I love Middle Earth. There’s a nobility, an elevated sense of morality in Tolkien’s world that is deeply winsome. Having recently read Matthew Dickerson’s A Hobbit Journey, I was ready to jump back in. I had planned to reread the Silmarillion when I stumbled across one of the great stories of the first age, The Children of Húrin.

This is tale of men and elves and their encounter the vile Morgoth and Glaurung, his draconian minion. Nothing is as simple as it seems, though. No man nor elf is wholly good. Honor and shame and the consequences that follow our choices lie at the heart of this tale.

Christopher Tolkien has done a remarkable editorial job stitching this narrative together and providing background material. Having fought my way through Silmarillion, I was surprised by how readable The Children of Húrin was. If you take the time to use the map and look up unfamiliar names in the glossary, this story rewards the effort.

There are two other great stories of the first age of Middle Earth: Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin. I can hardly wait to keep reading!

Tolkien, J. R. R. Narn I Chîn Húrin: The Children of Húrin. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. Harper Collins, 2007.