children - Review by Wolfgang Platzeck on derwesten.de

Individual evidence

↑ This man's name varies greatly from version to version

↑ The versions differ considerably here: In the valley, Túrin throws a drinking vessel at the provocateur, whereupon he falls over and dies immediately; In the Narn, the provocateur only spits a little blood, but can ambush Túrin after leaving the hall and is then chased to death by Túrin

↑ The name varies a lot in the different versions.

↑ The versions are very different here. Is it a box of gold, is it an inestimably valuable dwarf collar from the legacy of Finrod Felagund, or is it several boxes of gold that Thingol only uses to make the dwarf collar afterwards?

^ The Book of Lost Tales. Part II.

^ The War of the Jewels.

↑ The Lord of the Rings. I. Prologue.

^ The Peoples of Middle-earth.

↑ Christopher Tolkien published this cycle in two volumes: The Book of Lost Tales. Part I and The Book of Lost Tales. Part II.

↑ in: The Book of Lost Tales. Part II. Pp. 67–116 Text, pp. 116–118 Notes, pp. 119–143 Commentary; German Volume 2 of The Book of Lost Stories .

↑ The Lays of Beleriand. P. 3.

↑ The Book of Lost Tales II. P. 67

↑ Christopher Tolkien has the texts in: The Lays of Beleriand. Pp. 3-130 published.

↑ Lays of Beleriand. P. 4.

↑ Lays of Beleriand. P. 5.

↑ The Lays of Beleriand. Pp. 6–20 Text of the Prologue (Húrin and Morgoth) and Section One (Túrin as Thingol's foster son), pp. 21–23 Notes, pp. 23–29 Commentary; Pp. 29–48 Text of the second section (reference), pp. 48–49 Notes, pp. 50–56 Commentary; Pp. 56–79 Text of Section Three (Arrival at Nargothrond), pp. 79–82 Notes, pp. 82–94 Commentary.

↑ The Lays of Beleriand, pp. 94–95 Introduction by Christophers; Pp. 95–101 Text of Section One, p. 102 Notes, pp. 102–104 Commentary; Pp. 104–118 Text of Section Two, pp. 118–123 Notes, pp. 124–127 Commentary.

↑ From Christopher in: The Shaping of Middle-earth. Published pp. 11-75.

↑ The Shaping of Middle-Earth , pp. 26–33 or § 11 - § 14.

↑ From Christopher in: The Shaping of Middle-Earth. Pp. 76-218 published

↑ The Shaping of Middle-Earth, pp. 116–135 or § 11 – § 14

↑ Not from Christopher, as one might assume in The Silmarillion. Chapter XXI published, there has replaced the corresponding chapters with texts from the Narn , but in: The Lost Road. Pp. 199-337, Morgoth's Ring. Pp. 141-300 and The War of the Jewels .

^ The Lost Road. Pp. 306–323 or § 16 and § 17 and individual text variants in: The War of the Jewels. Pp. 243–247 or § 16 and § 17.

↑ Christopher corrupted the title in the Silmarillion and in the Unfinished Tales for Narn I Hîn Húrin , because he wanted to avoid a pronunciation like chin . In his later publications he reversed this change.

↑ Christopher has completely dismantled the text and scattered it over all of his publications. The introduction can be found in: The War of the Jewels. Pp. 311-315; the beginning of the story in: Unfinished Tales , to p. 104 (Pieces are to be added from the Silmarillion , pp. 158–159 (Huor and Húrin in Gondolin), pp. 190–195 (Nirnaeth Arnoediad), pp. 201–201 (for the outlaws)); the middle of the story is only printed in the Silmarillion , pp. 204–215 with additional material in the Unfinished Tales. Pp. 150-162; the end of the story again in the Unfinished Tales. Pp. 104-146; then there is the fold-up with the liberation of Húrin, in: War of the Jewels. Pp. 251–310, which was already prepared in the valley .

^ The War of the Jewels. P. 275.

↑ Unfinished Tales. P. 6 and more often.

↑ Unfinished Tales p. 6 and more often in the entire annotation apparatus.

↑ Lost Tales I. S. 1.