The story is one of the three "Great Tales" set in the First Age of Tolkien's Middle-earth, the other two being Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin.

Some critics wondered if it was suitable only for existing Tolkien aficionados, given the prose style and the large cast of characters, while others thought that despite its flaws it had the potential to reach a wider readership.

Scholars have identified multiple themes in the tale, including evil, free will, predestination, heroism, courage, and the noble outlaw in the wilderness.

The book's initial sales were double the U.S. publisher's expectations; it reached number one on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best Seller list.

[1] He is best known for his novels about his invented Middle-earth, The Hobbit[2] and The Lord of the Rings,[3] and for the posthumously published The Silmarillion which provides a more mythical narrative about earlier ages.

[4] The story of The Children of Húrin is one of Tolkien's three "great tales" set in the First Age of Middle-earth, the other two being Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin.

The history and descent of the main characters begins five hundred years before the action of the book, when Morgoth, a Vala and the prime evil power, escapes from the Blessed Realm of Valinor to the north-west of Middle-earth.

From his fortress of Angband he endeavours to gain control of the whole of Middle-earth, unleashing a war with the Elves that dwell in the land of Beleriand to the south.

Together with the Sindar of Beleriand, they lay siege to Angband, and establish new strongholds and realms in Middle-earth, including Hithlum ruled by Fingon, Nargothrond by Finrod Felagund and Gondolin by Turgon.

The House of Bëor is destroyed and the Elves and Edain suffer heavy losses, but the realm of Dor-lómin remains unconquered; its lordship has passed to Húrin.

Húrin is taken prisoner by Morgoth after the Battle of Unnumbered Tears; Túrin is sent by his mother, Morwen, to live in the Elf-realm Doriath for protection after Easterlings invade their hometown.

Túrin returns in time to cut Beleg free and, horrified by the outlaws' actions, resolves to forsake his cruel habits.

The dragon enchants and tricks him into returning to Dor-lómin to seek out Morwen and Niënor instead of rescuing the prisoners—among whom is Finduilas, Orodreth's daughter, who loved him.

"[6] Christopher Tolkien explained that in Unfinished Tales "the story breaks off at the point where Beleg, having at last found Túrin among the outlaws, cannot persuade him to return to Doriath (pp.

[T 7] The story, as already published in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, is mainly based on the legend of Kullervo, a character from Elias Lönnrot's compilation of Finnish folklore poems, the Kalevala.

In Richard Wagner's opera, Die Walküre (likewise drawn in part from the Volsung myths), Siegmund and Sieglinde are parallels of Túrin and Niënor.

Túrin's decision to build a bridge at Nargothrond which enables the invasion by Morgoth's forces resembles the character Byrthtnoth from The Battle of Maldon.

The curse cannot completely control his free will, and Túrin displays traits like arrogance, pride and a desire for honour, that eventually cause the doom of his allies and family.

[12] Philip Vogel and Kenton Sena, in Journal of Tolkien Research, add the theme of the "noble outlaw archetype", which they compare to Joseph Campbell's American monomyth: Túrin sometimes thinks of himself as an outsider, but he comes from and returns to the Dor-lómin community.

Likening it to a Greek tragedy, the author Elizabeth Hand in The Washington Post called it "a bleak, darkly beautiful tale" which "possesses the mythic resonance and grim sense of inexorable fate".

[14] The screenwriter and novelist Frank Cottrell-Boyce, in The Independent, described the chapter "The Death of Túrin" as "dry, mad, humourless, hard-going and completely brilliant".

[15] Bryan Appleyard of The Sunday Times set The Children of Húrin above other Tolkien writings, noting its "intense and very grown-up manner" and "a real feeling of high seriousness".

[17] The novelist Philip Hensher in The Daily Telegraph wrote that there were many reasons to detest the book, and enumerated them, but relented for its powerful final episode "in which an incestuous passion and a battle with a great dragon enfold each other".

[18] The book received negative reviews[a] from the Detroit Free Press which called it "dull and unfinished",[19] Entertainment Weekly which described it as "awkward and immature" with an "impenetrable forest of names ... overstuffed with strangled syntax",[20] and The Guardian, which stated that it was about "a derivative Wagnerian hero ... on a quasi-symbolic quest".

Tom Deveson of The Sunday Times said that "although J. R. R. Tolkien aficionados will be thrilled, others will find The Children of Hurin barely readable".

[23] Jeremy Marshall of The Times generally echoed this, writing that "It is worthy of a readership beyond Tolkien devotees," although he thought it was flawed; he stated that "occasionally the prose is too stilted, the dialogue too portentous, the unexplained names too opaque".

He presupposed that: "In The Children of Húrin we could at last have the successor to The Lord of the Rings that was so earnestly and hopelessly sought by Tolkien’s publishers in the late 1950s.

The Children of Húrin finally, in Birns's view, provides a "short, accessible" work from Tolkien's legendarium that can let people in; he contrasts this with Marcel Proust, whose admittedly great oeuvre remains hard to enter.