Is The Children of Hurin better than the Lord of the Rings?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Mithadan

However, in my view, as the Silmarillion evolved, it seems that Tolkien's intent was to make Beren and Luthien, Hurin and Turin, and Tuor the centerpieces of the eventual completed story, almost as if they were a trilogy of sorts.

Hm, I like that idea. The Tale of the Children of Húrin, in all its tragedy, bookended by the other two that have their share of sorrow, but ultimately end in hope. It seems fitting.

[Mithadan]

In the Introduction to Unfinished Tales, CT dates the narrative Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin to around 1951, shortly before LoTR was published. There is no specific date for the crafting of Narn i Hin Hurin given in UT, but Scull and Hammond's Companion and Guide date it to around the same time. Tolkien unfortunately never really returned to a full-blown effort to write Beren in the same manner as Tuor and Hurin. However, it seems clear that he intended, at that point, to complete a lengthy version of at least these "mannish" tales.

Whether he intended a similar treatment of the entire Silmarillion is unknown. Based upon the length of the Narn and CoH and extrapolating from the length of the Tuor fragment, these stories together, even without Beren, would likely have been longer than the entire Silmarillion as published. A full treatment of the Silmarillion, in the same style of narrative, would have likely have rivalled LoTR in length.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Tolkien, I think it is fairly clear, intended the Three (or Four) Great Tales* to exist in both long, detailed forms as independent works, as well as in compressed versions within the Silmarillion proper (compare "Of the Rings and the Third Age" with TLOTR). Unfortunately, the forward progress of the Quenta Silmarillion narrative halted with Beren and Luthien, and so nothing of the 'short' versions of the later Tales was ever done in that tradition, although Turin was covered in the Grey Annals (from which most of the chapter in the published Sil derives).

It appears, as close as CT can estimate, that the Narn/CoH wasn't all written at one time, and that moreover the end of the story (Turin in Brethil) was written first.

*Beren, Turin and Tuor plus Earendil (never written at all).

[Galadriel55]

To me, it doesn't really make a difference what order and in what format JRRT wanted to write / wrote the books in. I'm not so concerned with the process of their creation as I am with the final product. So I can't really see how JRRT's plans or CJRT's editing really have an effect on your take on the books. It's the final product that matters at the end of the day, not the way it got there.