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Why the Curse is a blessing in the story of the Children of Hurin. (An essay and some thoughts)

Rembrethil
Tol Eressea


Jul 1 2014, 5:46pm

Post #1 of 7 (508 views)
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Why the Curse is a blessing in the story of the Children of Hurin. (An essay and some thoughts) Can't Post

When we think of curses, the ideas of tragedy and suffering immediately come to mind. In the case of Túrin and his family, their grave tendencies toward disaster are well borne out. In the face of these dire consequences, it is only natural that curses should have such frightening connotations. Of course, curses may be broken within the course of a tale, becoming harmless, but yet they still manage to retain such a powerful aura of gloom, that would make us wary of dealing with them, no matter how many times they may be foiled. Wise counsel exhorts us to take care not to meddle in such affairs and tells us that we want no part of such ill-fated things, however, for the sake of the story of The Children of Húrin, I believe it can be said that the the Curse is a blessing.

Over the course of the discussion of this tale, and its many, many iterations, the Curse has been the object of much talk and study. As a singular element that over-reaches and impacts the entire story, it was inevitable. However, there is one question that has been consistently raised in every discussion ever held. This insolvable conundrum has been endlessly debated, forcing us to scratch our collective heads and puzzle over the answer:

How much of the tale is a direct result of the Curse, and, conversely, just how much is Túrin responsible?

This question has baffled and bewildered thousands, providing the fuel for near endless discussion.

In the beginning, I must admit, that I mostly blamed Túrin for his faults and failures. I subscribed to the romantic notion, that within literature, virtuous protagonists will achieve their goal and conquer all opposition, or die in the attempt, heroic victims of a cruel Fate. Túrin did not succeed in his goals, and the circumstances of his death were grey at best, ergo Túrin was not a true hero. QED.

That was my opinion, and I was very much attached to my personal condemnation of Túrin, but I see things differently now. My position, itself, has not changed, rather, it has been modified--much like my view of Evil in literature (see earlier ramble). I do not see Túrin as so much of a failure now. Instead, I see him as half of a striking portrait of what true heroism is. More on that later.

Coming back to our question, can we ever hope for an answer to the riddle of the Curse's strange power, or must we despair forever? In truth, if we are looking for a concrete answer within the tale, I think we are on a fool's errand.

In the course of the many discussions we've had, we have unearthed volumes of meaning and plot in the sub-text. The text had been deconstructed to such a extent that every scrap has been laid bare. We have mountains of evidence, gathered by the brilliant sleuth-work of many true scholars, but do we have an answer? No. Why?

Well, even if all the 'why's' and 'how's' were firmly settled, we wouldn't necessarily be any closer to the answer than before. We could have all the facts in the world, but without being able to collect it all into a coherent picture, we have the rudiments of greatness fallen short of their potential. So, how are we to answer the question, and how is the Curse a blessing? The answer to the former question lies in the latter, so let's consider the role of the Curse. It is central to the tale. Can we conceive the idea of this story without it? It was that single question that inflamed my imagination and opened my eyes to the blessing of the Curse.

The story as it stands, would be radically different without the attributable effects of the Curse. Let me attempt a summary of the tale, sans Curse:

The protagonist is a young, noble boy.

The protagonist's little sister dies.

His father goes to a large battle, and is captured.

His homeland is overrun and he loses his noble position.

He leaves home and family for a distant kingdom where he is brought up by benevolent rulers and learns to fight, ostensibly to free his people.

He falls out with the rulers and is exiled.

He rallies some shady outlaws and turns them to fights back against evil.

He is betrayed by one close to him, but miraculously is rescued.

His best friend died in a freak accident at his own hand.

He finds a guide to a powerful kingdom.

He becomes famous in battle against evil, attracting the attentive of a beautiful woman whom he later loses.

The kingdom stronghold is destroyed by a dragon.

A Bad Guy lets him him go out of hubris-- even though he is completely in his power.

He must overcome the poisoning of his mind by the Bad Guy.

He goes on a quest to find his family, but it doesn't end well.

He is driven out of his home by occupying enemies--he can never go home.

He goes into hiding, is taken in by woodmen, among whom he rises high.

He finds a beautiful girl alone and marries her.

He rallies some common folk to fight Evil.

Another leader of the people who follow him, also cares for his wife, and is jealous of him.

A dragon comes to destroy his home, and he goes out to slay it.

He slays the monster, but gives his life in return.

Now all these are simplified, but feasible plot points. In fact, many successful stories have used them. The weakness in this version, lies in the lack of identity in a primary antagonist. What is the cause of his misfortune, if he is not under the dark shadow of the Curse?

