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“Wherever they go, evil shall arise. Whenever they speak, their words shall bring ill counsel. Whatsoever they do shall turn against them. They shall die without hope, cursing both life and death.��

“Children of Húrin�� is the first book in the Tales of Middle Earth. Being the full rendition of the original story found in The Silmarillion, Children of Húrin tells the story of Húrin, his kin and the doom that befell them all.

Our story begins with a retelling of the House of Hador and how they came to be. They were a proud house that gained the favour of men and elves. Húrin, the patriarch of the family has led his family well but it is time for the united force of Middle Earth to defeat Morgoth once and for all and so he leaves his family behind. But nothing goes as planned during the battle. They lose and so the battle was named Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

Captured by Morgoth, Húrin is held prisoner and forced to watch as his family is cursed to die. While Húrin begins this story, our main character is his son and heir, Túrin. We follow him from childhood into adulthood as all his choices are tainted by the curse. From ward of the great king Thingol to a renegade outlaw to an advisor to the King. Everywhere Túrin goes, death follows, and people around deal with the aftermath. #JusticeforGwindor

I already knew the story of Túrin from Silmarillion but this full length novel expanded on a lot and I never expected Tolkien to have such a tragedy in his legendarium. This is dark. As close to grimdark as Tolkien had probably ever written but also very funny?

When Húrin was captured and told Morgoth: “No more are you now than an escaped thrall of the Valar, and their chain still awaits you.�� I had to stop reading cause I was laughing too hard. Imagine being chaos incarnate, the closest synonym to evil there is, and a tiny measly human calls you a slave. I’d die of embarrassment. All this is after Fëanor calls him ‘jail crow of Mandos�� and kicks him off his land, Fingolfin managing to wound him seven times and the power couple BerenLuthien robbing him blind. How embarrassing. I’d let the Valar capture me after all that.

In this story you also see how Tolkien loved not really retelling stories but showing how cyclical history can be. Túrin, Beleg and Mîm were literally the original Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli but darker and more violent.

Still, this was a lovely if gruesome read and teaches us one very important lesson:

“for a man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.��

also try not to get cursed.