Die Kinder Húrins

I love "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings". The former one is one of the few books I have read several times, a rereading of LotR is already planned. These books have a special place in my heart. Reading them, they transported me somewhere else, it's an experience. The world building is superb. But their world doesn't stop at the last page of LotR. Tolkien already has created a world so much bigger. I tried to read "The Silmarillion" many years ago, but failed. One of its stories is "The Children of Hurin" and I wanted to give it a try."The Children of Hurin" is more accessible than "The Silmarillion", but the language is too distanced. At the beginning I had trouble with all those many names, but after a while I could follow the story. It is easier to read when you've read "The Silmarillion" before. Christopher Tolkien explains the setting in his introduction, nevertheless it was pretty hard to follow. So if you want to read both books, better start with "The Silmarillion".As I said, it gets easier, so it's possible to follow the story after a while. But the language is very distanced, it's not the experience I had with Tolkien's most famous works. It's a nice story, but don't expect too much. I would have loved to see J.R.R. Tolkien finishing this one himself, it could have been pretty awesome. Still, his son, Christopher Tolkien, did a good job completing it.