Fate could supply the necessary antagonism, forming a tragedy where he is an Odysseus adrift on the sea of Chance. Bad things just happen to him in rapid succession. However, the comparison to Odysseus is flawed in a few ways.

Odysseus was never as conflicted as Túrin. He moves preemptively to meet and overcome whatever Fate brings, defying the very gods to make it home. He battles Cyclopses, wind, weather, and witches to return home.

Túrin, in contrast, seems to run and hide from conflict with both the Curse, its source, and many of its manifestations. He is divided in his mind, and full of more obvious vices then virtues. I do not think that Turin, as written, has the strength of character to challenge Fate.

In addition, the story would lack even a vague answer to the perennial question of the distressed human race: 'Why is this happening?'. Odysseus is opposed by fickle gods and monsters. Who is Túrin's adversary? By comparison, he seems to move from tragedy to tragedy for no apparent reason.

We are left then, with himself-- the conflicted hero--, to become the enemy. This is one part of the tale; he is at war with himself, but it is not the whole focus of the story. If it were written entirely that way, the story, with little modification, would read like an angsty teen novel.

My dad is gone, sister died, my mom doesn't fulfill my emotional needs, and she sent me away to boarding school. No one understands me. I can't do anything right. I don't like my life. Etc...

I could go on, but you understand. He would go on, battling his internal demons while his life imploded, questioning Fate, but doing nothing.

Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with the story of a man who is his own worst enemy. That kind of story allows us to put a mirror to ourselves and helps us combat our own demons. There is a beauty, even in failure, however, the success of such a sad tale is dependent upon the correct use of the bitter irony in that failure-- the characters say or do one thing, but the point that the author is trying to make is the exact opposite. It is a cleverly contradictive exercise in reverse-psychology-- one that paints a colour negative picture of heroism. We see the actions that lead to Evil, and empathise with the characters, but we are also able to see the fallacies behind their reasoning. That is the result of a successfully written tragedy-- to illustrate human suffering, allow us to determine the cause of the calamity for ourselves, and enable us to make a different decision if such a similar choice ever was ours.

It is a tricky effect to pull off effectively, because it counts on the intelligence of the reader to discern the noble truth from fiction with minimal assistance. The prerequisite to reading the tale would be to know the lesson to be learned and recognise the inverted form for what it is-- a lie. We must thus be careful whenever we encounter tragedy within a tale. We must evaluate the motivations of the characters and their message, to see if it is in harmony with what is actually true. Sometimes the author puts thoughts into the heads of his characters, just so that they can be knocked out by better notions! By considering such tales in the light of true/false statuses, it could, and has been, said that they become black-and-white tales of morality-- a common criticism shared by Tolkien and other classical works of so-called, Good vs. Evil. This complaint is one I have heard often, and I have an answer for it.

In our world, we are constantly surrounded by cynicism, and this cynicism enjoys seeing sarcasm and inversion of societal norms. (Hey, who doesn't get a laugh from a 5 foot tall, woman, wiping the floor with a 6 foot heavily muscled guy in a fight?). This aspect of our life is normal and healthy, but in the wake of postmodernism, it has become largely overgrown. We have become sceptical of the truth in art; suspicious of the motives of heroes, and we dig deeper and attempt to deconstruct the tale to find the 'real' reason behind their actions. Maybe they weren't so good, after all. This unhealthy cynicism is precociously fostered childhood when books such as The Story of Little Red Riding Hood as Told by the Wolf, and Cinderaella is SO Annoying: The Story of Cinderella as told by the Wicked Stepmother are common fare. As I said, some scepticism is healthy, but it is carried it to an extreme when we are unable to accept the goodness of characters at face value, and lose our sense of the Romantic.

Spilling over into the real world, a good indicator of this is the vast enjoyment of political and celebrity gossip. Many are extremely gratified whenever a new scandal breaks- they knew it was too good to be true.This enlarged sense of Doubt feeds off the idea of 'good' in a parasitical fashion. It expands itself by making a parody of reality, satirising it, but when everything is satire, what is left to satirise? Again, I will repeat that niggling doubts and tasteful satire are not inherently wrong, but become so when they dominates our lives at the expense of the Romantic. It has been said by Dostoyevsky, that Don Quixote is the' most perfect' 'good figure in Christian Literature'. He is ridiculous and meant to inspire laughter, yet he succeeds in his own Quest by holding to the very creed that is the source of our ridicule-- he satisfies both our inner Cynic and Romantic at the same time. It is only those who are too suspicious of others that find The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings, and other heroic tales to be unrealistic-- they cannot understand the good within them.

