I did a search for this topic and it doesn't SEEM to have appeared before ...
I posted this on the FB page of the Tolkien Society and wanted to post it here, too. Because you peeps are so good at talking Tolkien.
I finally – FINALLY! - got round to reading
The Children of Húrin when I was on holiday last week. I had previously put off reading the book because the story is so tragic, but I ended up falling in love with it. Tolkien’s writing is so powerful and beautiful, and the story and characters so memorable and haunting. I am very grateful to Christopher Tolkien for bringing this one to light and for being able to organise his father’s story-notes into a coherent whole.
And the beautiful, wild landscape of North Wales, with its misty mountains and ash forests, waterfalls and rushing rivers, standing stones and ruined castles, formed a most appropriate backdrop to reading the story! The mountains of the Lleyn Peninsula, glimpsed across the wide blue expanse of Cardigan Bay, looked like the gateway to Valinor ...
Some observations on the text:
1. I got some kickback for saying this but Middle-earth in the First Age honestly strikes me as being a desolate, god-forsaken (literally) place. Very beautiful, sure, but very bleak.
Especially for the race of Men. At least the Noldor have their beautiful hidden realms which serve as sanctuaries (as doomed as these are). By contrast, Middle-earth in the Third Age seems positively civilised, what with the successful human kingdoms of Rohan and Gondor ... and, of course, the Shire (the most successful little country of them all!)
2. With that in mind, it struck me that Tolkien’s Elves are a conduit for spirituality, in a way. Given the deliberate absence of organised religion in his secondary world (save the austere monotheism practiced on Númenor), Tolkien seems to make his Elves a source of spiritual attraction: it’s as if the Firstborn are what humans
could be, with greater power and wisdom, and a greater harmony, too, with the created order. How can one not love the Elves, especially the Noldor, for that? And yet the Elves in this story (and
The Silmarillion) are gloriously flawed characters, not insipid plaster-cast saints. Which makes me love them more. (The more rebellious and feisty the Noldor are, the more I love them!) Saeros in particular seems all too human in his petty spite and viciousness towards Túrin. Túrin the mortal is a far greater character. And then there’s poor Gwindor, maimed for life, and the incredibly brutal fate of Finduilas ... these Elves are very human in their personalities, and I love them the more for it.
3. The story, to me, seems to be (partly) about predestination and free-will. Yes, Morgoth is powerful and his curse is powerful. But Túrin and his mother, Morwen, keep on making bad decisions and ignoring the good advice of others! As Gwindor says to Túrin, “The doom is in yourself, not your name.”
4. Glaurung is one of Tolkien’s most vivid and memorable villains.
5. I love Beleg Strongbow. And Gwindor, come to that.
6. Niënor/ Níniel is rather more feisty and interesting in this fleshed-out version than she is in the shortened ‘Silm’ version.
7. That ending. Wowzers. I knew it was coming, of course, but ... man.
8. Alan Lee’s gorgeously evocative and apt illustrations are a
superb marriage of text and visuals.
9. The story made me appreciate, as never before, the intense tragedy woven into Galadriel's backstory. The fates of her brother Orodreth

and of her niece Finduilas

. And although Elrond's backstory isn't touched on in
Children of Húrin, I was reminded of the tragedy there too.
10. I think this just became my second favourite work after LotR.

As much as I adore
Silmarillion and
Unfinished Tales, it is just so deeply satisfying to have a proper, full-length novel with dialogue and more rounded characterisation! I was left wanting more - much more. If only the good Professor had had more time ...!
But I love, and treasure, what we have.

ETA: Elrond compares Frodo to Túrin and Beren when he accepts the Quest of the Ring (and Hador, and Húrin!)

This means even more to me, now.