Christopher John Reuel Tolkien

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I just saw the news that Christopher Tolkien passed away today at the age of 95. The gratitude that I feel towards him for the tireless work that he did bringing as much of his father's work to light as possible cannot be stated, and I will not try.

Rest in peace, and thank you.

[Inanna]

Oh!

Rest In Peace, Christopher Tolkien.

[Sunsilver]

I just saw this, too, and came here to make sure people had been informed.

Rest in peace, Christopher. And thank you for everything you did to celebrate your father's work!

[elengil]

Taken the ships to meet his father. All speed, Christopher.

[Frelga]

We all owe a great deal to this man. A passing of an era.

[kzer_za]

Considering that The Hobbit was originally written in part for him...truly the end of a fellowship.

[RoseMorninStar]

RIP. Gratitude for all of Christopher's work and I'll echo a beautiful sentiment; truly the end of a fellowship. Namárië

[Anduril]

Rest in peace and thank you.

[TolkienJRR]

My obsession with J.r.r would not be what it is without Christopher. I always said one of the first people I want to talk with in heaven is J.R.R Tolkien and C.S lewis. I think Christopher might not be to far down the list. Was this the last living Inkling?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes, he was the last living Inkling (all of the other Inklings were roughly in his father's generation).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Not only was he the last living Inkling, he was also (as John Rateliff points out in his blog post) one of the last living combat veterans of World War II.

[RoseMorninStar]

Wow. Quite an accomplished life. In many ways.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A very nice obituary from the great John Garth.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/ ... xVIdXvo7WY

[Túrin Turambar]

Just saw the Guardian obituary today. Easy to forget that Christopher was an accomplished scholar in his own right even outside anything to do with Middle Earth, e.g. his translations from Icelandic. I admit my view on him has evolved over the years. When the LotR films came out I thought his reaction extreme; by the time I had seen the second Hobbit film I was entirely sympathetic to his position. For anyone who can read French or is willing to use Google translate, there's a lengthy interview within him published in Le Monde here.

What now for the Tolkien estate?

[kzer_za]

When we look at Dune and how Frank Herbert's son Brian has handled the legacy, we can see how differently it could have gone and should be very grateful we got Christopher.

In partnership with Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Herbert has written thirteen prequels, sequels, and interquels so far (there are only six original Dune novels by Frank! With a likely seventh planned). All this is allegedly "based on his father's notes", which no one has seen and might never be released - whatever is in them, we can be sure he's added quite a lot of his own ideas.

The contrast with Christopher's very restrained and conservative approach is stark. The 1977 Silmarillion is the most "creative" he ever got.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Túrin, Christopher has already resigned as a Director of the Tolkien Estate several years ago, just as the Amazon series was announced.

k_z, I'm a huge fan of Frank Herbert's Dune books, including the later three that many people seem not to like. It took me less than five minutes to put down one of the "prequels" in disgust.

[Alatar]

[Túrin Turambar]

Túrin, Christopher has already resigned as a Director of the Tolkien Estate several years ago, just as the Amazon series was announced.

True, but I couldn't imagine that he didn't have influence over major decisions in retirement.

Great point k_z.

[scirocco]

Just stopping by to add my 2c. What a debt we owe this man and what a mare's nest of knitting he had to unpick.

Back in the days of full on Tolkien nerdery on TORC I posted a detailed description of how JRRT created no less than four versions of what Eluréd and Elurín (the twin sons of Dior) were (twins, not twins, back to twins again, different histories etc. etc.). No real indication of what his final thoughts were.

Poor old CJRT had to pick one of the four. I suppose no worse a dilemma than many of the other Silmarillion editorial decisions he had to make. But at least he had the guts to do it.

I know we don't all approve or agree with all his editiorial decisions but give him credit, he got JRRT's "the work of his heart" out there as probably no-one else could have done.

[Impenitent]

Truth.

And so very good to see you Scirocco.

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