There was once a young woman who lived with her mother in a cottage at the edge of night and the beginning of the sunrise; and the trees all about were dark and silent. Yet they were happy together, for the mother loved her daughter, and the daughter was full-glad in her mother’s company. And the daughter was merry and beautiful and gentle, as kindly as the day and as fair as the fields of flowers that she took delight in. Verily would she have been loved by many, but this was not so. For the mother was wise in…
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The Tale of the Children of Húrin has, rather fairly, earned a reputation as being the grimmest and saddest of all Tolkien’s stories. Indeed, its presence in a mythological world permeated by the eucatastrophe may seem incongruous to first-time readers, used to the inherent hope and joy of Arda (and perhaps not yet cognizant of just how deeply tragic and bittersweet it often proves). The implications of its unyielding tragedy, of Túrin and the potentiality of his free will, and the justifiability of the various choices he makes along his long and destructive road are all themes that have been…
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