Children of Húrin

The Children of Húrin

Front cover of hardback edition
Editor	Christopher Tolkien
Author	J. R. R. Tolkien
Illustrator	Alan Lee
Cover artist	Alan Lee
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	High Fantasy
Publisher	HarperCollins (UK) Houghton Mifflin (USA)
Publication date	16 April 2007
Media type	Print (hardback, paperback); audiobook; e-book
Pages	320
ISBN
OCLC	78790549
Dewey Decimal	823/.912 22
LC Class	PR6039.O32 N37 2007
Preceded by	Roverandom
Followed by	The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

The Children of Húrin is an epic fantasy novel which forms the completion of a tale by J. R. R. Tolkien. He wrote the original version of the story in the late 1910s, revised it several times later, but did not complete it before his death in 1973. His son, Christopher Tolkien, edited the manuscripts to form a consistent narrative, and published it in 2007 as an independent work. The book contains 33 illustrations by Alan Lee, eight of which are full-page and in colour.

The history and descent of the main characters are given as the leading paragraphs of the book, and the back story is elaborated upon in The Silmarillion. It begins five hundred years before the action of the book, when Morgoth, a Vala and the prime evil power, escapes from the Blessed Realm of Valinor to the north-west of Middle-earth. From his fortress of Angband he endeavours to gain control of the whole of Middle-earth, unleashing a war with the Elves that dwell in the land of Beleriand to the south.

However, the Elves manage to stay his assault, and most of their realms remain unconquered; one of the most powerful of these is Doriath, ruled by Thingol. In addition, after some time the Noldorin Elves forsake Valinor and pursue Morgoth to Middle-earth in order to take vengeance upon him. Together with the Sindar of Beleriand, they proceed to lay siege to Angband, and establish new strongholds and realms in Middle-earth, including Hithlum ruled by Fingon, Nargothrond by Finrod Felagund and Gondolin by Turgon.