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The Children of Hurin
- Narrated by: Christopher Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy
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Radio Drama Style, not a true reading, still love it!
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Publisher's Summary
In that remote time, Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Túrin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves. Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Húrin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire.
Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Túrin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled.
The earliest versions of this Tolkien story go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed. But long afterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he revised and greatly enlarged it, enhancing complexities of motive and character. It became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book, Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.
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What listeners say about The Children of Hurin
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- MistahMojoRyan
- 2018-08-17
Poorly organized
The story and narration are fine, however, the book has 18 chapters while this audiobook is divided into 7 parts. That makes it harder to reference a hardcopy of the book or to know when a chapter is going to end. I would have highly preferred the audiobook have 18 separate chapters.
10 people found this helpful
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- Caitlin
- 2018-03-03
Tolkien. Christopher Lee. 'Nuff said.
Christopher Lee is the only person I want to hear reading this tale. I had read it in print before, but his flavour and gravitas make the experience even richer. It is a tragic, desperately sad story, as beautiful as any of the others of Middle Earth. If you have read the Lost or Unfinished Tales, you will be familiar with some of the story and the characters. It seems to me that Christopher Tolkien has edited this version to be a little more action-packed and theatrical, but although it is a good story, I doubt Newline would want to film it: too tragic.
6 people found this helpful
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- Matthew Dobbs
- 2021-04-01
christopher lee
I will listen to literally anything read by christopher lee. he could be reading VCR manuals and I'd be captivated.
2 people found this helpful
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- shalot
- 2019-12-17
Christopher Lee carries the Story
This audiobook took a few runs to finish. I ended up reading physically along with listening. It helped me understand the names & places better, but the narration also helped me continue reading when I got bored of the text. Neither book or audiobook alone would have made it to completion for me without the other.
2 people found this helpful
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- Nathan
- 2019-04-16
an instant classic! memorable performance.
Christopher Lee did an absolutely fantastic job! his pronounciation is great and his voice is so fitting.
1 person found this helpful
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- Luke M
- 2021-09-13
Sir Christopher Lee is excellent.
Saruman's voice narrates a great tale of woe that passed long ago, during the First Age. Great praise indeed to his performance, and praise too of his lore.
Keep safe a map of Beleriand. At times, many locations are named swiftly, and they come all at once, like a thunder issuing forth from the peaks of Thangodrim.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2021-07-20
Sublime
It's a blessing that Christopher Tolkien and Christopher Lee were able to bring this to us just before they died.
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- Lifelike Human
- 2020-12-01
Superb!
Christopher Lee's love and respect for the material are plain to hear. He speaks the languages of the mythology as if they're his own, and the sound of his voice is a pleasure to listen to.
As for the story, I read the version in The Silmarillion as a teenager and remember enjoying it, but hearing it now on its own, fully fleshed out, in my thirties, it seems far more epic and far more tragic. I just couldn't wait to get to the next chapter.
Wonderful job all round.
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- Cales
- 2020-11-30
Would not dare to change anything.. Just perfect!!
I wish the great Christopher Lee would read each and all the books from JRR Tolkien. The passion, the tone, the pace....just fantastic!
My two recommendations; 1. Have the printed version handy as with any Tolkien's books, the names of people and places can be a little confusing, no matter how amazingly enunciated. Sitting with the book while hearing so nicely narrated was such a great experience!! 2. Use the bookmark option in the app, as the audiobook is divided in a different way to the actual book, so if you want to start a specific chapter, you want to make sure it is bookmarked, as it will not necessarily coincide with the audio chapters (i.e. Chapter 1 of the audio book contains chapters 1-4 of the book)
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- Anonymous User
- 2020-11-23
Wonderful performance and story
Christopher Lee gave a fantastic performance. You can always distinguish between the characters, he gave the story life.
It is a tragic tale, but detailed and very interesting. Definitely worth the read if you want to know more about middle earth in the first age.
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- Catherine Collins
- 2009-12-19
Powerful and Disturbing
This is a powerful and disturbing novel -- the tragic story of a man crippled by external misfortune and by his own proud and violent temperament. I began this book in paper format when it first came out but soon gave it up. I found the story to be grim and unappealing. I then decided to give Audible a try, and I'm glad I did. Christopher Lee's brilliant narration saved the book for me. He gives full justice to Tolkien's musical prose and The Children of Hurin carried me happily through several weeks of commuting. I have to say that the story is easier to take when split up into 20 minute chunks.
The text that we have was not completed by Tolkien, but was edited by his son from rough drafts and notes. This accounts for a lot. The novel is repetitious. In fact, it feels as if one is hearing the same story several times over. The same themes of heroism, followed by rashness and failure, occur again and again throughout the novel in slightly different episodes. And throughout, Turin, the hero, never seems to learn anything or to be changed by what he experiences. It occurred to me at the end, that perhaps what we have is precisely that: several attempts at the same short story, strung one after the other, rather than a complete novel with a fully realized narrative arc.
