Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, was also an important guardian of his father's literary legacy.
Christopher Tolkien died in Provence, France, on 15 January at the age of 95. His death was confirmed by his family member Daniel Klass and officially announced by the Tolkien Society.
Christopher Tolkien was the youngest son of J.R.R. Tolkien. After J.R.R. Tolkien's death in 1973, Christopher Tolkien guarded the fantasy worlds his father created through The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Sprite. In total, he edited or supervised the publication of 24 editions of his father's works, many of which became international bestsellers.
Christopher Tolkien Tolkien Association Figure
Compiling the Elven Diamond, he enriched people's understanding of Middle-earth
Christopher Tolkien was the executor of his father's literary legacy, but he played a far broader role than the title usually implies. While writing The Lord of the Rings, the elder Tolkien was also creating a vast world full of legends and myths, which he hoped would accompany the book. But he was also a perfectionist, so he was unable to complete the work before his death. His son Christopher spent four years sorting out and compiling these myths and legends, and in 1977 published The Elven Diamond.
According to The New York Times, Tolkien expert Corey Olsen once said in an interview: "This opens an amazing door to Tolkien's rich and profound world of imagination." ”
In a 2012 interview with The Guardian, Christopher's son, Simon, described the enormity of the task after his grandfather's death, when there was still a great deal of material yet to be published. Simon said: "He created this tome, covering everything from the history of the gods to the history of the Elven Diamond. It was a great work, and despite his best efforts to get it published, it never saw the light of day. ”
"My father took on this difficult task, which made him famous. I still remember the boxes of documents he received at home, and no one would doubt the scale of the work he was doing. Simon said.
But Tolkien's fans and scholars have always wondered how much of The Sprite is the work of The Old Tolkien himself and how much of it is the work of his son. In response, Christopher published a 12-volume History of Middle-Earth between 1983 and 1996, a compilation of drafts, fragments, rewritten passages, marginal notes, and other works selected from 70 boxes of unpublished material. This shows that almost all of his published works came from his father's hand.
"Christopher Tolkien shows how his father's mind grew and developed over time." Olson said. He argues that these dossiers not only reveal J.R.R. Tolkien's way of thinking, but also provide a classic case study of the creative process of literature.
In addition, between 1954 and 55, he drew many original maps depicting Middle-earth for his father's Lord of the Rings.
In 1980, he published The Unfinished Story, and in April 2007, Christopher Tolkien published a book written by his father, The Children of Hulin, which was written between 1951 and 1957.
Even two years before his death, Christopher Tolkien, who was in his nineties, continued to work. In June 2017, he published his father's early legacy, Belen and Lucien, which tells the love story of human Beren and the elf Lucian. On August 30, 2018, at the age of 93, Christopher compiled and published another of his father's early years, The Fall of Gundolin, which tells the story of the human hero Tur and the destruction of the elven city of Gundolin.
From left: The Fall of Gondolin, Children of Hulin, Belen and Lucien, The Singular Diamond
According to The New York Times, Thomas Shippey, a British professor who studied Tolkien for 50 years, said in an interview, "Without Christopher, we know almost nothing about how Tolkien created myths and his own legends." ”
As a linguist at Oxford University, like his father, Christopher devoted most of his life to studying books. Both father and son were scholars of Both Old and Medieval English, and both taught at Oxford University. Tolkien the Elder was an expert on Chaucer and Anglo-Saxon legends, and Tolkien the Younger was an authority on his father's writings.
His family member, Daniel Klaas, called Christopher very disciplined. He said he would shut himself in his office early in the morning and not come out until lunchtime. "His life's work was to sort out a vast amount of material his father had written in illegible handwriting on envelopes and napkins."
According to the Guardian, Shaun Gunner, president of the Tolkien Society, praised Christopher's dedication to his father's work, saying: "Millions of people around the world will be forever grateful to him... We have lost a giant who will be remembered forever. ”
Charlie Redmayne is the CEO of Harper Collins Publishing in the UK and has published a large number of Tolkien's works. "Christopher remains true to his father's work and the world he creates, maintaining his enduring charm," he said. For decades, he brought Middle-earth to generations of readers. He was a very charismatic man, a true gentleman. It was an honor for me to meet and work with him, and our hearts are with his family at this time of grief. ”
The Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi praised Christopher for enriching his father's work. "He opened a window for us to understand Tolkien's creative process, and the scholarly commentary he provided enriched our understanding of Middle-earth," she said. He was a cartographer and first researcher of the Middle-earth world. ”
Tolkien fans also took to social media to express their condolences for the news of Christopher's death.
"We need a humble man who dedicates his life to the work of others." One book fan wrote on Twitter, "I think of all those books that wouldn't have been published without Christopher's involvement." Some of these books define how we now view J.R.R. Tolkien's legacy. ”
He grew up in the world his father created
Christopher Tolkien was born on 21 November 1924 in Leeds, England. He was the third and youngest son of J.R.R. Tolkien and Edith Mary.
There was a time when he was younger and sicker, and he often stayed at home, which gave him and his father a chance to develop a close working relationship. The elder Tolkien often read to Christopher, and he grew up listening to his father's stories about Bilbo Baggins, which later became the children's fantasy novel The Hobbit. Christopher also often encouraged his father's creations, and soon became his father's assistant and one of the earliest readers.
Christopher Tolkien once said that he grew up in the world his father created. "For me, the cities in The Singular Diamond are more real than Babylon." He said.
During World War II, when Christopher was serving in South Africa as a RAF pilot, the elder Tolkien sent him parts of The Lord of the Rings for him to comment on and edit.
In his later years, Christopher Tolkien became a French citizen, living with his second wife, Baillie Tolkien, at the foot of the Alps in southeastern France.
In addition to his wife, his living close relatives include his sister Priscilla and three children Simon, Adam and Rachel.
Although Christopher contributed a large number of his father's unpublished works, some of Tolkien's avid fans still wanted to discover more unpublished works.
"Although Tolkien's writing was poorly done, he never threw away anything, so we don't know what else hasn't been published." The British scholar Hippe said, "So there may be some surprises." ”
Film "The Lord of the Rings" series director Peter Jackson on set.
He believes that Peter Jackson's films ruined Tolkien's work
Although the stories of the Middle-earth world were not always popular in the long years and months since its birth, they have been almost ingrained in popular culture in the first decade of the 21st century. Director Peter Jackson's film adaptations, which won Oscars and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, managed to bring the story to tens of thousands of new audiences.
However, despite Christopher's tireless efforts to preserve and polish his father's legacy and successfully bring it into the 21st century, he was not impressed by the commercialization of the work. He became famous for criticizing Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning film The Lord of the Rings. In a 2012 interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he said: "They ruined the book and made an action movie for young people aged 15-25. ”
Christopher said: "Tolkien has become a monster, he has been swallowed up by his own prestige, absorbed by the absurdity of our time. ”
He added: "Commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical value of this work to zero. ”
Nor does his protection of the Middle-earth world stop at speech. In 2012, the Tolkien Legacy Foundation filed a $80 million lawsuit against Warner Bros. over the digital marketing of characters in the movies The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The lawsuit alleges that the company caused damage to Tolkien's estate and ultimately reached a settlement on undisclosed terms.
Last year, the Tolkien Legacy Foundation turned down the filming of a film based on J.R.R. Tolkien's life and Experiences with World War I, saying the Tolkien family "disapproved, did not authorize, and did not participate" in the project.