The story, as written, does have the aspect of inner struggle to it, but it is, as I have said, only half the tale-- the black to outline the white by contrast--, and the Curse adds a whole other dimension. The internal struggles of Túrin give insight into the negative aspect of resisting Evil within, but the Curse externalises that Evil. It gives Túrin something positive to achieve-- something that he can visualise and combat. By externalising that inner Evil, it could make it easier for him to assess its strength and grapple with it.

Unfortunately, Túrin missed the entire point. He made the mistake to think that all of his problems were external, and he never carried any of the lessons he learned in physical combat to the internal emotional and psychological war that raged inside. As I stated (Ironically enough) in my first post on the subject of Túrin, his problem was that he thought he could master Fate, but could not master himself.

This double quality is very evident in many works, even in the complex relationship of the Ring and Frodo in his seduction. The temptation of the Ring was always apparent, and it could be said to have external agency, actively tempting men-- an external Evil. That very same Evil could also be said to reside and be at work within the hearts of those who desired it-- an internal struggle. Which was it? Like the question of the Curse, I don't think there is an answer. However, the tale is best served when both are considered.

This the blessing of the Curse, or, rather, the blessing in the Curse. Turin missed it, but will you take it?

Call me Rem, and remember, not all who ramble are lost...Uh...where was I?

(This post was edited by Rembrethil on Jul 1 2014, 5:49pm)


ltnjmy
Rivendell


Jul 1 2014, 7:05pm

Post #2 of 7 (353 views)
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Superb and Thoughtful analysis [In reply to] Can't Post

I loved this but too shy to make a formal reply. Were he alive, I think the Professor would have loved this too.Smile


noWizardme
Half-elven


Jul 4 2014, 10:21am

Post #3 of 7 (334 views)
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excellent & thought-provoking! [In reply to] Can't Post

