# Middle Earth Returns!



## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 19, 2006)

Christopher Tolkien is publishing a new story of Middle Earth titled "The Children of Hurin".  It appears his father began this epic and left it unfinished.

Christopher has been responsible for the massive body of work his father left and is responsible for the publication of The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle Earth and others.

As for me, I'm anticipating this new tale.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Sep 19, 2006)

I hope though that his writing is not as dry as it was in the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle Earth.  In other words I hope that he writes so that you can really feel what is going on.


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 19, 2006)

I agree completely.  Silmarillion was like reading a textbook in many places.  I'm placing my hopes in the effort of 30 years to produce something of value and quality nearly equal that of LoTR.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Sep 19, 2006)

OnlyAnEgg said:


> I agree completely. Silmarillion was like reading a textbook in many places. I'm placing my hopes in the effort of 30 years to produce something of value and quality nearly equal that of LoTR.


 
I hope so to!


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## Kacey (Sep 19, 2006)

I hope so too - I first read The Hobbit and LoTR when I was 12, but I've never made it straight through The Silmarillion...


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 19, 2006)

It took me three attempts to get through The Sil.  Since then, I've read it a couple more times.  THoME is a little more difficult for me.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Sep 19, 2006)

Yes, it took me two times to get through the Sil. and I have not finished The History of Middle Earth.  You definately want them for your collection but they are hard reading.


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 19, 2006)

Agreed.  It's exactly the depth of JRR's writing that makes the main novels so wonderful; but, that same depth makes the histories...well, like history class.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Sep 19, 2006)

OnlyAnEgg said:


> Agreed. It's exactly the depth of JRR's writing that makes the main novels so wonderful; but, that same depth makes the histories...well, like history class.


 
Yes.  It is similar to the Frank Herberts son writing the new Dune series.  He has the right ideas but just cannot execute with the same creative genious of the father.


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## crushing (Sep 19, 2006)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> Yes, it took me two times to get through the Sil. and I have not finished The History of Middle Earth. You definately want them for your collection but they are hard reading.


 
I didn't even try reading Silmarilion a second time, not that I even got a quarter of the way through the first time.  Maybe now that I'm older it won't be so ummm. . .textbiblical?  I can't think of the word for it, but maybe I've grown in a way to appreciate it now.


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 19, 2006)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> Yes. It is similar to the Frank Herberts son writing the new Dune series. He has the right ideas but just cannot execute with the same creative genious of the father.


 
True; but, I think Brian realizes that.  I've read all of his and Anderson's collaborations in the Dune 'verse.  I like 'em.  The cutting point, as with Chris, will be when the new Dune book comes out.  Writing backstory/history is different than continuing a tale.


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 19, 2006)

Here's a slightly more detailed article on The Children of Huin.


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## stickarts (Sep 19, 2006)

I am a huge LOTR fan and read all of Tolkiens works many times over the past 30 years but The Silmarilion was always tough reading for me. I hope this is a bit easier reading!


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## Flying Crane (Sep 19, 2006)

The problem with The Silmarillion is that it is a collection of stories from Middle Earth's early history, from the time of Creation and moving forward.  It really is a history book.  Because of this, there is very little dialog, and you don't get to know the characters in the same way that you do in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien created two languages, both elven, one based on Welsh and the other based on Finnish.  He did this before he wrote any stories.  Then, he didnt' know what to do with the languages.  So he created a world (Middle Earth), and populated it with people to speak his languages.  From this, he began writing his stories.  

The stories that became The Silmarillion were his early stories, written much earlier than The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  He was a young soldier fighting in the trench battles of WWI, while he was formulating these first stories.  In a way, he intended for them to become something of an "English Mythology".  I believe he was sort of lamenting the way many cultures have a deep creation mythology, but England did not.  So he was kind of creating this, in a way.

Later, he wrote the Hobbit, published in the 1930s.  Demand was high for a sequel, so he eventually started The Lord of the Rings, intending for it to be much shorter than The Hobbit.  It was not published until tne 1950s, it just kept growing and it took him that long to complete it.  

Much of what Christopher Tolkien has been publishing (some dozen or more volumes) are old notes of his Father's.  They include stories that didn't make it into the Silmarillion, as well as early versions of the stories that did.  That is one of the interesting things about JRR.  He would write these stories, then rewrite them using a poetic medium, and then rewrite them again.  So it is kind of interesting to see how some of these stories changed and grew into their "final" version that made it into the Silmarillion.  The Silmarillion was very problematic for Christopher, as many of these stories were never fully "Finished" by his father.  There were inconsistencies from story to story that just didn't add up, but JRR didn't live long enough to really complete them utterly.  So Christopher did his best to pull them together and reconcilled them as well as he could, and published the work to get these stories out to the public.

The many subsequent volumes that Christopher has been publishing are mainly collections of these notes.  They are not exciting to read, and are really rather dry and academic.  For the most part, they should really only be attempted by hardcore Tolkien fanatics.  All others will die of boredom long before you complete them.

I have noticed that in one of the later volumes, Christopher has published the beginnings of another sequel that was started by JRR.  It goes on for I think about 20 pages, but that is all the farther he got.  I haven't read it yet, being bogged down in one of the earlier volumes, but I did notice its existence.  Maybe Christopher took this and expanded upon it.  Maybe JRR left other notes outlining where he intended to take this story, and perhaps that is what Christopher has fleshed out.  

