ot-my mini review of Children of Hurin

don doggett · 17 Apr 2007, 01:04 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: kingwukong at yahoo.com (don doggett)
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:04:16 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) ot-my mini review of Children of Hurin
In-Reply-To: <4623F7D2.9090800 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <800006.18810.qm at web32407.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi everyone,

This little argument is great and everything, but It wasn't my intention to denigrate the fantasy genre, only to say that Tolkien is apart from it; but it wasn't even my intention to start a discussion on that. I merely intended to express how much I enjoyed the new book and point out to those who were thinking of getting it that it is much closer in tone to Beowulf and the Iliad than to any fantasy novel that I can think of.

However.... 

I have read in Tolkien's own words (somewhere in his letters which I will search for when I can) that his purpose in writing the Silmarillion and its attendant tales was to produce an alternate mythological history of England. To give the isles their own Iliad, so to speak. This puts him squarely in the tradition I have previously stated and outside of the modern fantasy genre imo. In this ambition I think he was successful with both the Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin. It is not snobbery to state what the author's clear intent was, and that he was successful at it.

Don

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