61 pages • 2 hours read
J. R. R. TolkienThe Children of Húrin
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary: “Niënor in Brethil”
Niënor continues to run through the forest, tearing off her clothes along the way, until she falls exhausted in the evening. Her encounter with Glaurung has obscured her memories, and she can only recall her dread, which makes her wary of disturbances across the wood. In Brethil, she encounters a group of woodmen led by Turambar. Turambar is alarmed, thinking he sees a ghost near the grave of Finduilas. They quickly discern that it is a living woman, however, and cover her against the cold.
Niënor seems to recognize something in Turambar. Without her memory, she is unable to tell them her name. Turambar calls her Níniel, or Maid of Tears, in the meantime, and she is brought to Brandir’s stockade, falling sick during the journey. Brandir uses his healing arts to aid Níniel, but it is only Turambar who calms her as she rests. After she relearns how to speak from the women of Brethil, she asks Turambar about his past. He tells her that Níniel’s presence dispelled the darkness from his life, adding, “[W]hat I long sought in vain has come to me” (218).
The year goes by peacefully as the Orcs turn their attention away from Teiglin to Doriath. Níniel recovers to full health, and Turambar asks her to marry him. However, Brandir instinctively tells her to wait before giving her hand to him, unable to explain it apart from his own unrequited love for Níniel. He suspects it has to do with the darkness of Turambar’s past. Níniel shares that Dorlas told her that Turambar was once a great captain. Finally, Brandir reveals that Turambar is the son of Húrin, which prompts an involuntary response from Níniel. Brandir misinterprets her reaction as repulsion for Turambar’s love of the battlefield. On the contrary, Níniel supposes that marriage would prevent him from leaving to fight once again. She waits until the spring when Turambar reaffirms his proposal. Níniel accepts and they are married.
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Coming of Glaurung”
Glaurung grows bigger and more powerful as he maintains control over Nargothrond. He sets his sights upon Brethil, where Men are said to live peacefully without fear of Morgoth. With his coming, Turambar’s return to war slowly becomes inevitable. Turambar initially resists the call to act but is ultimately provoked to take up Gurthang and defend his home.
Glaurung becomes aware of the Black Sword’s presence in Brethil. Likewise, Turambar begins to anticipate Glaurung’s assault as great fires consume the woods approaching Brethil. Meanwhile, Níniel has become pregnant. Turambar summons the woodmen and tells them to flee if Glaurung attacks. He furthermore reveals that Glaurung is vulnerable, having been wounded by a Dwarf’s sword during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. Turambar displays his legendary black sword and convinces them that he can pierce the Dragon’s belly and defeat him. While mustering the woodmen to support Turambar, Dorlas criticizes Brandir’s policies against going to war. A relative of Brandir named Hunthor begrudgingly accepts the call, rebutting the criticism. Turambar ultimately steps in to affirm his respect for Brandir as the community healer.
Níniel implores Turambar not to go to battle. However, he reassures her, confident that he will overcome the Dragon. Turambar, Dorlas, and Hunthor go to block Glaurung’s approach at the high cliffs of the river Teiglin. Brandir comforts Níniel, reminding her of his advice not to marry Turambar. She remains distressed and musters her own group of Men to follow and await the outcome of Turambar’s mission. Discouraged by the outcome, Brandir renounces his leadership over the Men of Brethil and breaks his staff. He takes a sword and follows after Níniel out of love for her.
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Death of Glaurung”
Turambar’s party arrives at the cliffs where they plan to confront Glaurung. Dorlas becomes afraid and fails to follow them between the cliffs. They find Glaurung sleeping overhead, but instead of climbing up, they decide to wait until he moves to find out how he will pass through the chasm. Early in the morning, Glaurung wakes and attempts to move from one cliff to the other. Turambar and Hunthor quickly begin scaling the cliff. However, a falling rock hits Hunthor and sends him to his death.
Turambar emerges from the cliff directly under the Dragon’s belly. He stabs Glaurung with Gurthang, mortally wounding him. The pain sends Glaurung over the chasm to the other side of the ravine. Turambar climbs to the corpse of Glaurung to retrieve his sword. When he pulls the sword out, the wound gushes venomous blood that burns Turambar’s hand. Glaurung reawakens and looks upon Turambar, who falls back.