At any rate, I look forward to anything that brings out more of Mr. Tolkien's work.  I guess I'm one of the hardcore Tolkienophiles who is willing to wade thru just about anything that he has written.


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## Flying Crane (Sep 19, 2006)

Ah, now that I have gone to the website and read the description, this is clearly not the sequel that JRR had begun and was published by Christopher in one of the subsequent works.

The Children of Hurin, like the website states, has been told, at least in part, in several of the other volumes.  It is a good story.  If it is written in the intimate style that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were written, it could be a great epic story.


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## zDom (Sep 19, 2006)

I've read the Silmarillion several times.

There are some heart-wrenching tragedies that are very compelling.

I suggest for those who are unable to "make it through," to pick one of the shorter stories in the middle which have more dialogue and are less "historical."

Glad to hear Christopher is making another go at it.


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## bydand (Sep 19, 2006)

My wife will be happy to hear of a new book.  She loves the whole Middle Earth thing.  Personally I missed the boat and started to follow The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant and never could get into the swing of these books.  Even though I have read all of them because my kids loved them as bedtime stories.


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## zDom (Sep 20, 2006)

I liked the Thomas Covenant books, but found them very depressing. Very.

Kinda heavy subject matter for bedtime stories, though, IMO, with the rape and Tom's dealing with the guilt thereof...


or did you mean Tolkien's Middle Earth was the bedtime stories?


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 20, 2006)

The Covenant books were remarkable, especially the first three.  I read them years ago.  I still have a fondness for Saltheart.


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## Don Roley (Sep 20, 2006)

I love Tolkien, but I will not be reading this book.

I have read the Similarian, Unfinished Tales and a few other things.

It seems to me that aside from the books that actually made it to print when he was alive, none of the books actually were meant to be read by the typical reader. The various histories and such were a means that Tolkien used to flesh out his world. No one had to read them except him.

If he had rewritten this new book so that it was to be published before he died, I am sure it would be something I would want to read. But it was not and is probably more of a reference like the other works he wrote, but never re-wrote for release.


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## bydand (Sep 20, 2006)

zDom said:


> I liked the Thomas Covenant books, but found them very depressing. Very.
> 
> Kinda heavy subject matter for bedtime stories, though, IMO, with the rape and Tom's dealing with the guilt thereof...
> 
> ...



Sorry about that, Lordy reading Thomas Covenant books to kids anytime would be questionable.  I meant they love  Tolkien's Middle Earth books.


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## bydand (Sep 20, 2006)

Don Roley said:


> It seems to me that aside from the books that actually made it to print when he was alive, none of the books actually were meant to be read by the typical reader. The various histories and such were a means that Tolkien used to flesh out his world. No one had to read them except him.



yeah what you said!  I'm glad that somebody brought this up because the later books struck me in the same way.  The way somebody would write references to people/places/events so that they wouldn't conflict in later books.  I bet Whats-Her-Doodle who write the Harry Potter books has reams of this type stuff around as well.


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## arnisador (Sep 20, 2006)

OnlyAnEgg said:


> Silmarillion was like reading a textbook in many places.



Agreed. I've read it twice and was bored both times.


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## Bigshadow (Sep 20, 2006)

I never could finish silmarillion.


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## Kacey (Sep 20, 2006)

I love the Covenant books, as well as a 2 book set Donaldson wrote called The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through - although part of that may be that, when he was much less well-known, he came to my high school (in 1983 - I know, I'm old) and talked to a group of kids who had read the first trilogy - the first book in the second trilogy had been published, but only in England, because one kid had a copy a relative had sent him.

As far as Tolkien goes, The Hobbit was written as a children's story - and I first read it when I was 12.  I reread all 4 volumes at least every few years.


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## OnlyAnEgg (Sep 22, 2006)

Here's another perspective on The Children of Huin.  A good read.


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## exile (Sep 22, 2006)

OnlyAnEgg said:


> Here's another perspective on The Children of Huin.  A good read.



An interesting article... it's been a long time, but I do remember that there was some criticism of Christopher Tolkien when _The Silmarillion_ came out. I just can't recall anything at all about what it was aimed at... was it just the dryness and programmatic character of much of the writing there, as vs. the intensity of immediacy of _LoTR_? Or was it something else...anyone remember? 

Part of the problem with _The Silmarillion_ was the emotional letdown. A lot of young people had read the book and found the ending unbearably poignant at many levels; we were hoping, even though we knew _The Silmarillion_ was going to be about events that preceded the Third Age, that we'd get some kind of emotional closure, so we didn't have to go on feeling quite so bad about Galadrial leaving Celeborn behind on Middle Earth, or about Frodo and Gandalf leaving their friends behind, or the Elves abandoning Middle Earth, or the inevitable deaths of Aragorn and Arwen, as the Appendix relates, long after the official action of the narrative is over... there really aren't many crumbs of comfort in _LoTR_. And when we found out that there really was going to be a second massive work from Tolkien, we were all hoping it would make the reading of _LoTR_ a little more hopeful... no such luck though. So our view of _The Silmarillion_ was kind of angry and critical...


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