Túrin

Lineage and childhood

Túrin was born in Dor-lómin in F.A. 464, the son of Húrin Thalion, lord of the House of Hador, and Morwen Eledhwen of the House of Bëor. He took after his mother's people, dark-haired and grey-eyed, tall and grave, slow to laughter and quick to pity. His sister Urwen, whom he called Lalaith, Laughter, was the joy of his early years, and her death of plague in 469 when he was five was the first grief of his life. His closest companion in the hall was the lame woodwright Sador, who taught him and whom he defended.

Húrin went to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad in 472 and did not return. Morgoth gave Hithlum to the Easterlings, and Morwen, fearing that the heir of Hador would be enslaved, sent the eight-year-old Túrin over the mountains in the autumn of 473 with two old servants to seek the protection of Thingol in Doriath. He carried the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin, the heirloom of his house. He did not know that his sister Nienor was born that winter, and he never saw his mother again as a boy.

Doriath

Thingol received the son of Húrin as his own foster-son, an honour never before given to a mortal, and Túrin grew up in Menegroth. His friend and teacher was Beleg Strongbow, the chief marchwarden of the realm, and from the age of seventeen Túrin fought beside him on the northern borders wearing the Dragon-helm. At twenty he came back to the king's hall unkempt from the marches and was mocked by the Elf Saeros, who insulted his mother. Túrin threw a cup in his face; the next day Saeros ambushed him, and Túrin, having overcome him, stripped him and drove him naked through the woods until Saeros fell into a ravine and died. Believing he would be condemned, Túrin fled Doriath in 484 without waiting for judgment. Thingol pardoned him when the truth came out, and sent Beleg to find him.

The outlaws and Amon Rûdh

Túrin joined a band of outlaws west of Sirion, calling himself Neithan, the Wronged, and soon became their captain after killing their leader Forweg to protect a woman. Beleg found him among them in 485 and offered him Thingol's pardon, but Túrin's pride would not let him go back. The outlaws captured the Petty-dwarf Mîm, who bought his life by leading them to his hidden halls on Amon Rûdh. There Beleg came again, bringing the Dragon-helm and healing for Túrin's men, and from that hill the two of them made a country of their own, Dor-Cúarthol, the Land of Bow and Helm, which for a while cleared the Orcs from the lands west of Doriath. Túrin, calling himself Gorthol, the Dread Helm, let his fame spread, and Morgoth learned where Húrin's son was.

In 489 Mîm, hating the Elf and coveting the hill, betrayed them. The Orcs took Amon Rûdh, killed the outlaws, and carried Túrin off alive toward Angband. Beleg, left for dead, followed. He found the Elf Gwindor, escaped from Angband, in the forest of Taur-nu-Fuin, and together they crept into the Orc camp by night. Beleg carried the sleeping Túrin out and began to cut his bonds with his sword Anglachel; the blade slipped and pricked Túrin, who woke in the dark, took the figure bending over him for an Orc, seized the sword and killed his dearest friend. When lightning showed him Beleg's face he went mad with grief. Gwindor led him, silent and unseeing, to the pools of Ivrin, where at last he wept and was healed.

Nargothrond

Gwindor brought Túrin to Nargothrond in 490. Túrin called himself Agarwaen son of Úmarth, Bloodstained son of Ill-fate, and would not give his name, but King Orodreth made him his chief captain. He had Anglachel reforged and named it Gurthang, Iron of Death, and the people called him Mormegil, the Black Sword. Orodreth's daughter Finduilas, who had been betrothed to Gwindor, fell in love with Túrin, and he, though he honoured her, held back for Gwindor's sake, and the sorrow of it weighed on all three.

