I have to admit that I had harbored some small hope, unvoiced but perhaps shared with many Tolkien fans of like mind, that perhaps The Children of Hurin would not truly be the last epic voice heard from Middle-earth.

Much remains to be told that will not be heard, for the voice of the Storyteller has been silenced. We must now look for other tales, and be glad that we have heard this Story as told thus far.

On first reading I see no hint of as yet unpublished texts waiting to be revealed. When I first put down Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth I not only wanted more I could see how more could have been provided. For the tale of Turin, then told in incomplete form in both The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, at least seemed more whole and complete than either version appeared.

For many years I expressed hope (shared by many) or the desire, at least, that Christopher would put the broken pieces of the story together. And now he has done that, although much to my disappointment he elected not to include even in an appendix the very important "Wanderings of Hurin", which will be forever broken off from the primary story. In that much Christopher Tolkien has left me some hope that perhaps some day, maybe around the year 2100, someone will still reassemble the last two shards of the fuller tale.

It is too much to ask or hope that someone might take up the stories of Beren and Luthien, and of Tuor of Gondolin, and retell them in standalone form as we have with The Children of Hurin, so that the three great tales of the Silmarillion mythology are presented in equal form. Not enough material exists.

But I am such a scavenger of discarded facts and ideas that, were it left in my hands, I would present the full story of Fëanor in its own book, complete with notes and appendices explaining why the "Shibboleth" was necessary to understanding not only the Elven prince's psyche but the motivations of all the Eldar who appear in the various stories of Middle-earth.

As it is, we must be content with The Children of Hurin and know that at least the longest of the three tales has now been published in a form that the Storyteller might have accepted. Bereft though we are of his renewed vision, we have this one last glimmer of his enchantment.

And as for the issues of canon I have raised in the past, perhaps Christopher has avoided most of the potential mines laying before him. Orodreth once again is a son of Fingolfin, and some minor details of Turin's life are shared in a different order than in The Silmarillion.

Some will argue over which book is right. But they are all "right" within the contexts they present. That is enough for now.