Well, this week I went up to Traverse City on Sunday, and on the way up there I read "The Children of Húrin," by J. R. R. Tolkien. It's really neat, and I was over the moon to read it. Basically, in "The Simarillion," Morgoth (the baddie) wants to be the supreme ruler of Middle Earth, and to do so, goes to war with the Elves. However the Elves, for the most part, hold their own, and procede to go and siege Morgoth's fortress, Angband for three centuries (pretty impressive). Then, though, Morgoth fights back, and kills a fair amount of the Elves. But despite the losses, there are still some unconquered Elf kingdoms, such as Dor-lómin, where Húrin Thalion is Lord. This is where the actual story starts in. Húrin and his brothertravel to the hidden Elf city of Gondolin, and stay there a year. Finally, they leave, promising not to tell anyone about the city's location. However, during a battle, Húrin is captured alive and brought to Angband, where Morgoth personally tortures him for Gondolin's location. Yet, Húrin manages to not give in. As punishment, Morgoth curses Húrin's family so that their lives will be plagued by evil, and then he imprisons Húrin on a mountain, forcing him to watch his family's fate. It's a pretty cruel punishment, though I must give Morgoth some credit for coming up with such an original wayto torture his prisoners...
Anyway, I loved the book. J. R. R. Tolkien is one of my favourite writers, so it made me extremely happy to read another one of his stories. The only downside to the story was that I could feel Húrin's pain a lot of the time, which wasn't fun. It made me wonder how I would react in that situation. There were several times in the story where I just wanted Húrin to commit suicide, because I felt so bad for him. And the ending almost made me cry, because... (SPOILERS!) he gets released to see his wife, and she croaks while they meet by his children's graves.
Romeo has nothing on this guy.
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