Under Túrin's counsel Nargothrond abandoned the secrecy that had kept it safe, built a great bridge over the Narog, and went to open war. For five years the Orcs were driven back. Then in 495 Ulmo sent messengers warning Orodreth to cast down the bridge and hide, and Túrin persuaded the king to ignore them. Morgoth sent Glaurung with a great army. At the Battle of Tumhalad the host of Nargothrond was destroyed; Orodreth was killed, and Gwindor, dying, told Túrin to save Finduilas or lose everything. Túrin reached the city too late. The dragon lay before the doors, and its eyes held him bound while the Elf-women, Finduilas among them, were dragged past him into captivity. Glaurung then told him that his mother and sister were destitute in Dor-lómin, and released him, and Túrin, deceived, abandoned Finduilas and went north.

Dor-lómin

He came to Húrin's hall in the winter of 495 and found it in the hands of the Easterling Brodda. Morwen was gone; she had left for Doriath the year before. Only Aerin, Brodda's unwilling wife, told him the truth. In his rage Túrin killed Brodda at his own table and set off the uprising of the enslaved men of Hador, in which Sador died; then, having brought ruin on those who had helped him, he left them and went south again. On the road he learned that Finduilas had been killed by the Orcs when the woodmen of Brethil ambushed their column, and buried under a mound at the Crossings of Teiglin, the Haudh-en-Elleth.

Brethil

Túrin went to the mound and lay on it, and the woodmen took him in. He called himself Turambar, Master of Doom, put away the Black Sword, and lived among the House of Haleth as a forester, hoping to escape his fate by refusing it. Their lord Brandir the Lame guessed who he was and feared him. Meanwhile Morwen and Nienor, seeking Túrin at the ruins of Nargothrond in 496, were scattered by Glaurung, who caught Nienor alone and emptied her memory. She fled naked through the forest until the woodmen found her on Finduilas's mound. Túrin named her Níniel, Maid of Tears; Brandir healed her; and she, who had loved Túrin at first sight without knowing him, married him in 498. By the following spring she was carrying his child.

The slaying of Glaurung

In 499 Glaurung came against Brethil. Túrin took up Gurthang again and, with Dorlas and Hunthor, went to meet the dragon at the ravine of Cabed-en-Aras, where the Teiglin ran deep between cliffs. Dorlas lost his nerve; Hunthor was killed by a falling stone; Túrin climbed the far cliff alone and, as the dragon crawled across the gorge above him, drove Gurthang up to the hilt into its belly. Glaurung's death-scream shook the forest. Túrin, pulling out the sword, was burned by the dragon's blood and fell senseless beside it.

Níniel came looking for him and found him lying as if dead. Glaurung, with his last breath, opened his eyes and told her who she was and whom she had married. Her memory came back. She ran to the cliff edge and threw herself into the Teiglin, and Brandir, who had followed, saw her go and could not stop her.

Death

Túrin woke and came back to the woodmen, and Brandir told him that Níniel was dead and that she had been Nienor his sister. Túrin called him a liar and killed him. Then Mablung of Doriath came, who had ridden with Morwen and Nienor three years before, and confirmed every word. Túrin ran back to Cabed-en-Aras, asked his sword whether it would take his life, and Gurthang answered that it would gladly. He set the hilt in the ground and fell on the blade. The woodmen buried him beside the ravine under a great stone carved with his name and Nienor's, and the place was renamed Cabed Naeramarth, the Leap of Dreadful Doom. Húrin and Morwen came there afterward, and Morwen was buried beside the stone.

Legacy

The tale of the Children of Húrin was accounted by the Elves the saddest of all the stories of the Elder Days. Túrin's deeds were great: he cleared the lands west of Doriath, he made Nargothrond for a time a power in open war, and he killed the father of dragons, a feat no Elf had achieved. But every deed turned in his hand, through Morgoth's curse and his own pride, and he left behind him the deaths of Beleg, Gwindor, Finduilas, Orodreth, Sador, Brodda's household, Brandir and his sister, and the ruin of Nargothrond. He is the figure through whom the legendarium most fully explores the meaning of doom, and how the Enemy's malice and a man's own choices can work to the same end.

Killed himself on the blade of Gurthang at Cabed-en-Aras in F.A. 499, after learning that his wife Níniel had been his sister Nienor.