Túrin the Hapless: Tolkien and the Sanctification of Suffering

Abstract

Túrin the Hapless:Tolkien and the Sanctification of Suffering Douglas C. Kane The story of Túrin Turambar is the knottiest and most conflicted of all the tales in J.R.R. Tolkien's vast legendarium. Developed out of Tolkien's first attempt at story-writing, Túrin's story went through more permutations than any other part of Tolkien's mythology, and he continued to work on an array of conflicting and overlapping versions throughout his lifetime. Nonetheless, the most problematic aspect of Túrin's story is one that was established in the very beginning and never was abandoned by Tolkien. Despite Túrin's flawed nature, and despite his violation of one of the most sacred tenets of Tolkien's own faith, it is Túrin who is destined to achieve the final defeat of Morgoth Bauglir, the ultimate manifestation of evil in Tolkien's secondary universe; and of all the heroes of the Children of Eru, he is the only one counted among the people of the Valar, the deities of Tolkien's mythology. A solution to this mystery is suggested by another challenging text: the book of Job. While Job and Túrin are quite different characters with dissimilar stories, there is a key parallel between them. Just as Yahweh allows Satan to inflict extreme suffering on Job, Túrin's life is marked by suffering due to the curse put on his family by Morgoth. Túrin's exalted final destiny echoes a concept seen in the Judeo-Christian tradition as manifested in other spiritual traditions throughout the world: the sanctification of suffering. It also reflects the suffering that Tolkien himself endured and integrated into his art.1 The History of Túrin's Story The writing and publishing history of Túrin's story is the most convoluted of any in Tolkien's work. Christopher Tolkien notes in Unfinished Tales that the texts regarding Túrin are "of quite extraordinary complexity in their variety and interrelations" (UT 6). In The War of the Jewels, Christopher Tolkien further indicates that because of the confusion and uncertainty in which his father had left those materials, it was the one area which he left incomplete in The History of Middleearth (WJ x; see also Kane 192–93). Nonetheless, numerous versions of the tale written by Tolkien were published posthumously. Tolkien's first writing related to Túrin's story was the Story of Kullervo, a retelling of part of the Finnish Kalevala which was also [End Page 145] Tolkien's first attempt at imaginative fiction (Kullervo ix; see also Letters 214, 345).2 John Garth observes that the first version of Túrin's story, "Turambar and the Fóalokë," was a direct descendant of the Story of Kullervo (Garth 240–41). This "Lost Tale" was written by the middle of 1919 (LT II 69–143). Tolkien then wrote a long uncompleted alliterative verse version of Túrin's story called "The Lay of the Children of Húrin" (Lays 3–131). Soon after, in 1926, Tolkien included Túrin's story in the earliest Silmarillion, which he called the "Sketch of the Mythology" (Shaping 28–32, 40). In approximately 1930 and 1931, Tolkien expanded on that short sketch of Túrin's story in the "Quenta Noldorinwa" (Shaping 122–31, 165) and in the earliest version of the "Annals of Beleriand" (Shaping 301–6). In 1937, Tolkien completed, so far as it went, the original "Quenta Silmarillion." This work breaks off abruptly in the middle of the chapter on Túrin's story (now entitled "Of Túrin Turamarth or Túrin the Hapless"3), but picks back up just as abruptly in the middle of the concluding chapter of the Quenta (beginning with Eärendil and Elwing's journey to Valinor), and continues to the end, including discussing Túrin's ultimate destiny (Lost Road 315–23, 333). In the same period, Tolkien also included a briefer version of Túrin's story in the later "Annals of Beleriand" (Lost Road 138–41). In the early 1950s, Tolkien greatly expanded Túrin's story in the revised and expanded annals...