The Children of Húrin is the epic tale that reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien.
The Children of Húrin, begun in 1918, was one of three ‘Great Tales’ J.R.R. Tolkien worked on throughout his life, though he never realised his ambition to see it published. Though familiar to many fans from extracts and references within other Tolkien books, it has long been assumed that the story would forever remain an ‘unfinished tale’. Now reconstructed by Christopher Tolkien, painstakingly editing together the complete work from his father’s many drafts, this book is the culmination of a tireless thirty-year endeavour by him to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s vast body of unpublished work to a wide audience.
Christopher Tolkien said: “It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father’s long version of the legend of the The Children of Húrin as an independent work, between its own covers, with a minimum of editorial presence, and above all in continuous narrative without gaps or interruptions, if this could be done without distortion or invention, despite the unfinished state in which he left some parts of it.”
Having drawn the distinctive maps for the original The Lord of the Rings more than 50 years ago, Christopher has also created a detailed new map for this book. In addition, it will include a jacket and colour paintings by Alan Lee, illustrator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Centenary Edition and Oscar®-winning designer of the film trilogy.
Following on from the hardback and paperback editions published by HarperCollins earlier this year, a very special Limited Edition has been published and made exclusively available from the Tolkien website. It contains all the specially commissioned paintings and drawings by Alan Lee, together with the two-colour fold-out map drawn by Christopher Tolkien. Leather-bound and hand-sewn with a custom leather clamshell case it is strictly limited to just 500 hand-numbered copies, each one signed and numbered by Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee. At the moment this is only available for purchase and delivery within the UK and Ireland at the new Tolkien online store.
To celebrate the release of this very special collector’s edition we have three copies of the original hardback HarperCollins edition to give away. To be in the draw answer the following question: Which of Tolkien’s contemporaries and author of children’s stories also had a son called Christopher? Click here to e-mail your answer by December 28 2007.
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR ANSWER IN THE COMMENTS BOX BELOW AS YOU WILL NOT BE ENTERED INTO THE CONTEST.