[tumhalad2]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Good point.

I don't anyway think Turin's story is such a "misfit" in the broader context of Tolkien's work as some have suggested. (The Silmarillion as a whole isn't exactly a laugh-a-minute, and even LotR gets pretty darned grim.)* It seems to me that those getting upset at the prospect that "the work will be shoved into the world of LOTR to 'make it fit in'; to make sure we maintain the idea of Tolkien writing generic, simple, good-beating-evil fantasy stories" are offering a false dichotomy.

CoH is not a misfit because it is a tragedy; I agree there are many a small or large tragedy dotted around Tolkien's fiction, including in some respects the end of the Lord of the Rings. What is unique in CoH is the treatment of the tragedy. Unlike the players in LOTR, Turin, as has been noted (and also Nienor, his heroic sister) do not feel, nor are led to feel, that they are acting under the influence of divine guidance or providential "estel". It is not merely that they are cursed by a demonic and demiurgic god (who may as well be the only one that actually exists, in this story. Sure, Ulmo brings messages to Nargothrond, but they are many times removed from their source: Morgoth is not distant but at all times immanently present), it is also that the characters under the curse have no other guidance, no other will or power to turn to at all. This sets up a fundemental difference between CoH and LOTR, even the Sil. Sure, LOTR is at times bleak, or glum, or grim, but it is shot through with a hope not only that things will turn out well (there are no invocations to Elbereth in CoH, nor are our characters spurned on by the sight of the stars. Instead, these seem oppressive and distant) but that the characters are doing the right (in a moral sense) thing.

As Davem has noted, the moral and existential dimensions are almost completely absent from CoH, and it is this more than anything else that sets it apart. Unlike the Elves and Gondorians in LOTR, who are apparently not only sure of but aware of the existance of and alliance with the Valar (see Mablung's invocation to the Valar in Ithilien: he has total faith), Turin is critical of their capacities and their choices; indeed he rebukes them. Moreover, it seems to me that CoH, as a stand alone work, goes some way toward critiquing Tolkien's LOTR worldview. I can't say whether this was intentional or not (Although I suspect so), but the timbre of the story is so unforgiving that it almost seems gratuitous to merely point to the War of Wrath and say, it will be alright in the end. Well, it wasn't alright for Turin, Nienor or thousands of others whose lives they effected in direct or indirect ways.

And I was not, by the way, advocating that we should dismiss the rest of Tolkien's writings; I was agreeing with Davem that to only experience CoH through the prism of his other works not only cheapens the story as it is, but misunderstands its importance. The story demands to be read on its own terms without constant chant like invocations toward the eventual "eucatastrophe" of the Valar, which is something that CoH calls into question, on a moral level. Can there be eucatastrophe in such a world, or will it always be, as I said, "gratuitous" in some sense? If he had wanted to, Tolkien couldh've written in little hints pointing toward a hopeful future as we often read in LOTR (the invocations to Elbereth, the gradual dawning relevance of Aragorn etc). Indeed, it is a theme of LOTR that the greatest evils are always defeated in the end, essentially because the world is fundementally good, benign and therefore cannot tolerate evil. CoH is not set in this world at all; it is a world wherein hope itself is futile because there is no God; indeed, one is almost tempted to agree with Morgoth and say that there is "Nothing" beyond the void. For all the characters in the story know, this is perfectly true. We think we know better because we have the Silmarillion, which says that Eru created the world, etc, but once again I'm not certain CoH should be read through that prism.