...which means that,having enjoyed it very much, I'll need to think about it before any longer response!

~~~~~~

"… ever let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.”
Arthur Martine

"nowimë I am in the West, Furincurunir to the Dwarves (or at least, to their best friend) and by other names in other lands. Mostly they just say 'Oh no it's him - look busy!' "
Or "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"


DaughterofLaketown
Gondor


Jul 5 2014, 9:59pm

Post #4 of 7 (762 views)
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First off wow! Great Job! [In reply to] Can't Post

You really made me think and I love how you broke everything down. This is definitely worth saving to reread.

But since this is a discussion I don't agree with every point you made and here's why:

In our world, we are constantly surrounded by cynicism, and this cynicism enjoys seeing sarcasm and inversion of societal norms. (Hey, who doesn't get a laugh from a 5 foot tall, woman, wiping the floor with a 6 foot heavily muscled guy in a fight?). This aspect of our life is normal and healthy, but in the wake of postmodernism, it has become largely overgrown. We have become sceptical of the truth in art; suspicious of the motives of heroes, and we dig deeper and attempt to deconstruct the tale to find the 'real' reason behind their actions. Maybe they weren't so good, after all. This unhealthy cynicism is precociously fostered childhood when books such as The Story of Little Red Riding Hood as Told by the Wolf, and Cinderaella is SO Annoying: The Story of Cinderella as told by the Wicked Stepmother are common fare. As I said, some scepticism is healthy, but it is carried it to an extreme when we are unable to accept the goodness of characters at face value, and lose our sense of the Romantic.

Quote

Questioning truth is vital to the human condition. I love the fact that today we DON'T accept things at face value, that we are forced in many of these stories now told to reevaluate our ideas of what bravery, mercy, forgiveness, and redemption really ARE.

It is only those who are too suspicious of others that find The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings, and other heroic tales to be unrealistic-- they cannot understand the good within them.

I don't think people are too suspicious. I think it's good to challenge your thinking. And The Lord of the Rings IS on some level unrealistic, even though I love it, but I don't need everything to be realistic to be enjoyable. Tolkien's characters ARE more black and white, which reflect the different values held a long time ago. But in today's world we need to explore things in new and refreshing ways, we can't stay in the same mode of thinking, we have to evolve our ways of looking at things. G.R.R Martin's stories are definitely more REALISTIC than Tolkien. This doesn't mean I think Tolkien is bad and Martin is better their just different and that's okay. We need both to make the world go round. There is room for skepticism AND idealism.
Just my two cents. Smile


(This post was edited by DaughterofLaketown on Jul 5 2014, 10:00pm)


CuriousG
Half-elven


Jul 8 2014, 3:03am

Post #5 of 7 (285 views)
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Great thoughts and beautifully written [In reply to] Can't Post

Rem, our fact checkers will have to howl in protest if you ever refer to your writing again as mediocre, and you don't want a lot of howing in the Rdg Rm, trust me.

I also appreciate you tackling this topic in this way, because it's tremendous to have a big-picture view of Turin's tale to accompany our chapter discussions. That Curse deserves a good examination as a whole.

I don't think either the Curse or Turin are to blame for everything that happens. Some things are accidents, others are due to the curse, others are Turin's fault, and others are due to a fusion of the curse and Turin. Tolkien subtly buried the reasons, on purpose I am sure, because he probably didn't want a neat, bulleted list of Curse do's and don't's, leaving us in the dark (curse him!).

To me, the biggest thing to go wrong is Turin wedding Nienor and getting her pregnant, I suppose because incest is just that taboo and troubling, and the revelation of that relationship drives them both to their deaths. I blame the Curse for manipulating Turin's life to achieve this outcome. I doubt Morgoth had that specific outcome in mind, and he mainly wanted something awful and twisted to happen. I don't think it would have happened on its own in Middle-earth without supernatural malice behind it. ME has rules, and so many were broken.

Turin losing his temper I leave at his doorstep. (There is that old excuse in real life, "The devil made me do it" for when we screw up beyond all reason. It doesn't work.) Turin killing Beleg could be an accident. There are gray areas.

I really appreciate your observation that without the Curse, COH would be an angsty teen novel. Turin's not very sympathetic as a person, and without the Curse in place I wouldn't care about him at all, but a person who was cursed from childhood is innocent by definition, so reluctantly I must pity him as an innocent victim.

One big difference between Turin and Frodo is that Turin had an evil curse injected into his DNA in childhood, whereas Frodo came to an evil ring late in life, and he had the benefit of maturity's inner resources to combat the evil that consumed Turin early on. Frodo was orphaned but nurtured by Bilbo. Turin was effectively orphaned and never had the surrogate parenting that Frodo enjoyed: people either fell short or came too late in his life. Frodo's tale would have been much different if he'd been a Ringbearer from childhood and lived on his own. Maybe that's why Frodo's story never comes close to an angsty teen novel?


Rembrethil
Tol Eressea


Jul 9 2014, 1:32am

Post #6 of 7 (273 views)
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We cannot have that, can we? [In reply to] Can't Post

I was specifically referring to my humble attempts at writing fiction. All things considered, they will remain mediocre until I actually finish one!!

That muddlement of facts and attribution is exactly what makes it so interesting! It is a cleverly compelling story that tickles our puzzler's fancy. A tasty, but difficult chestnut.

Turin does beg for our pity. It may be his place as the protagonist that makes him so (As was the case in my first read-through), or the idea that the main character should be one with whom we empathise. I do seem to like Turin against my own will, and though the liking may lessen, it is never destroyed.

Another good point! Frodo and Turin do make an interesting contrast.

Thanks for your compliments and comments!

Call me Rem, and remember, not all who ramble are lost...Uh...where was I?


Rembrethil
Tol Eressea


Jul 9 2014, 1:50am

Post #7 of 7 (335 views)
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Thank-you. [In reply to] Can't Post

I do believe we have the same idea. I tried to repeat at each opportunity that scepticism is not a bad thing when in due measure. I just think that, in general, it is carried a bit far. Maybe for good reason. Gone are the days when you can stop and help a man/woman off the street without fear of being mugged or otherwise harmed. The world is a more dangerous place, and there is place for more doubt and analysis. I just think that there is a tad more cynicism than is warranted. Perhaps we just need to find something more to believe in to balance things out?

I do agree that we are naturally curious questioners, however, I personally think that there are some things in life that need to be accepted on faith and held to be true, pending clear proof to the otherwise. For example, we take gravity for granted. We do not know how it works, nor what causes it, but we take it for granted that it will always be true on Earth. There is also the utterly unprovable notion that each and every snowflake is unique. As another, and perhaps better, example, some people hold a personal faith in a higher power, or other metaphysical construct. It is not able to be proven by scientific means, but is held at the very core of their being to be true, and is the lens through which they view the entire world. I think there are certain things like these that we need, and do, accept to be true, regardless of our insatiable curiosity. We can still puzzle over them, but we never disbelieve them. This is the heart of the Romantic and part of the reason he believes that Good will always triumph over Evil.

We do need both, but a balance must be struck. We must find the Romantic Cynic. Though, if we were to err on one side or the other, I personally think that we need a bit more of the Romantic, and that the world would not be quite so bad if we erred more on the side of the Romantic the way we do on the side of the Cynic today.

Call me Rem, and remember, not all who ramble are lost...Uh...where was I?

 
 

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