April 22nd, 2007 by zen

* Blame for which is shared by Thingol, King of Doriath who coveted a Silmaril, the disasterous results of which are told in a separate epic The Lay of Beren and Luthien. And prior to that, the malign oath of Feanor and the doom on the Elves for the Revolt of the Noldor.

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Posted in book, j.r.r. tolkien, The Children of Hurin | 6 comments

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  1. Sean:

    April 22nd, 2007 at 11:52 pm

    love this post!

    i have CoH on order with Amazon…

  2. Strategist:

    April 23rd, 2007 at 10:08 am

    The Children of Hurin is on my reading list as well, after I finish reading Simon Armitage’s translation of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, which is very good.

    Mark – your paragraph about happy endings, or lack of, reminded me of ‘Beowulf’, and the Norse sagas, in particular ‘The death of King Hrolf Kraki’ in which the king and his warriors go down fighting against overwhelming odds, and the foretelling of Ragnarok in ‘The Prose Edda’. I remember reading somewhere that Tolkein was strongly influenced by the Norse acceptance of fate and their belief in the unlikelihood of happy endings, either in one’s own life or at the end of the world.

  3. mark:

    April 23rd, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    Hi Strat,

    You are correct. Tolkien internalized a lot of these concepts even as he studied the languages and mythologies. I believe he had some kind of group that read the Elder Edda in the original in the 30’s

  4. Lexington Green:

    April 23rd, 2007 at 10:43 pm

    The impact of World War I on Tolkien’s thinking and writing is under-appreciated.

    He is a unique mix of (1) memoirist (so much of LOTR is a memoir of his prewar life, mountain climbing in Switzerland, war experience — a fantasy that was really an autobiography), (2) spiritual reflection, from a strongly orthodox Catholic viewpoint, and (3) deep knowledge for the epics of the germanic peoples, Saxons, Icelanders, etc. There are other elements, but these three predominate.

    I suppose I will have to buy this book … .

  5. mark:

    April 24th, 2007 at 1:07 pm

    HI Lex,

    There is a bio out on Tolkien’s war experience – can’t recall the author or the exact title.

    You’re right, Tolkien had a very conservative Anglo-Catholic ( is there any other kind) mindset. Most ppl don’t realize that it was Tolkien, with quiet argument, who converted C.S. Lewis to Christianity from atheism. More or less Tolkien, by inspiration and example, launched Lewis writing on the two subjects for which he became most famous.

  6. Batocchio:

    April 29th, 2007 at 8:10 pm

    Thanks. I remember reading the Turin story in an early form in The Silmarillion. It was clearly one of the tales dearest to Tolkien’s heart.