2 posts tagged “literature”

Well, for all Tolkien fans, whom normally are also C.S. Lewis fans, like myself, are lining up at the local bookstores tomorrow, like the helpless geeks we are.

This 30 year old novel, which predates the LOTR series by several hundred years, has been painstakingly pieced together by Tolkien's son, Christopher.

Here is a brief synopsis, courtesy of The Tolkien Library.  Warning.  Spoilers afoot:

Also called "The Tale of Grief", "Narn i Chîn Húrin", commonly called "The Narn", tells of the tragic fates of the children of Húrin, his son Turin (Turambar) and his daughter Nienor.

[SPOILER] For those who want to know even more about the tale I will give a brief summary and give a guide how to read the story (if you cannot wait for the new completed version of The Narn). The story starts (in the published Silmarillion) with the childhood of Túrin, continuing through the captivity of his father in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and Túrin's exile in Doriath, to Túrin's time in Nargothrond, his unintentionally incestuous relationship with his sister Nienor, and ultimately ending with suicide by his sword Gurthang after having slain Glaurung.

As a point of reference regarding the names of the main characters: In this story, Túrin renames himself Turambar, meaning Master of Doom in the High-Elven speech, with a vow to turn aside from the darkness that had ruled his early life. His sister Nienor is also called Níniel, meaning Maid of Tears. She is renamed by Turambar himself after he finds her alone and in distress in the woods. Only much later does he learn her real name and origins. The section ends with the Elves calling them by the names of Túrin Turambar Dagnir Glaurunga (as the slayer of the Dragon Glaurung) and Nienor Níniel.

The story of the Narn continues in the Later Narn (which you can read in the Unfinished Tales). The last part of the story (published as "the Wanderings of Húrin"), a text which was found to be too different in style from the rest of the Silmarillion, but which continues the Narn past Túrin's death and ends with Húrin's eventual release and the bad deeds which come from that (read in The War of the Jewels, part 11 of the History of Middle-earth series).