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A has no title. In B as typed the title was The Golden Dragon, but this was emended to Túrin Son of Húrin & Glórund the Dragon. The second version of the poem was first titled Túrin, but this was changed to The Children of Húrin, and I adopt this, the title by which my father referred to the poem in the 1926 ‘Sketch’, as the general title of the work.

The poem in the first version is divided into a short prologue (Húrin and Morgoth) without sub-title and three long sections, of which the first two (‘Túrin’s Fostering’ and ‘Beleg’) were only introduced later into the typescript; the third (‘Failivrin’) is marked both in A and in B as typed.

The detail of the typescript is largely preserved in the present text, but I have made the capitalisation rather more consistent, added in occasional accents, and increased the number of breaks in the text. The space between the half-lines is marked in the second part of the A-text and begins at line 543 in B.

I have avoided the use of numbered notes to the text, and all annotation is related to the line-numbers of the poem. This annotation (very largely concerned with variations of names, and comparisons with names in the Lost Tales) is found at the end of each of the three major parts, followed by a commentary on the matter of that part.

Throughout, the Tale refers to the Tale of Turambar and the Foalókë (II. 69 ff.); Narn refers to the Narn i Hîn Húrin, in Unfinished Tales pp. 57 ff.

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Lo! the golden dragon of the God of Hell,the gloom of the woods of the world now gone,the woes of Men, and weeping of Elvesfading faintly down forest pathways,is now to tell, and the name most tearful5of Níniel the sorrowful, and the name most sadof Thalion’s son Túrin o’erthrown by fate.

Lo! Húrin Thalion in the hosts of warwas whelmed, what time the white-clad armiesof Elfinesse were all to ruin10by the dread hate driven of Delu-Morgoth.That field is yet by the folk namédNínin Unothradin, Unnumbered Tears.There the children of Men, chieftain and warrior,fled and fought not, but the folk of the Elves15they betrayed with treason, save that true man only,Thalion Erithámrod and his thanes like gods.There in host on host the hill-fiend Orcsoverbore him at last in that battle terrible,by the bidding of Bauglir bound him living,20and pulled down the proudest of the princes of Men.To Bauglir’s halls in the hills builded,to the Hells of Iron and the hidden cavernsthey haled the hero of Hithlum’s land,Thalion Erithámrod, to their thronéd lord,25whose breast was burnt with a bitter hatred,and wroth he was that the wrack of warhad not taken Turgon ten times a king,even Finweg’s heir; nor Fëanor’s children,makers of the magic and immortal gems.30For Turgon towering in terrible angera pathway clove him with his pale sword-bladeout of that slaughter – yea, his swath was plainthrough the hosts of Hell like hay that liethall low on the lea where the long scythe goes.35A countless company that king did leadthrough the darkened dales and drear mountainsout of ken of his foes, and he comes not morein the tale; but the triumph he turned to doubtof Morgoth the evil, whom mad wrath took.40Nor spies sped him, nor spirits of evil,nor his wealth of wisdom to win him tidings,whither the nation of the Gnomes was gone.Now a thought of malice, when Thalion stood,bound, unbending, in his black dungeon,45then moved in his mind that remembered wellhow Men were accounted all mightless and frailby the Elves and their kindred; how only treasoncould master the magic whose mazes wrappedthe children of Corthûn, and cheated his purpose.50