The Children of Hurin

By: J. R. R. Tolkien

Narrated by: Christopher Lee

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings. The story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World.

In that remote time, Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Túrin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves. Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Húrin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire.

Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Túrin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled.

The earliest versions of this Tolkien story go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed. But long afterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he revised and greatly enlarged it, enhancing complexities of motive and character. It became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book, Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.

©2007 J. R. R. Tolkien Copyright Trust and Christopher Reuel Tolkien (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, London, UK

Well done

Christopher Lee’s narration of this beautiful story was magnificent. Really illustrates why Tolkien’s work is called high fantasy. This tale is a tragedy on a Shakespearian scale. Listening will begin to reveal the depth of Tolkien and the history he created. The movies and television shows make it seem like a dirty Middle Ages knock-off but he had a high and noble vision to share with us. And a call to be better ourselves

Great Story

Great story! You definitely need a strong understanding of the Silmarillion before reading this. Sir Christopher Lee did an alright job narrating, but I've heard better narrators for Tolkien's work.

Tragic but good

As it states above, tragic story, appreciate all the additions lore of the Tolkien world

Terrific production of a heartbreaking tragedy

Wow. This one got me right in the feels. What a terrible and beautiful story. Christopher Lee is a fantastic reader.

not LOTR

i came here looking for more of the lore of middle earth. i got exactly what i came here for. casual fans of the movies will not enjoy this. fans of Tolkien will love it.

Tolkien’s vision of a world apart from our own is, as with his other works, what stands out.

This is a co story of the destination of a great and majestic family by the torments of a world we can imagine only through stories like this. Tolkien could see the whole world in his head and struggled to pull out tiny bits of it like this one. The language is of old and it is told in the ways of old stories. That can make the character development hard to follow T times. None the less this is worth listening to to if only to see a glimpse of of the earlier world that lead to the likes of Hobbits and rings and kings of the third age of middle earth

Legendary actor, the best voice for a sorrowful tale

Having read the Unfinished Tales and the Simarillion, I was familiar in broad strokes with this story. The additional details found here and Christopher Lee's masterful dramatization add volumes to this tale. It feels very Romeo and Juliet in the tragic timing, but with the complexity characteristic of Tolkein. A must listen.

Great read

Wonderful book for Tolkien fans. Christopher Lee, who played Saruman, does a wonderful job narrating. A Tolkien fanatic in his own right his reading lends an almost palpable weight to the story, helped by how easily he reads Tolkien's imagined languages. Non-Tolkien fans or new readers may find this book difficult to follow at times and would be better served to start with his more well known works.

Christopher Lee was a triumph

What is there to say? Sir Christopher Lee was one of the greatest talents of the 20th century and he gets to read the greatest lore of the first age, what a triumph.

Christopher Lee and Christopher Tolkien bring a great story to life

Tolkien is well known for both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but there are other stories that are a part of his Middle-earth. The Silmarillion and Book of Lost Tales series mostly deal with the time before the finding of the ring. These stories are of elves, men, angelic beings and the demonic Morgoth. One of the great tales related in The Silmarillion is the tragic story of Túrin Tarumbar. Christopher Tolkien, the son of JRR Tolkien, assembled from his father’s fragments and notes this in depth telling of that tale. Whereas the Silmarillion reads like a historical or mythological tome, The Children of Húrin is much closer in tone to The Lord of The Rings.
While Tolkien’s more widely known works are heroic journeys where the world is populated with the good and the just who in the end win against the dark forces of evil and corruption, The Children of Húrin is a dark and menacing story that seldom allows its imperfect protagonists the relief of peace, much less any sort of victory. This is a grim and foreboding story. Yet in many ways the characters are, to my mind at least, deeply sympathetic because of their flawed natures.
The rich sonorous voice of Christopher Lee is used to great effect in the reading of this story. This is not simply Saruman the White reading a Tolkien story. His voice is varied in it’s ability to convey the many different characters of the tale.
If you’ve enjoyed the more well known stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, then give this one a listen. It’s in many ways more serious and much darker in tone, but equally as magical, and epic. Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry