More Adventure in Middle Earth!

I cried when I finished The Lord of the Rings. The ending was beautiful, bitter-sweet, but the true source of my tears was that I had come to the end of the adventures, the end of my stay in Middle Earth. Now writer, Christopher Tolkien, and artist, Alan Lee, have given us a new adventure, The Children of Húrin.

The new book takes us back to a time of wonder in the First Age, long before the Third Age events of The Lord of the Rings. Christopher pulled together odds and ends of his father's history of Middle Earth and narrative poems (some of this material also appears in The Silmarillion and other sources) to write The Children of Húrin. The book is already available for pre-order on Amazon, and will be for sale on April 18th (The Deluxe Hardcover 1st Edition is available April 17th).

There's a lot of speculation in the press about how Christopher will carry on the legacy of his father. I'm expecting Christopher to do an excellent job.

The Lord of the Rings was written between 1937-1949, when Christopher was 13-25. Christopher drew the original maps for The Lord of the Rings. Correspondence between J.R.R. and Christopher (which I read in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien) shows that Christopher collaborated on the languages, mythology, and storytelling that make up The Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth. It is heart-breaking to read some of these letters, written when Christopher was stationed far from home during World War II. The fantasy world is a safe place for father and son, it gives them something to talk about other than the distance between them and the fear that Christopher might not return home. It offers them a way to say that war stinks and they both wish Christopher didn't have to fight it, while remaining loyal to their cause and country. I particularly loved the letter in which J.R.R. writes directly to the the censors, explaining that his Elvish script isn't a secret code or a security threat, but is just a hobby shared between father and son.

My high expectations are based on the level of collaboration Christopher had with his father and the fact that Christopher has been working on the book for over thirty years (this is no get-rich-quick scheme to ride the popularity of the films). I'm also impressed that Christopher chose to set the story in the First Age. J.R.R. penned his indelible mark on the Third Age of Middle Earth. Going back in time, to a "Middle-earth that was to be drowned before ever Hobbits appeared" (source: Tolkien Estate) and his choice of a human, not magical protagonist, should leave Christopher the artistic space he needs to take us back to Middle Earth without re-writing an adventure that could never be as good as the original.

If you're excited to learn more about the upcoming release, check out this link at the Tolkien Library.