From afar, the watchers, including Níniel, grow terrified at the sound of Glaurung’s screams. Brandir catches up to them and learns that the watchers suspect that Turambar has been killed. He attempts to console Níniel by putting his cloak around her. Later, he directs Níniel to come with him and escape the wrath of Glaurung. She quietly obeys, leaving unnoticed by the crowd. As they walk, Níniel indicates that she had thought Brandir was leading her to Turambar. She leaves Brandir behind, giving him no choice but to follow her.
Níniel finds Glaurung and Turambar unconscious at the cliffs. She wraps Turambar’s hand in cloth and tries to awaken him but only succeeds in catching the last of Glaurung’s attention. With his dying words, he reveals their original identities as Niënor and Túrin and their relationship as siblings. As Glaurung dies, Niënor’s memories return to her in full. Horrified, she mourns Túrin, crying, “Master of doom by doom mastered!” (244). Brandir fails to stop Niënor from throwing herself off the edge of the cliff.
Brandir looks down after her in terror and speaks resentfully to the body of Túrin, believing him dead. Leaving the place, Brandir comes across Dorlas, who regrets his cowardice. Brandir scolds him for his inaction, believing that Dorlas could have prevented Níniel’s death by bringing news of the battle to the watchers. Before Dorlas can strike at Brandir in retaliation, Brandir draws his sword and kills Dorlas.
Brandir reports the deaths of Glaurung, Níniel, and Turambar to the people of Brethil, sharing what the Dragon revealed about the identities of Niënor and Túrin. Because of the grievous events that transpired that night, Brandir renames Brethil the Grave of the Children of Húrin. The people agree then to collect the bodies of Níniel and Turambar for proper burial.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Death of Túrin”
Túrin wakes up the morning after the death of Glaurung and finds that his burned hand has been wrapped up in cloth. He leaves the shore to look for his scouts but instead finds the people of Brethil, who are terrified by his presence. They immediately turn on Brandir for claiming that Túrin had been killed. Túrin demands to know why the people have come instead of fleeing the forest. He also asks for Níniel but is met with silence.
Brandir finally reveals that Níniel is dead. However, because his report about Turambar’s death proved false, the wife of Dorlas declares her skepticism of anything else Brandir says. Brandir insists that he saw Níniel leap from the cliff and reveals her true identity to Túrin. In anger, Túrin admits his true name but assumes that Brandir is lying instead about Níniel’s identity. Brandir then recalls Glaurung’s final words, which described Túrin as a disloyal friend and a menace to his family, affirming them as true. Túrin threatens to kill Brandir, but Brandir tells him that doing so will only prove that Glaurung did not slander Túrin.
Túrin kills him nonetheless and then wanders into the woods, “cursing Middle-earth and all the life of Men” (253). Unable to accept the truth, he cries out that Níniel is safe, living in Doriath as he had heard of Morwen and Niënor. He calls too for Finduilas to give him advice as he sets out for Doriath to learn the truth for himself. He comes across Mablung, who heard that Glaurung was going to seek out Túrin. Túrin tells him of Glaurung’s death but cannot find joy until he can learn more of his family at Doriath. Mablung tells him of the disappearance of Morwen and the loss of Niënor in the woods near Nargothrond.
Túrin laughs at the unfortunate irony of Niënor’s journey and gives an inaccurate description of what she looked like as a child. Mablun, confused, notes that she greatly resembled their father, Húrin. Túrin responds angrily, declaring himself “blind since childhood in a dark mist of Morgoth!” (255). He leaves them behind. Mablung commands his patrol to follow Túrin.
Túrin reaches the cliff where Niënor died and refuses to cast himself off in the same way. Drawing Gurthang, he asks the sword if it will kill him quickly. He hears the blade answer affirmatively, hoping to “forget the blood of Beleg [its] master, and the blood of Brandir slain unjustly” (256). Túrin throws himself upon his blade just as Mablung arrives to witness his death. Mablung realizes his part in fulfilling Húrin’s curse, and the Men who come weep for the death of Túrin Turambar.
