Húrin

The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey writes that the "lyric core" of the story of the fall of Gondolin, the source of narrative dynamism amidst all the description and genealogy in The Silmarillion, is the scene where Húrin is set free after 28 years imprisoned by Morgoth. In his view, "everything in this scene is emblematic";[1] the sun sets behind the Mountains of Shadow, standing for the coming catastrophe, but "the real sunset is in Húrin's heart".[1] The dynamism is revealed, Shippey writes, by asking the question "'Whose fault?' Húrin's, for despair? Turgon's, for suspicion?" ... the list goes on. He comments that to answer fully would be to retell "the whole unhappy story of Middle-earth."[1] He explains that the matter hinges on "a conflict of kinship"; Húrin remembers from many years earlier how he suffered to help Turgon; but though Turgon knows Húrin is there, the royal Elf "refuses to trust the man who saved him once", and does not relent until it is too late. It is thus vital to the scene, and to the whole story, that the reader appreciates why Húrin goes into this emotional sunset; and that in turn requires the reader to know about his kinship with Turgon, from the family tree.[1]

Christopher Garbowski writes in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that the depiction of Húrin in The War of the Jewels, crying aloud in the wilderness by the hidden entrance to Gondolin, creates a very different effect to that of The Lord of the Rings which had already been written. The Vala Manwe sends an eagle to Turgon for help, but the account seems, writes Garbowski, to allow no time for the message to arrive; he calls Shippey's description of the scene, a "posed tableau", apt.[2]

Alex Lewis, writing in Mythlore, asserts that Tolkien introduced a historical bias into the tale of Húrin's coming to Gondolin. He suggests that Tolkien chose to favour Turgon at the expense of Maeglin, because Turgon was a direct ancestor of Elrond and therefore had to be spared the blame for the fall of Gondolin. Lewis comments that the long version in The Book of Lost Tales differs markedly from the account in The Silmarillion here. He notes that Tolkien started to revise the tale but never completed the revision.[3] Lewis asserts, too, that "Hurin was a far better tactician than Fingon or Turgon. He had the best idea of keeping the high-ground advantage", putting this down to Tolkien's bias in favour of Elves over Men.[3]

David Greenman, also in Mythlore, proposes a classical influence on Tolkien. He describes the sad tale of Húrin as "Aristotelian Epic-Tragedy", as defined in the Poetics in terms of Aristotelian elements such as "plot, ... spectacle, language, character, ... reversal, and catharsis".[4]

The attorney Douglas Kane, writing in Tolkien Studies, discusses Húrin's trial as described in The Wanderings of Húrin, published in The War of the Jewels. He assaults Hardang with a stool; he is drugged and put on trial; Manthor advises him. Húrin "falsely charges" the people of Brethil with failing to help Morwen. Kane calls the tale "some of Tolkien's most incisive political commentary", citing "Húrin's cold comfort to Manthor on his deathbed": telling Manthor that his friendship "was rooted in self-interest", as he hoped to "use his defense of Húrin to further his own ambition to become the Chieftain."[5]

The Tolkien scholar Helen Lasseter Freeh notes that the longer version of the tale of Túrin Turambar in Unfinished Tales (the Narn) contains a dialogue between Morgoth and Húrin about fate and providence. Despite his imprisonment, Húrin insists that Morgoth cannot control everything, and while Morgoth does not directly contradict this, he says he will spread a "cloud of Doom" on everyone Húrin loves, and "wherever they go, evil shall arise". Túrin lives a life of disaster, in which Freeh sees the hand of fate, which threatens to overwhelm Túrin's free will.[6][7] Shippey comments that Morgoth is one of the Valar, whose power in the world appears as luck, or chance, or fate. Terrible things in the Narn seem to be coincidences; but, writes Shippey, Tolkien often gives "double explanations" of these events, one fate, one just accident.[7]

• Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth (Third ed.). HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0261102750.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Silmarillion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). Unfinished Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1994). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The War of the Jewels. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-71041-3.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2007). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Children of Húrin. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-007-24622-6.