I suspect that if Tolkien had managed to finish the work to his liking, it would have been shorter, or more varied. It is one aspect of Tolkien's genius, evident in the Hobbit and the LOTR, that he never tells the same story twice. Every chapter of the Hobbit, for example, is not only a different adventure, but a different kind of adventure. That inventiveness is missing from The Children of Hurin. For this reason, I give the book only 4 stars instead of 5.
Nonetheless, I am glad that I bought this recording. Christopher Lee is first rate and the work is a masterpiece, albeit a flawed and unfinished one.
205 people found this helpful
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- Chelsea
- 2011-01-21
Christopher Lee makes it!
Christopher Lee's narration really makes this book accessible and enjoyable. His pronunciation of the difficult Elvish words is accurate and spry in a way. I love his different voices for the different characters, especially Morwen. His interpretation of her really adds to the listener's imagining of the character.
25 people found this helpful
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- Brian
- 2007-11-07
Great read
Wonderful book for Tolkien fans. Christopher Lee, who played Saruman, does a wonderful job narrating. A Tolkien fanatic in his own right his reading lends an almost palpable weight to the story, helped by how easily he reads Tolkien's imagined languages. Non-Tolkien fans or new readers may find this book difficult to follow at times and would be better served to start with his more well known works.
49 people found this helpful
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- Tom
- 2009-01-07
Couldn't Stop Listening!
An excellent rendition of this newly-reconstructed tale. Tolkien fans should take note, however, that this recording does not include Christopher Tolkien's introduction or notes on the text. You'll want to supplement your listening with a print copy for these, as well as the map, geneologies, reference sections, and beautiful illustrations by Alan Lee.
32 people found this helpful
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- Sue
- 2008-03-13
Persistance Pays Off
This book requires the listener to be patient and skim over the alien sounding names. Eventually you gain an understanding of the characters and the story line. I have to admit it was a lot easier to listen to than to actually read as pronunciation was handled by the reader. Christopher Lee did a stirling job and presented a wonderful story in a appropriate and entertaining tone.
30 people found this helpful
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- Elithea
- 2007-10-07
at last!
someone got a clue! fabulous, perfect narrator, now please: the silmarillion, the ring "trilogy" and the whole tolkein corpus, unabridged and with narration of this quality, should mr. lee prove unavailable for the enirety of such a mammoth project. how can no one have done this yet?!
42 people found this helpful
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- haesel
- 2008-02-02
Epic Story
I have read many of the reviews and it seems that you will not like this book if a happy ending is essential to you. For me, happy endings are nice, but I dont need them to enjoy the story. I agree that you will enjoy this book more if you have read the Silmarillion-- oh darn, another great book to read... Personally, I prefer these tragic epics to the Ring & Hobbit series -- they are dense and complex and the characters stay with you -- these stories are facinating. The narration is a bit mello dramatic and the music is terrible, but it didnt bother me too much. This is a great winter book to read by the fire.
31 people found this helpful
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- Akariel
- 2014-01-22
Tolkien Overload...So good it hurts
If you like Lord of the rings, Or The Hobbit than you will like this.
Pros: Learn more about the workings and history of middle earth.
Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Cons: Lacks some of the charm of his other works, however considering this book was just his notes worked on by his family that is to be expected.
Get this if you have already read Tolkiens other books, not the best introduction to his work.
5 people found this helpful
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- Penny
- 2007-12-10
Not quite epic
I preferred Rob Inglis reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I think Christopher Lee is too serious in places. This story has a mind-boggling collection of names for the first few chapters, but settles down eventually to tell a "St George and the Dragon" type of story. Not an epic like the Hobbit or LOTR, but classic Tolkien nonetheless.
For reasons known only to Audible, the Rob Inglis versions are no longer available. Pity, they are amazing.
5 people found this helpful
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- Alyssa
- 2008-06-28
Extraordinary Tale as only Tolkein can contrive
If you want the true experience of Tolkein's genius, you need to read the Silmarillion, not the Lord of the Rings. This is an expansion of one of the tales from the Silmarillion, which deals with the great tragedies of Middle Earth eons before LOTR, and the epic battles between the stranded races of Humans, Elves and Dwarves with Morgoth/Lucifer. If you love true literature, not just modern trash, then this will bring great joy. Those who found this book difficult, need to read the Silmarillion, as you cannot possibly understand what is happening in the "Children of Hurin" without it. Highly Recommended.
28 people found this helpful
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- Daniel Nichola
- 2020-07-03
A Tragedy...
"The Children of Húrin" is such a great read, especially to those who have already read "The Silmarillion". An epic story that is full of tragic moments!!!
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As for the narration, having the book read by Christopher Lee (may his soul rest in peace) made it all the more enjoyable!
1 person found this helpful