The Elves and Men recover Túrin’s body, finding the sword destroyed in the process. They cremate Glaurung’s body and bury Túrin at the site of his death with the remnants of his sword. They hold a memorial for Turambar and Níniel and erect a memorial stone bearing both of their names. With their deaths, Húrin is released from his imprisonment. He travels into Brethil to find his children’s gravestone, discovering a ragged woman there. It is revealed to be Morwen, who demands to know how Niënor found Túrin. Unable to answer, Húrin embraces his wife, and she dies in his arms.
Chapters 15-18 Analysis
The narrative arc begun in the third chapter of the novel is finally resolved in two crucial events. First, the novel’s climax comes when Túrin decides to engage with Glaurung in one last showdown. If Túrin succeeds, he not only safeguards his new family and home but also overcomes his failure at the fall of Nargothrond. While Túrin does defeat Glaurung, it causes the Dragon to trigger the denouement—in this case, the downfall of the children of Húrin—by revealing the truth of their identities.
For most of the novel, Túrin has tried to resist Morgoth’s curse by hiding his name. His reinvention as Turambar is as close as he gets to shedding the bad fortune that has followed him for so long, so much so that the narrator ceases to refer to him as Túrin. However, Tolkien stresses The Inescapability of the Past by making that transformation the very root of Túrin’s undoing. Though the narrator never calls attention to the relation between Turambar and Níniel, this understatement only underscores the severity of the situation, predicated as it is on miscommunication. Their inability to recognize one another on sight, having been forced apart before Niënor’s birth by strife and misfortune, is one more element of Morgoth’s cruelty.
Túrin’s reaction to the death of Niënor is marked by his wrath. He directs this toward Brandir, who argues that by killing him, Túrin would only prove that Glaurung was speaking the truth in his defamation of Túrin. As if to prove Brandir right, the last thing Túrin says to Brandir doubles down on his slander, stating that Brandir’s only companion in death will be Glaurung and even calling them soulmates. Murdering Brandir then discredits Túrin in front of those who have come to witness the defeat of Glaurung. In a matter of minutes, Túrin goes from Brethil’s valiant hero to the one they fear for killing their leader. This resonates with Túrin’s decision to leave behind Dor-lómin for fear of bringing more ruin to it. Once again, Túrin has made matters worse in his latest place of residence, which is now leaderless. In fact, his time in Brethil echoes his time in Nargothrond in many ways: Here too, the charismatic Túrin surpasses the settlement’s own leader in popularity, wins the love of a woman also loved by someone wiser but less physically powerful, and leads the people to war. These recurring patterns suggest both the inescapability of the past and the related theme of Fate Versus Free Will. Whether due to the curse or his own temperament, Túrin seems doomed to reenact the same tragedies over and over.
Túrin, however, refuses to accept this until he comes across Mablung. Their meeting calls back to the last time they saw each other in Doriath after Saeros’s death. Importantly, Mablung then advised Túrin to fare free and wished for their next meeting not to happen under worse circumstances. This wish functioned as foreshadowing, pointing to Túrin’s ultimate downfall and Mablung’s inadvertent role in it: Mablung’s revelations make it impossible for Túrin to deny the truth of Níniel’s identity any longer, resulting in his suicide.
Before Túrin dies, he has an important interaction with his sword, Gurthang, which stands out in the work as the sole conversation of its kind (i.e., with an anthropomorphic object). Despite having been Túrin’s weapon of choice since Nargothrond, the sword recalls only two of his victims: Beleg and Brandir. They are two of Túrin’s most regrettable victims, though for different reasons. Túrin won Gurthang from Beleg after accidentally killing him. Brandir’s death, on the other hand, was a deliberate act of murder—one that Túrin knows was wrong but could not bring himself to prevent. This shows that Anglachel’s reinvention as Gurthang did not erase the treacherous spirit that Melian described it as possessing, which serves as an analogue for the futility of Túrin’s own reinvention as Turambar.
Although it is not set apart from the last chapter, the narrative ends not with Túrin, but with an epilogue returning to Húrin to follow his reaction to the curse’s fulfillment. This is a necessary narrative beat considering that the curse was invoked to punish Húrin for his defiance. Although Túrin and Niënor were the protagonists, their journey comes about in the context of Húrin’s act of defiance. Húrin’s release and arrival at the grave bookend the story. He encounters his wife one last time, and, having had his spirit fully broken, cannot bring himself to tell her the truth he saw from Morgoth’s prison.
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By J. R. R. Tolkien
