Túrin Turambar Character Analysis

Túrin, a man and the son of Húrin, is the primary victim of Melkor’s curse of misfortune and sorrow. He’s personally endangered by the curse, but also brings misfortune to those around him. He causes several accidental deaths, including that of his best friend Beleg, and his efforts to defend Nargothrond are turned against him. He is manipulated by Melkor’s agent Glaurung into accidentally marrying his sister Nienor, whom he knows as Níniel, a woman with amnesia. After Túrin mortally wounds him, Glaurung reveals the truth to Nienor, who kills herself. Túrin, enraged, kills Brandir, who tells him the news of her death, then throws himself on his sword. Though Melkor engineers the worst aspects of his fate, Túrin is disadvantaged by his own volatile nature. He causes Saeros’s death while taking vicious revenge on him, then refuses to accept Thingol’s pardon. After a number of failures and defeats, he grows out of the violence of his youth but doesn’t lose his bravado. In Brethil, he takes on the name Turambar, meaning “master of fate,” but the name doesn’t protect him, and his choice to fight Glaurung leads him to his death. Túrin has opportunities to change his fate, but circumstance, Melkor’s interference, and his own self-loathing lead him ultimately to his tragic end.