The Children of Hurin Review

[Alchisiel]

I am currently reading The Children of Hurin, (and loving it by the way) when I came across a review of the book by Elizabeth Hand on the internet which she states "Morgoth's forces, whose members -- Orcs but also Men known as Easterlings -- resemble marauding Vikings more than the crude, slightly cartoonish regiments depicted in The Lord of the Rings." This statement bothers me. My opinion of the Orcs/Easterlings are far from slightly cartoonish in the LotR. Reading LotR I did not think of the Orcs or Easterlings as cartoonish-I feared them. I would like to get other people's opinions on this.

I wish I knew how to copy a link onto my post but unfortunately I do not know how to do it, however the review is on washingtonpost.com

Alchisiel

[Child of the 7th Age]

I am seriously wondering if the "cartoonish regiments" that are mentioned in this review refer to PJ's screen depictions rather than the actual content of the books. That seems to be a consistent problem in the post-movie era. Now and then, when people are having a book discussion, an image from the movies sneaks into the argument, sometimes even without the participants being aware of what is going on.

It's difficult for me to envision JRRT's "evil" creations being characterized as "cartoonish". This is not a complaint I've heard before even from those reviewers who are innately hostile to Tolkien, unless it's just a rehashing of the old broken down, been there done that viewpoint that all Tolkien's characters are stark rpresentations in black or white.

[davem]

This is the link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902308.html

& the passage is

There are no hobbits in The Children of Húrin. The primary players are Men, Elves, Orcs, a few Dwarves, Morgoth (the original Dark Lord -- Sauron was his most powerful lieutenant), and Glaurung, "father of dragons," who ranks with the monstrous spider Shelob as one of Tolkien's most terrifying creations. For centuries, Men and Elves have been engaged in a mostly losing battle against Morgoth's forces, whose members -- Orcs but also Men known as Easterlings -- resemble marauding Vikings more than the crude, slightly cartoonish regiments depicted in The Lord of the Rings. More than any other Tolkien work, The Children of Húrin evokes the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon epics that Tolkien loved and studied and taught and emulated. Its central protagonist, Túrin, is one of the most complex characters in all Middle Earth, a tormented, brooding anti-hero who bears hallmarks of a sword-wielding Heathcliff.

[Lalwendë]

I'm liking this bit:

More than any other Tolkien work, The Children of Húrin evokes the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon epics that Tolkien loved and studied and taught and emulated. Its central protagonist, Túrin, is one of the most complex characters in all Middle Earth, a tormented, brooding anti-hero who bears hallmarks of a sword-wielding Heathcliff.

Yet that's not just found in CoH, it's in most of the Sil (Eol is just like a Heathcliff figure), and can also be found in other Tolkien work. It's not just the characters and what they do, their motivations etc. it's in the sparse and brittle Northern language. Like that stark line from the Voluspa:

Understand ye yet, or what?

[Bêthberry]

Like you, Alchisiel and Child I also am baffled by that reference to cartoonish characters--since the review is laudatory. However, I do like Child's hypothesis that often responses to the movies slip into our thoughts on the books. That act itself suggests how telling is Hands' remark about the future of Middle earth, that over the long march of time there will indeed be a mythology that people relate to, rather than simply "texts."


Years from now, when our present day is as remote from men and women (or cyborgs) as the events of the First Age were to the Council of Elrond, people may still tell tales out of Middle Earth. If so, The Children of Húrin will be one of them.