Morgoth and Doriath

[William Cloud Hicklin]

(3) I do think pity is very relevant. If Morgoth is indeed relying on Hurin's anger as a 'weapon' then he miscalculates, failing to see that when confronted by the anger of a man who has lost everything, Thingol and Melian might see past that anger to the fact that he has lost everything.

It is very relevant, I absolutely agree. And I think that Morgoth did miscalculate exactly that.

Arrrgghhhhh! How many times does it have to be repeated? Tolkien never, ever, said that! Not once in any authentic writing did he suggest that Hurin was met with pity or healing. Indeed, in the original Tale and again in the Qenta Noldorinwa, the only narratives written, Thingol treats him with scorn and contempt. In the last version of the incident Tolkien himself ever wrote, the Later Annals of Beleriand, "Hurin brought the gold to Thingol in Doriath, but he departed thence again with bitter words." And if you think Tolkien's view of his character mellowed over time, you'd be dead wrong- this is where The Wanderings of Hurin (ca. 1960) are important. Hurin there is a bitter, vengeful old man, watching with sardonic amusement the fratricidal bloodbath he precipitated in Brethil. If he enjoyed the destruction of the House of Haleth, how much more must he have wished harm on Thingol!