Greatest Man of Middle-Earth??

[Kuruharan]

I also think it's interesting that in early writings of The Last Battle (at the end of the world), Tolkien said that it would be Turin with his black sword that would deal Melkor his death blow, and called Turin the conqueror of fate, and named him among the Gods. Apparently, Tolkien thought he was pretty special.

Agreed. However, I believe that Tolkien ultimately discarded that notion. Although I'm not sure that he ever really replaced it with anything. I think that he left the events of The End rather up in the air.

However, I still have to go with the father over the son. Certainly Turin lived a rough life. Even if Tolkien discarded the notion that Turin killed Morgoth in The End, Turin was clearly an important figure possessed of great strength of spirit.

Alas, he didn't use it very well. He was emotionally volatile, prone to wild outbursts, and rash actions.

Hurin was more, well, steadfast.

And there's that nagging issue about actual physical presence of The Greatest Enemy in the History of the World and so forth. For me that takes the cake!

Absolutely. I was thinking pretty much all of that before I read your post, thanks for typing it up for me.

I live to keep others from getting carpal-tunnel syndrome! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]